St Ives | Page 7

My hands had made
and held it; my knife--or, to speak more by the mark, my rusty
nail--had traced those letters; and simple as the words were, they would
keep repeating to her that I was grateful and that I found her fair. The
boy had looked like a gawky, and blushed at a compliment; I could see
besides that he regarded me with considerable suspicion; yet he made
so manly a figure of a lad, that I could not withhold from him my
sympathy. And as for the impulse that had made her bring and
introduce him, I could not sufficiently admire it. It seemed to me finer
than wit, and more tender than a caress. It said (plain as language), 'I do
not and I cannot know you. Here is my brother--you can know him; this
is the way to me--follow it.'

CHAPTER II
--A TALE OF A PAIR OF SCISSORS

I was still plunged in these thoughts when the bell was rung that

discharged our visitors into the street. Our little market was no sooner
closed than we were summoned to the distribution, and received our
rations, which we were then allowed to eat according to fancy in any
part of our quarters.
I have said the conduct of some of our visitors was unbearably
offensive; it was possibly more so than they dreamed--as the sight-
seers at a menagerie may offend in a thousand ways, and quite without
meaning it, the noble and unfortunate animals behind the bars; and
there is no doubt but some of my compatriots were susceptible beyond
reason. Some of these old whiskerandos, originally peasants, trained
since boyhood in victorious armies, and accustomed to move among
subject and trembling populations, could ill brook their change of
circumstance. There was one man of the name of Goguelat, a brute of
the first water, who had enjoyed no touch of civilisation beyond the
military discipline, and had risen by an extreme heroism of bravery to a
grade for which he was otherwise unfitted--that of marechal des logis in
the 22nd of the line. In so far as a brute can be a good soldier, he was a
good soldier; the Cross was on his breast, and gallantly earned; but in
all things outside his line of duty the man was no other than a brawling,
bruising ignorant pillar of low pothouses. As a gentleman by birth, and
a scholar by taste and education, I was the type of all that he least
understood and most detested; and the mere view of our visitors would
leave him daily in a transport of annoyance, which he would make
haste to wreak on the nearest victim, and too often on myself.
It was so now. Our rations were scarce served out, and I had just
withdrawn into a corner of the yard, when I perceived him drawing
near. He wore an air of hateful mirth; a set of young fools, among
whom he passed for a wit, followed him with looks of expectation; and
I saw I was about to be the object of some of his insufferable
pleasantries. He took a place beside me, spread out his rations, drank to
me derisively from his measure of prison beer, and began. What he said
it would be impossible to print; but his admirers, who believed their wit
to have surpassed himself, actually rolled among the gravel. For my
part, I thought at first I should have died. I had not dreamed the wretch
was so observant; but hate sharpens the ears, and he had counted our
interviews and actually knew Flora by her name. Gradually my
coolness returned to me, accompanied by a volume of living anger that

surprised myself.
'Are you nearly done?' I asked. 'Because if you are, I am about to say a
word or two myself.'
'Oh, fair play!' said he. 'Turn about! The Marquis of Carabas to the
tribune.'
'Very well,' said I. 'I have to inform you that I am a gentleman. You do
not know what that means, hey? Well, I will tell you. It is a comical
sort of animal; springs from another strange set of creatures they call
ancestors; and, in common with toads and other vermin, has a thing that
he calls feelings. The lion is a gentleman; he will not touch carrion. I
am a gentleman, and I cannot bear to soil my fingers with such a lump
of dirt. Sit still, Philippe Goguelat! sit still and do not say a word, or I
shall know you are a coward; the eyes of our guards are upon us. Here
is your health!' said I, and pledged him in the prison beer. 'You have
chosen to speak in a certain way of a young child,' I continued,