Hunted Down | Page 4

hair, which was elaborately brushed and oiled, was
parted straight up the middle; and he presented this parting to the clerk,
exactly (to my thinking) as if he had said, in so many words: 'You must
take me, if you please, my friend, just as I show myself. Come straight
up here, follow the gravel path, keep off the grass, I allow no
trespassing.'
I conceived a very great aversion to that man the moment I thus saw
him.
He had asked for some of our printed forms, and the clerk was giving
them to him and explaining them. An obliged and agreeable smile was
on his face, and his eyes met those of the clerk with a sprightly look. (I
have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not
looking you in the face. Don't trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty
will stare honesty out of countenance, any day in the week, if there is
anything to be got by it.)
I saw, in the corner of his eyelash, that he became aware of my looking

at him. Immediately he turned the parting in his hair toward the glass
partition, as if he said to me with a sweet smile, 'Straight up here, if you
please. Off the grass!'
In a few moments he had put on his hat and taken up his umbrella, and
was gone.
I beckoned the clerk into my room, and asked, 'Who was that?'
He had the gentleman's card in his hand. 'Mr. Julius Slinkton, Middle
Temple.'
'A barrister, Mr. Adams?'
'I think not, sir.'
'I should have thought him a clergyman, but for his having no Reverend
here,' said I.
'Probably, from his appearance,' Mr. Adams replied, 'he is reading for
orders.'
I should mention that he wore a dainty white cravat, and dainty linen
altogether.
'What did he want, Mr. Adams?'
'Merely a form of proposal, sir, and form of reference.'
'Recommended here? Did he say?'
'Yes, he said he was recommended here by a friend of yours. He
noticed you, but said that as he had not the pleasure of your personal
acquaintance he would not trouble you.'
'Did he know my name?'
'O yes, sir! He said, "There IS Mr. Sampson, I see!"'

'A well-spoken gentleman, apparently?'
'Remarkably so, sir.'
'Insinuating manners, apparently?'
'Very much so, indeed, sir.'
'Hah!' said I. 'I want nothing at present, Mr. Adams.'
Within a fortnight of that day I went to dine with a friend of mine, a
merchant, a man of taste, who buys pictures and books, and the first
man I saw among the company was Mr. Julius Slinkton. There he was,
standing before the fire, with good large eyes and an open expression of
face; but still (I thought) requiring everybody to come at him by the
prepared way he offered, and by no other.
I noticed him ask my friend to introduce him to Mr. Sampson, and my
friend did so. Mr. Slinkton was very happy to see me. Not too happy;
there was no over-doing of the matter; happy in a thoroughly well-bred,
perfectly unmeaning way.
'I thought you had met,' our host observed.
'No,' said Mr. Slinkton. 'I did look in at Mr. Sampson's office, on your
recommendation; but I really did not feel justified in troubling Mr.
Sampson himself, on a point in the everyday, routine of an ordinary
clerk.'
I said I should have been glad to show him any attention on our friend's
introduction.
'I am sure of that,' said he, 'and am much obliged. At another time,
perhaps, I may be less delicate. Only, however, if I have real business;
for I know, Mr. Sampson, how precious business time is, and what a
vast number of impertinent people there are in the world.'
I acknowledged his consideration with a slight bow. 'You were
thinking,' said I, 'of effecting a policy on your life.'

'O dear no! I am afraid I am not so prudent as you pay me the
compliment of supposing me to be, Mr. Sampson. I merely inquired for
a friend. But you know what friends are in such matters. Nothing may
ever come of it. I have the greatest reluctance to trouble men of
business with inquiries for friends, knowing the probabilities to be a
thousand to one that the friends will never follow them up. People are
so fickle, so selfish, so inconsiderate. Don't you, in your business, find
them so every day, Mr. Sampson?'
I was going to give a qualified answer; but he turned his smooth, white
parting on me with its 'Straight up here, if you please!' and I answered
'Yes.'
'I hear, Mr. Sampson,' he resumed presently, for our friend had a new
cook, and dinner was not so punctual as usual, 'that your profession has
recently