An Old Meerschaum

An Old Meerschaum, by David
Christie Murray

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Title: An Old Meerschaum From Coals Of Fire And Other Stories,
Volume II. (of III.)
Author: David Christie Murray
Release Date: August 1, 2007 [EBook #22206]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MEERSCHAUM ***

Produced by David Widger

AN OLD MEERSCHAUM
By David Christie Murray

From Coals Of Fire And Other Stories By David Christie Murray In
Three Volumes Vol. II.
Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly 1882
CHAPTER I.
The market-place at Trieste lay in a blaze of colour under the June
sunlight. The scent of fruits and flowers was heavy on the air. A
faint-hearted breeze which scarcely dared to blow came up from the
harbour now and again, and made the heat just bearable. Mr. William
Holmes Barndale, of Barndale in the county of Surrey, and King's
Bench Walk-, Temple, sat in shadow in front of a restaurant with his
legs comfortably thrust forth and his hat tilted over his eyes. He pulled
his tawny beard lazily with one hand, and with the other caressed a
great tumbler of iced beer. He was beautifully happy in his perfect
idleness, and a sense was upon him of the eternal fitness of things in
general. In the absolute serenity of his beatitude he fell asleep, with one
hand still lazily clutching his beard, and the other still lingering
lovingly near the great tumbler. This was surely not surprising, and on
the face of things it would not have seemed that there was any reason
for blushing at him. Yet a young lady, unmistakably English and
undeniably pretty, gave a great start, beholding him, and blushed
celestial rosy red. She was passing along the shady side of the square
with papa and mamma, and the start and the blush came in with some
hurried commonplace in answer to a commonplace. These things, papa
and mamma noted not--good, easy, rosy, wholesome people, who had
no great trouble in keeping their heads clear of fancies, and were
chiefly engaged just then with devices for keeping cool.
Two minutes later, or thereabouts, came that way a young gentleman of
whom the pretty young lady seemed a refined and feminine copy, save
and except that the young lady was dearly and daintily demure, whilst
from this youth impudence and mischief shone forth as light radiates
from a lantern. He, pausing before the sleeping Barndale, blushed not,
but poked him in the ribs with the end of his walking-stick, and
regarded him with an eye of waggish joy, as who should say that to

poke a sleeping man in the ribs was a stroke of comic genius whereof
the world had never beheld the like. He sat on his stick, cocked Mr.
Barndale's hat on one side, and awaited that gentleman's waking. Mr.
Barndale, languidly stretching himself, arose, adjusted his hat, took a
great drink of iced beer, and, being thereby in some degree primed for
conversation, spoke.
'That you, Jimmy?' said Mr. Barndale.
'Billy, my boy?' said the awakener, 'how are you?'
'Thought you were in Oude, or somewhere,' said Mr. Barndale.
'Been back six months,' the other answered.
'Anybody with you here?'
'Yes,' said the awakener, 'the Mum, the Pater, and the Kid.'
Mr. Barndale did not look like the sort of man to be vastly shocked at
these terms of irreverence, yet it is a fact that his brown and bearded
cheeks flushed like any schoolgirl's.
'Stopping at the Hotel de la Ville,' said the awakener, 'and adoing of the
Grand Tower, my pippin. I'm playing cicerone. Come up and have a
smoke and a jaw.'
'All right,' said Mr. Barndale languidly. Nobody, to look at him now,
would have guessed how fast his heart beat, and how every nerve in his
body fluttered. 'I'm at the same place. When did you come?'
'Three hours ago. We're going on to Constantinople. Boat starts at six.'
'Ah!' said Barndale placidly. 'I'm going on to Constantinople too.'
'Now that's what I call jolly,' said the other. 'You're going to-night of
course?'
'Of course. Nothing to stay here for.'

At the door of the hotel stood Barndale's servant, a sober-looking
Scotchman dressed in dark tweed.
'Come with me, Bob,' said Barndale as he passed him. 'See you in the
coffee-room in five minutes, Jimmy.'
In his own room Barndale sat down upon the bedside and addressed his
servant.
'I have changed my mind about going