Tales And Novels, Volume 1 by Maria Edgeworth

M >> Maria Edgeworth >> Tales And Novels, Volume 1

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According to Alderman Holloway's ideas of education, the holy days were
always to be made a season of complete idleness and dissipation, to
relieve his son from his school studies. It was his great delight to
contrast the pleasures of home with the hardships of school, and to make
his son compare the indulgence of a father with the severity of a
schoolmaster. How he could expect an education to succeed which he
sedulously endeavoured to counteract, it may be difficult for any
rational person to conceive.

After Lord Rawson and Holloway had enjoyed the pleasures of driving the
new horses, _tandem_, in a dog-cart, and had conversed about dogs and
horses till they had nothing left to say to each other, his lordship
proposed stepping in to Mr. Carat, the jeweller's shop, to look at some
new watches: his lordship said he was tired of his own, for he had had it
six months. Mr. Carat was not in the way when they first went in. One of
the young men who attended in the shop said, "that his master was
extremely busy, in settling some accounts with a captain of a ship, who
was to leave England in a few days."

"Don't tell me of settling accounts," cried Lord Ramon--"I hate the sound
of settling accounts: run and tell Mr. Carat that Lord Rawson is here,
and must speak to him this instant, for I'm in a desperate hurry."

A quarter of an hour elapsed before the impatient lord could he obeyed;
during this time, his lordship and Holloway rummaged over every thing in
the shop. A pretty bauble to hang to his watch caught his lordship's
fancy. His lordship happened to have no money in his pocket. "Holloway,"
said he, "my good fellow, you've ten guineas in your pocket, I know; do
lend me them here." Holloway, rather proud of his riches, lent his ten
guineas to his noble friend with alacrity; but a few minutes afterward
recollected that he should want five of them that very night, to pay the
poor stage-coachman. His recollection came too late, for after Lord
Rawson had paid three or four guineas for his trinket, he let the
remainder of the money down with an absent nonchalance, into his pocket.
"We'll settle--I'll pay you, Holloway, to-morrow morning, you know."

Holloway, from false shame, replied, "Oh, very well." And at this instant
Mr. Carat entered the shop, bowing and apologizing to his lordship for
having been busy.

"I'm always, to be sure, in a very great hurry," cried Lord Rawson;
"I never have a minute that I can call my own. All I wanted though,
just now, was to tell you, that I could not settle any thing--you
understand--till we come back from Marryborough. I go down there
to-morrow."

The Jew bowed with unlimited acquiescence, assuring his lordship that he
should ever wait his perfect convenience. As he spoke, he glanced an
inquiring eye upon Holloway.

"Mr. Holloway, the eldest, the only son of Alderman Holloway--rich as a
Jew! and he'll soon leave Westminster," whispered Lord Rawson to the Jew.
"Holloway," continued he, turning to his friend, "give me leave to
introduce Mr. Carat to you. You may," added his lordship, lowering his
voice, "find this Jew a useful friend some time or other, my lad. He's my
man in all money jobs."

The Jew and the school-boy seemed equally flattered and pleased by this
introduction; they were quickly upon familiar terms with one another; and
Mr. Carat, who was willing that such an acquaintance should begin in the
most advantageous and agreeable manner on his part, took the young
gentleman, with an air of mystery and confidence, into a little room
behind the shop; there he produced a box full of old-fashioned secondhand
trinkets, and, without giving Holloway time to examine them, said that he
was going to make a lottery of these things. "If I had any young
favourite friends," continued the wily Jew, "I should give them a little
whisper in the ear, and bid them try their fortune; they never will have
a finer opportunity." He then presented a hand-bill, drawn up in a style
which even Messrs. Goodluck and Co. need not have disdained to admire.
The youth was charmed with the composition. The Jew made him a present of
a couple of tickets for himself, and gave him a dozen more, to distribute
amongst his companions at Westminster. Holloway readily undertook to
distribute the tickets upon condition that he might have a list of the
prizes in the lottery. "If they don't see a list of the prizes," said he,
"not a soul will put in."

The Jew took a pen immediately, and drew up a captivating list of prizes.

Holloway promised to copy it, because Mr. Carat said his hand must not
appear in the business, and it must be conducted with the strictest
secrecy; because "the law," added the Jew, "has a little jealousy of
these sort of things--government likes none but licensed lotteries, young
gentleman."

"The law! I don't care what the law likes," replied the school-boy; "if I
break the law, I hope I'm rich enough to pay the forfeit, or my father
will pay for me, which is better still."

To this doctrine the Jew readily assented, and they parted, mutually
satisfied with each other.

It was agreed that Lord Rawson should drive his friend to Marryborough
the next Tuesday, and that he should return on Wednesday, with Holloway,
to Westminster, on purpose that he might meet Mr. Carat there, who was
then to deliver the prizes.

"I'll lay you a bet," cried Lord Rawson, as he left the Jew's, "that
you'll have a prize yourself. Now are you not obliged to me for
introducing you to Carat?"

"Yes, that I am," replied Holloway; "it's easier to put into the lottery
than to write Latin verses and English essays. I'll puzzle and bore
myself no more with those things, I promise my father."

"Who does, after they've once left school, I want to know?" said his
noble friend. "I'm sure I've forgot all I ever learned from Latin and
Greek fellows; you know they tell just for nothing when one gets into the
world. I make it a principle never to talk of books, for nobody does, you
know, that has any thing else to talk of. None but quizzes and quozzes
ever came out with any thing of that sort. Now, how they'd stare at
Marryborough, Holloway, if you were to begin sporting some of your Horace
and Virgil!"

The dashing, yet bashful school-boy, with much emotion, swore that he
cared as little for Horace and Virgil as his lordship did. Holloway was
really an excellent scholar, but he began to be heartily ashamed of it in
his lordship's company, and prudently resolved to adopt the principles he
had just heard; to forget as fast as possible all he had learned: never
to talk of books; and to conceal both his knowledge and his abilities,
lest _they should stare at him at Maryborough_.

The lottery tickets were easily disposed of amongst the young gentlemen
at Westminster. As young men can seldom calculate, they are always ready
to trust to their individual good fortune, and they are, consequently,
ever ready to put into any species of lottery.

"Look here!" cried little Oliver, showing a lottery ticket to
Howard; "look what Holloway has just offered to give me, instead of
half-a-guinea, which he owes me. I told him I would just run and ask your
advice. Shall I accept of it?"

"I would advise you not," answered Howard; "you are sure of your
half-guinea, and you have only a chance of getting any thing in the
lottery."

"Oh, but then I've a chance of such a number of fine things! You have not
seen the list of prizes. Do you know there's a watch amongst them? Now,
suppose my ticket should come up a prize, and that I should get a watch
for my half-guinea!--a real watch!--a watch that would go!--a watch that
I should wind up myself every night! O Charles! would not that be a good
bargain for my half-guinea? I'm sure you have not read the list of
prizes, have you?"

"No, I have not," said Howard: "have you seen the list of blanks?"

"Of blanks! No," said Oliver, with a changed countenance; "I never
thought of the blanks."

"And yet in most lotteries there are many more blanks than prizes, you
know."

"Are there? Well, but I hope I shall not have a blank," said Oliver.

"So every body hopes, but some people must be disappointed."

"Yes," said the little boy, pausing--"but then some people must win, and
I have as good a chance as another, have not I?"

"And do you know what the chance against your winning is? Once I had a
great mind, as you have now, Oliver, to put into a lottery. It was just
after my aunt lost all her fortune, and I thought that if I were to get
the twenty thousand pound prize, I could give it to her."

"I'll give my watch (if I get it, I mean) to somebody. I'll give it to
the mulatto woman, because she is poor. No; I'll give it to you, because
you are the best, and I love you the best, and I am more obliged to you
than to any body in the world, for you have taught me more; and you have
taught me as I was never taught before, without laughing at, or scolding,
or frightening, or calling me blockhead or dunce; and you have made me
think a great deal better of myself; and I am always happy when I'm with
you; and I'm quite another creature since you came to school. I hope
you'll never leave school whilst I am here," cried Oliver.

"But you have quite forgot the lottery," said Howard, smiling, and much
touched by his little friend's simplicity and enthusiasm.

"Oh, the lottery! ay," said Oliver, "you were telling me something about
yourself; do go on."

"I once thought, as you do now, that it would be a charming thing to put
into a lottery."

"Well, and did you win?"

"No."

"Did you lose?"

"No."

"How then?"

"I did not put into the lottery, for I was convinced that it was a
foolish way of spending money."

"If you think it's foolish or wrong," said Oliver, "I'll have nothing to
do with this lottery."

"I don't want to govern you by my opinion," said Howard; "but if you have
patience to attend to all the reasons that convinced me, you will he able
to judge, and form an opinion for yourself. You know I must leave school
some time or other, and then--"

"Well, don't talk of that, but tell me all the reasons, quick."

"I can't tell them so very quickly," said Howard, laughing: "when we go
home this evening I'll ask my aunt to look for the passage in Smith's
Wealth of Nations, which she showed me."

"Oh!" interrupted Oliver, with a sigh, "_Smith's Wealth_ of what? That's
a book, I'm sure, I shall never be able to understand; is it not that
great large book that Mr. Russell reads?"

"Yes."

"But I shall never understand it."

"Because it's a large book?"

"No," said Oliver, smiling, "but because I suppose it's very difficult to
understand."

"Not what I've read of it: but I have only read passages here and there.
That passage about lotteries, I think, you would understand, because it
is so plainly written."

"I'll read it, then," said Oliver, "and try; and in the meantime I'll go
and tell Holloway that I had rather not put into the lottery, till I know
whether it's right or not."

Holloway flew into a violent passion with little Oliver when he went to
return his lottery ticket. He abused and ridiculed Howard for his
interference, and succeeded so well in raising a popular cry, that the
moment Howard appeared on the playground, a general hiss, succeeded by a
deep groan, was heard.--Howard recollected the oracle's answer to Cicero,
and was not dismayed by the voice of the multitude. Holloway threw down
half-a-guinea, to pay Oliver, and muttered to himself, "I'll make you
remember this, Mr. Oliver."

"I'll give this half-guinea to the mulatto woman, and that's much better
than putting it into a lottery, Charles," said the little boy; and, as
soon as the business of the day was done, Oliver, Howard, and Mr.
Russell, took their usual evening's walk towards the gardener's house.

"Ay, come in," cried old Paul, "come in! God bless you all! I don't know
which is the best of you. I've been looking out of my door this quarter
of an hour for ye," said he, as soon as he saw them; "and I don't know
when I've been idle a quarter of an hour afore. But I've put on my best
coat, though it's not Sunday, and wife has treated her to a dish of tea,
and she's up and dressed--the mulatto woman, I mean--and quite hearty
again. Walk in, walk in; it will do your hearts good to see her; she's so
grateful too, though she can't speak good English, which is her only
fault, poor soul; but we can't be born what we like, or she would have
been as good an Englishman as the best of us. Walk in, walk in.--And the
chimney does not smoke, master, no more than I do; and the window opens
too; and the paper's up, and looks beautiful. God bless ye, God bless
ye--walk in." Old Paul, whilst he spoke, had stopped the way into the
room; but at length he recollected that they could not walk in whilst he
stood in the door-way, and he let them pass.

The little room was no longer the smoky, dismal, miserable place which it
was formerly. It was neatly papered; it was swept clean; there was a
cheerful fire, which burnt quite clearly: the mulatto woman was cleanly
dressed, and, rising from her work, she clasped her hands together with
an emotion of joyful gratitude, which said more than any words could have
expressed.

This room was not papered, nor was the chimney cured of smoking, nor
was the woman clad in new clothes, by magic. It was all done by human
means--by the industry and abilities of a benevolent boy.

The translation of the little French book, which Howard had completed,
procured him the means of doing good. The book-seller to whom he offered
it was both an honest man, and a good judge of literary productions. Mr.
Russell's name also operated in his pupil's favour, and Howard received
ten guineas for his translation.

Oliver was impatient for an opportunity to give his half-guinea, which he
had held in his hand, till it was quite warm. "Let me look at that pretty
thimble of yours," said he, going up to the mulatto woman, who had now
taken up her work again; and, as he playfully pulled off the thimble, he
slipped his half-guinea into her hand; then he stopped her thanks, by
running on to a hundred questions about her thimble. "What a strange
thimble! How came you by such a thimble? Was it given to you? Did you buy
it? What's the use of this screw round the inside of the rim of it? Do
look at it, Charles!"

The thimble was, indeed, remarkable; and it seemed extraordinary that
such a one should belong to a poor woman, who had lately been in great
distress.

"It is gold," said Mr. Russell, examining it, "and very old gold."

The mulatto woman sighed; and as she put the thimble upon her finger
again, said, that she did not know whether it was gold or not; but she
had a great value for it; that she had had it a great many years; that it
had been given to her by the best friend she had ever had.

"Tell me about that best friend," said Oliver; "I like to hear about best
friends."

"She was a very good friend indeed; though she was but young, scarcely
bigger than yourself, at the time she gave me this thimble: she was my
young mistress; I came all the way from Jamaica on purpose to find her
out, and in hopes to live with her in my elder days."

"Jamaica!" cried Howard; "Jamaica!" cried Oliver, in the same breath;
"what was her name?"

"Frances Howard."

"My aunt," exclaimed Howard.

"I'll run and tell her; I'll run and bring her here, this instant!" said
Oliver. But Mr. Russell caught hold of him, and detained him, whilst they
further questioned the woman. Her answers were perfectly consistent and
satisfactory. She said, that her mistress's estate in Jamaica had been
sold just before she left the island; that some of the old slaves had
been set at liberty, by orders, which came, she understood, in her
mistress's last letter; and that, amongst the rest, she had been freed:
that she had heard say that her good mistress had desired the agent to
give her also some little _provision ground_, upon the plantation, but
that this had never been done; and that she had sold all the clothes and
little things she possessed, to raise money to pay for her passage to
England, hoping to find her mistress in London. She added, that the agent
had given her a direction to her mistress; but that she had, in vain,
applied at at the house, and at every house in the same street. "Show us
the direction, if you have it," said Mr. Russell. The woman said she had
kept it very carefully; but now it was almost worn out. The direction
was, however, still legible upon the ragged bit of paper which she
produced--_To Mrs. Frances Howard, Portman Square, London_. The instant
Mr. Russell was satisfied, he was as expeditious as Oliver himself; they
all three went home immediately to Mrs. Howard: she had, some time
before, been confined to her room by a severe toothache.

"You promised me, aunt," said her nephew, "that as soon as you were well
enough, you would go to old Paul's with us, to see our poor woman; can
you go this evening?"

"Oh do! do, pray; I'm sure you won't catch cold," said Oliver; "for we
have a very particular reason for wishing you to go."

"There is a sedan chair at the door," said Mr. Russell, "if you are
afraid, madam, of catching cold."

"I am not rich enough to go out in sedan chairs," interrupted Mrs.
Howard, "nor prudent enough, I am afraid, to stay at home."

"Oh! thank you," said Oliver, who had her clogs ready in his hands; "now
you'll see something that will surprise you."

"Then take care you don't tell me what it is, before I see it," said Mrs.
Howard.

Oliver, with some difficulty, held his tongue during the walk, and
contented himself with working off his superfluous animation, by jumping
over every obstacle in his way.

The meeting between the poor mulatto woman and her mistress was as full
of joy and surprise as little Oliver had expected; and this is saying a
great deal, for where much is expected, there is usually much
disappointment; and very sympathetic people are often angry with others,
for not being as much astonished, or as much delighted, as they think the
occasion requires.

The day which Mr. Augustus Holloway imagined would bring him such
complete felicity--the day on which Lord Rawson had promised to call for
him in his dog-cart, and to drive him down _randem-tandem_, to
Marryborough--was now arrived. His lordship, in his dog-cart, was at the
door; and Holloway, in high spirits, was just going to get into the
carriage, when some one pulled his coat, and begged to speak a few words
with him. It was the stage-coachman, who was absolutely in distress for
the value of the lost parcel, which Holloway had promised him should be
punctually paid: but Holloway, now that his excursion to Marryborough was
perfectly secure, thought but very little of the poor coachman's
difficulties; and though he had the money, which he had raised by the
lottery tickets, in his pocket, he determined to keep that for his
amusements during the Easter holidays. "You must wait till I come back
from Marryborough; I can't possibly speak to you now; I can't possibly,
you see, keep Lord Rawson waiting. Why didn't you call sooner? I am not
at all convinced that any parcel was lost."

"I'll show you the books--it's book'd, sir," said the man, eagerly.

"Well, well, this is not a time to talk of booking. I'll be with you in
an instant, my lord," cried Holloway to Lord Rawson, who was all
impatience to _be off_. But the coachman would not quit his hold. "I'm
sorry to come to that, master," said he: "as long as we were both upon
honour together, it was very well; but, if you break squares with me,
being a gentleman, and rich, you can't take it ill, I being a poor man
and my place and all at stake, if I take the shortest way to get my own:
I must go to Dr. B. for justice, if you won't give it me without my
peaching," said the coachman.

"I'll see you again to-morrow morning," said Holloway, alarmed: "we come
up to town again to-morrow."

"To-morrow won't do," said the coachman; "I shall lose my place and my
bread to-day. I know how to trust to young gentlemen's to-morrows."

A volley of oaths from Lord Rawson again summoned his companion. At this
instant, Mr. Russell, young Howard, and little Oliver, came up the
street, and were passing on to Mrs. Howard's, when Holloway stopped
Howard, who was the last of the party. "For Heaven's sake," said he, in a
whisper, "do settle for me with this confounded coachman! I know you are
rich; your bookseller told me so; pay five guineas for me to him, and you
shall have them again to-morrow, there's a good fellow. Lord Rawson's
waiting; good by."

"Stay, stay," said Howard, who was not so easily to be drawn into
difficulties by a moment's weakness, or by the want of a moment's
presence of mind: "I know nothing of this business; I have other uses for
my money; I cannot pay five guineas for you, Holloway."

"Then let it alone," cried Holloway, with a brutal execration; and he
forcibly broke from the coachman, shook hands with his tutor, Mr. Supine,
who was talking to Lord Rawson about the varnish of his gig, jumped into
the carriage, and was whirled away from all reflection in a moment, by
his noble companion.

The poor coachman entreated Howard to stay one instant, to hear him. He
explained the business to him, and reproached himself bitterly for his
folly. "I'm sure I thought," said he, "I was sure of a gentleman's
honour; and young gentlemen ought to be above not paying handsome for
their frolics, if they must have frolics; and a frolic's one thing, and
cheating a poor man like me is another; and he had liked to have killed a
poor mulatto woman, too, by the overturn of the coach, which was all his
doings."

"The woman is got very well, and is very well off now," interrupted
Howard; "you need say nothing about that."

"Well, but my money, I must say about _that_," said the coachman. Here
Howard observed, that Mr. Supine had remained at the door in a lounging
attitude, and was quite near enough to overhear their conversation.
Howard, therefore, to avoid exciting his attention by any mysterious
whispers, walked away from the coachman; but in vain; he followed: "I'll
peach," said he; "I must in my own defence."

"Stay till to-morrow morning," said Howard: "perhaps you'll be paid
then."

The coachman, who was a good-natured fellow, said, "Well, I don't like
making mischief among young gentlemen; I will wait till to-morrow, but
not a day more, master, if you'd go down on your knees to me."

Mr. Supine, whose curiosity was fully awake, called to the coachman the
moment Howard was out of hearing, and tried, by various questions, to
draw the secret from him. The words, "_overturn of the coach--mulatto
woman_," and the sentence, which the irritated coachman had pronounced in
a raised voice, that "_young gentlemen should be above not paying
handsome for their frolics_," had reached Mr. Supine's attentive ear,
before Howard had been aware that the tutor was a listener. Nothing more
could Mr. Supine draw, however, from the coachman, who now felt himself
_upon honour_, having promised Howard not to _peach_ till the next
morning. Difficulties stimulated Mr. Supine's curiosity; but he remained
for the present satisfied in the persuasion that he had discovered _a
fine frolic_ of the immaculate Mr. Charles Howard; his own pupil he did
not suspect upon this occasion. Holloway's whisperings with the coachman
had ended the moment Mr. Supine appeared at the door, and the tutor had
in the same moment been so struck with the beautiful varnish of Lord
Rawson's dog-cart, that his pupil might have whispered longer, without
rousing his attention. Mr. Supine was further confirmed in his mistake
about Howard, from the recollection of the mulatto woman, whom he had
seen at the gardener's: he knew that she had been hurt by a fall from a
stage-coach. He saw Howard much interested about her. All this he joined
with what he had just overheard about _a frolic_, and he was rejoiced at
the idea of implicating in this business Mr. Russell, whom he disliked.

Mr. Supine, having got rid of his pupil, went immediately to Alderman
Holloway's, where he had a general invitation to dinner. Mrs. Holloway
approved of her son's tutor, full as much for his love of gossiping, as
for his musical talents: Mr. Supine constantly supplied her with news and
anecdotes; upon the present occasion, he thought that his story, however
imperfect, would be eagerly received, because it concerned Howard.

Since the affair of the prize essay, and the medal, Mrs. Holloway had
taken a dislike to young Howard, whom she considered as the enemy of her
dear Augustus. No sooner had she heard Mr. Supine's blundering
information, than, without any farther examination, she took the whole
for granted: eager to repeat the anecdote to Mrs. Howard, she instantly
wrote a note to her, saying that she would drink tea with her that
evening.

When Mrs. Holloway, attended by Mr. Supine, went, in the evening, to Mrs.
Howard's, they found with her Mrs. B., the lady of Dr. B., the master of
Westminster School.

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