The Congo Rovers | Page 7

clay tobacco pipe broken short

off; three pieces of pipe-stem evidently originally belonging to the
latter; and a small ball of sewing twine.
Carefully arranging the copper coins on the edge of the table he
returned the remaining articles to their original place of deposit, and
then plunged his hand into his other pocket, from which he produced--
nothing.
"How much is it?" he inquired, glancing at the waiter.
"Fifteen shillings, if you please, sir," was the reply.
"Lend me a sovereign, there's a good fellow; I've left my purse in my
other pocket," he exclaimed to Lord Tomnoddy.
"I would with pleasure, old fellow, if I had it. But, unfortunately, I
haven't a farthing about me."
Thereupon the waiter proceeded deliberately to gather up the glasses
again, and was about to take them and the wine away, when I
interposed with a proposal to pay.
"No," said Fitz-Johnes fiercely; "I won't hear of it; I'll perish at the
stake first. But if you really don't mind lending me a sovereign until
to-morrow--"
I said I should be most happy; and forthwith produced the coin, which
Fitz-Johnes, having received it, flung disdainfully down upon the table
with the exclamation:
"There, caitiff, is the lucre. Now, avaunt! begone! Thy bones are
marrowless; and you have not a particle of speculation about you."
The waiter, quite unmoved, took up the sovereign, laid down the
change-- which Fitz-Johnes promptly pocketed--and retired from the
room, leaving us to discuss our wine in peace; which we did, I taking
three glasses, and my companions disposing of the remainder.
Fitz-Johnes now became very communicative on the subject of his

cousin Lady Mary; and finally the recollection came to him suddenly
that she had sent him her miniature only a day or two before. This he
proposed to show me, in order that I might pronounce an opinion as to
the correctness of the likeness; but on instituting a search for it, he
discovered--much to my relief, I must confess--that he had left it, with
his purse, in the pocket of his other jacket.
The wine at length finished, we parted company at the door of the
"Blue Posts;" I shaping a course homeward, and my new friends
heading in the direction of the Hard, their uproarious laughter reaching
my ear for some time after they had passed out of sight.
CHAPTER TWO.
I QUIT THE PATERNAL ROOF.
On reaching home I found that my father had preceded me by a few
minutes only, and was to be found in the surgery. Thither, accordingly,
I hastened to give him an opportunity of seeing me in my new rig.
"Good Heavens, boy!" he exclaimed when he had taken in all the
details of my appearance, "do you mean to say that you have presented
yourself in public in that extraordinary guise?"
I respectfully intimated that I had, and that, moreover, I failed to
observe anything at all extraordinary in my appearance.
"Well," observed he, bursting into a fit of hearty laughter,
notwithstanding his evident annoyance, "you may not have noticed it;
but I'll warrant that everybody else has. Why, I should not have been
surprised to hear that you had found yourself the laughing-stock of the
town. Run away, Dick, and change your clothes at once; Shears must
see those things and endeavour to alter them somehow; you can never
wear them as they are."
I slunk away to my room in a dreadfully depressed state of mind. Was
it possible that what my father had said was true! A sickening suspicion
seized me that it was; and that I had at last found an explanation of the

universal laughter which had seemed to accompany me everywhere in
my wanderings that wretched afternoon.
I wrapped up the now hated uniform in the brown paper which had
encased it when it came from Shears; and my father and I were about to
sally forth with it upon a wrathful visit to the erring Shears, when a
breathless messenger from him arrived with another parcel, and a note
of explanation and apology, to the effect that by some unfortunate
blunder the wrong suit had been sent home, and Mr Shears would feel
greatly obliged if we would return it per bearer.
The man, upon this, was invited inside and requested to wait whilst I
tried on the rightful suit, which was found to fit excellently; and I could
not avoid laughing rather ruefully as I looked in the glass and
contrasted my then appearance with that which I remembered it to have
been in the earlier part of the day. Later on, that same evening, my
sea-chest and the remainder of my outfit arrived; and I was ready to
join, as had been already arranged, on the following day.
The eventful morning at