Master Humphreys Clock | Page 6

he has a reason and purpose for

so doing. In either case, I feel that he has a right to require a return of
the trust he has reposed; and as he has never sought to discover my
secret, I have never sought to penetrate his. There may have been
something in this tacit confidence in each other flattering and pleasant
to us both, and it may have imparted in the beginning an additional zest,
perhaps, to our friendship. Be this as it may, we have grown to be like
brothers, and still I only know him as the deaf gentleman.
I have said that retirement has become a habit with me. When I add,
that the deaf gentleman and I have two friends, I communicate nothing
which is inconsistent with that declaration. I spend many hours of every
day in solitude and study, have no friends or change of friends but these,
only see them at stated periods, and am supposed to be of a retired
spirit by the very nature and object of our association.
We are men of secluded habits, with something of a cloud upon our
early fortunes, whose enthusiasm, nevertheless, has not cooled with age,
whose spirit of romance is not yet quenched, who are content to ramble
through the world in a pleasant dream, rather than ever waken again to
its harsh realities. We are alchemists who would extract the essence of
perpetual youth from dust and ashes, tempt coy Truth in many light and
airy forms from the bottom of her well, and discover one crumb of
comfort or one grain of good in the commonest and least-regarded
matter that passes through our crucible. Spirits of past times, creatures
of imagination, and people of to-day are alike the objects of our seeking,
and, unlike the objects of search with most philosophers, we can insure
their coming at our command.
The deaf gentleman and I first began to beguile our days with these
fancies, and our nights in communicating them to each other. We are
now four. But in my room there are six old chairs, and we have decided
that the two empty seats shall always be placed at our table when we
meet, to remind us that we may yet increase our company by that
number, if we should find two men to our mind. When one among us
dies, his chair will always be set in its usual place, but never occupied
again; and I have caused my will to be so drawn out, that when we are
all dead the house shall be shut up, and the vacant chairs still left in
their accustomed places. It is pleasant to think that even then our
shades may, perhaps, assemble together as of yore we did, and join in
ghostly converse.

One night in every week, as the clock strikes ten, we meet. At the
second stroke of two, I am alone.
And now shall I tell how that my old servant, besides giving us note of
time, and ticking cheerful encouragement of our proceedings, lends its
name to our society, which for its punctuality and my love is christened
'Master Humphrey's Clock'? Now shall I tell how that in the bottom of
the old dark closet, where the steady pendulum throbs and beats with
healthy action, though the pulse of him who made it stood still long ago,
and never moved again, there are piles of dusty papers constantly
placed there by our hands, that we may link our enjoyments with my
old friend, and draw means to beguile time from the heart of time itself?
Shall I, or can I, tell with what a secret pride I open this repository
when we meet at night, and still find new store of pleasure in my dear
old Clock?
Friend and companion of my solitude! mine is not a selfish love; I
would not keep your merits to myself, but disperse something of
pleasant association with your image through the whole wide world; I
would have men couple with your name cheerful and healthy thoughts;
I would have them believe that you keep true and honest time; and how
it would gladden me to know that they recognised some hearty English
work in Master Humphrey's clock!

THE CLOCK-CASE

It is my intention constantly to address my readers from the
chimney-corner, and I would fain hope that such accounts as I shall
give them of our histories and proceedings, our quiet speculations or
more busy adventures, will never be unwelcome. Lest, however, I
should grow prolix in the outset by lingering too long upon our little
association, confounding the enthusiasm with which I regard this chief
happiness of my life with that minor degree of interest which those to
whom I address myself