Yussuf the Guide | Page 3

him aside for a
brief conversation to ensue.
"Bless me! very sad," said the lawyer; and then, as Mrs Dunn showed
the doctor out, the old gentleman took some more snuff, and then
performed upon his nose in one of the windows; opposite the fire; in
one corner; then in another; and then he was finishing with a regular
coach-horn blast when he stopped half-way, and stared, for Mrs Dunn
was standing in the doorway with her large florid cap tilted forward in
consequence of her having stuck her fingers in her ears.
"Could you hear me using my handkerchief, Mrs Dunn?" said the
lawyer.
"Could I hear you? Man alive!" cried the old lady, in a tone full of
withering contempt, "could I hear that!"
CHAPTER TWO.
THE SECOND GUARDIAN.
"That!" to which Mrs Dunn alluded was a double knock at the front
door; a few minutes later the maid ushered in a tall broad-shouldered
man of about forty. His hair was thin upon the crown, but crisp and
grizzled, and its spareness seemed due to the fact that nature required
so much stuff to keep up the supply for his tremendous dark beard that
his head ran short. It was one of those great beards that are supposed to
go with the portrait of some old patriarch, and over this could be seen a
pair of beautiful large clear eyes that wore a thoughtful dreamy aspect,
and a broad high white forehead. He was rather shabbily dressed in a

pepper-and-salt frock-coat, vest, and trousers, one of which had been
turned up as if to keep it out of the mud while the other was turned
down; and both were extremely baggy and worn about the knees.
Judging from appearances his frock-coat might have been brushed the
week before last, but it was doubtful, though his hat, which he placed
upon the table as he entered, certainly had been brushed very lately, but
the wrong way.
He did not wear gloves upon his hands, but in his trousers pockets,
from which he pulled them to throw them in his hat, after he had
carefully placed two great folio volumes, each minus one cover, upon a
chair, and then he shook hands, smiling blandly, with Mrs Dunn, and
with the lawyer.
"Bless the man!" said Mrs Dunn to herself, "one feels as if one couldn't
be cross with him; and there's a button off the wrist-band of his shirt."
"'Fraid you had not received my telegram, sir," said the lawyer in rather
a contemptuous tone, for Mrs Dunn had annoyed him, and he wanted to
wreak his irritation upon someone else.
"Telegram?" said the professor dreamily. "Oh, yes. It was forwarded to
me from Oxford. I was in town."
"Oh! In town?"
"Yes. At an hotel in Craven Street. I am making preparations, you
know, for my trip."
"No, I don't know," said the lawyer snappishly. "How should I know?"
"Of course not," said the professor smiling. "The fact is, I've been so
much--among books--lately--that--these are fine. Picked them up at a
little shop near the Strand. Buttknow's Byzantine Empire."
He picked up the two musty old volumes, and opened them upon the
table, as a blast rang out.

The professor started and stared, his dreamy eyes opening wider, but
seeing that it was only the lawyer blowing his nose, he smiled and
turned over a few leaves.
"A good deal damaged; but such a book is very rare, sir."
"My dear sir, I asked you to come here to talk business," said the
lawyer, tapping the table with his snuff-box, "not books."
"True. I beg your pardon," said the professor. "I was in town making
the final preparations for my departure to the Levant, and I did not
receive the telegram till this morning. That made me so late."
"Humph!" ejaculated the lawyer, and he took some more snuff.
"And how is Lawrence this morning?" said the professor in his calm,
mild way. "I hope better, Mrs Dunn."
"Bless the man! No. He is worse," cried Mrs Dunn shortly.
"Dear me! I am very sorry. Poor boy! I'm afraid I have neglected him.
His poor father was so kind to me."
"Everybody has neglected him, sir," cried Mrs Dunn, "and the doctor
says that the poor boy will die."
"Mrs Dunn, you shock me," cried the professor, with the tears in his
eyes, and his whole manner changing. "Is it so bad as this?"
"Quite, sir," cried the lawyer, "and I want to consult you as my
co-executor and trustee about getting the boy somewhere in the south
of England or to France."
"But medical assistance," said the professor. "We must have the best
skill in London."
"He has had it, sir," cried Mrs Dunn, "and they can't do anything for