"Well," replied Steerforth, looking at his watch. "Suppose I deliver you up to be cried over for a couple of hours. Is that long enough?"
I answered, laughing, that I thought we might get through it in that time, but that he must come also; for he would find that his renown had preceded him, and that he was almost as great a personage as I was.
"I"ll come anywhere you like," said Steerforth, "or do anything you like. Tell me where to come to; and in two hours I"ll produce myself in any state you please, sentimental or comical."
I gave him minute directions for finding the residence of Mr. Barkis, carrier to Blunderstone and elsewhere; and, on this understanding, went out alone. There was a sharp bracing air; the ground was dry; the sea was crisp and clear; the sun was diffusing abundance of light, if not much warmth; and everything was fresh and lively. I was so fresh and lively myself, in the pleasure of being there, that I could have stopped the people in the streets and shaken hands with them.
The streets looked small, of course. The streets that we have only seen as children always do, I believe, when we go back to them. But I had forgotten nothing in them, and found nothing changed, until I came to Mr. Omer"s shop. OMER AND Joram was now written up, where OMER used to be; but the inscription, DRAPER, TAILOR, HABERDASHER, FUNERAL FURNISHER, &c., remained as it was.
My footsteps seemed to tend so naturally to the shop door, after I had read these words from over the way, that I went across the road and looked in. There was a pretty woman at the back of the shop, dancing a little child in her arms, while another little fellow clung to her ap.r.o.n. I had no difficulty in recognizing either Minnie or Minnie"s children. The gla.s.s door of the parlour was not open; but in the workshop across the yard I could faintly hear the old tune playing, as if it had never left off.
"Is Mr. Omer at home?" said I, entering. "I should like to see him, for a moment, if he is."
"Oh yes, sir, he is at home," said Minnie; "the weather don"t suit his asthma out of doors. Joe, call your grandfather!"
The little fellow, who was holding her ap.r.o.n, gave such a l.u.s.ty shout, that the sound of it made him bashful, and he buried his face in her skirts, to her great admiration. I heard a heavy puffing and blowing coming towards us, and soon Mr. Omer, shorter-winded than of yore, but not much older-looking, stood before me.
"Servant, sir," said Mr. Omer. "What can I do for you, sir?" "You can shake hands with me, Mr. Omer, if you please," said I, putting out my own. "You were very good-natured to me once, when I am afraid I didn"t show that I thought so."
"Was I though?" returned the old man. "I"m glad to hear it, but I don"t remember when. Are you sure it was me?"
"Quite."
"I think my memory has got as short as my breath," said Mr. Omer, looking at me and shaking his head; "for I don"t remember you."
"Don"t you remember your coming to the coach to meet me, and my having breakfast here, and our riding out to Blunderstone together: you, and I, and Mrs. Joram, and Mr. Joram too--who wasn"t her husband then?"
"Why, Lord bless my soul!" exclaimed Mr. Omer, after being thrown by his surprise into a fit of coughing, "you don"t say so! Minnie, my dear, you recollect? Dear me, yes; the party was a lady, I think?"
"My mother," I rejoined.
"To--be--sure," said Mr. Omer, touching my waistcoat with his forefinger, "and there was a little child too! There was two parties.
The little party was laid along with the other party. Over at Blunderstone it was, of course. Dear me! And how have you been since?"
Very well, I thanked him, as I hoped he had been too.
"Oh! nothing to grumble at, you know," said Mr. Omer. "I find my breath gets short, but it seldom gets longer as a man gets older. I take it as it comes, and make the most of it. That"s the best way, ain"t it?"
Mr. Omer coughed again, in consequence of laughing, and was a.s.sisted out of his fit by his daughter, who now stood close beside us, dancing her smallest child on the counter.
"Dear me!" said Mr. Omer. "Yes, to be sure. Two parties! Why, in that very ride, if you"ll believe me, the day was named for my Minnie to marry Joram. "Do name it, sir," says Joram. "Yes, do, father," says Minnie. And now he"s come into the business. And look here! The youngest!"
Minnie laughed, and stroked her banded hair upon her temples, as her father put one of his fat fingers into the hand of the child she was dancing on the counter.
"Two parties, of course!" said Mr. Omer, nodding his head retrospectively. "Ex-actly so! And Joram"s at work, at this minute, on a grey one with silver nails, not this measurement"--the measurement of the dancing child upon the counter--"by a good two inches.---Will you take something?"
I thanked him, but declined.
"Let me see," said Mr. Omer. "Barkis"s the carrier"s wife--Peggotty"s the boatman"s sister--she had something to do with your family? She was in service there, sure?"
My answering in the affirmative gave him great satisfaction.
"I believe my breath will get long next, my memory"s getting so much so," said Mr. Omer. "Well, sir, we"ve got a young relation of hers here, under articles to us, that has as elegant a taste in the dress-making business--I a.s.sure you I don"t believe there"s a d.u.c.h.ess in England can touch her."
"Not little Em"ly?" said I, involuntarily.
"Em"ly"s her name," said Mr. Omer, "and she"s little too. But if you"ll believe me, she has such a face of her own that half the women in this town are mad against her."
"Nonsense, father!" cried Minnie.
"My dear," said Mr. Omer, "I don"t say it"s the case with you," winking at me, "but I say that half the women in Yarmouth--ah! and in five mile round--are mad against that girl."
"Then she should have kept to her own station in life, father," said Minnie, "and not have given them any hold to talk about her, and then they couldn"t have done it."
"Couldn"t have done it, my dear!" retorted Mr. Omer. "Couldn"t have done it! Is that YOUR knowledge of life? What is there that any woman couldn"t do, that she shouldn"t do--especially on the subject of another woman"s good looks?"
I really thought it was all over with Mr. Omer, after he had uttered this libellous pleasantry. He coughed to that extent, and his breath eluded all his attempts to recover it with that obstinacy, that I fully expected to see his head go down behind the counter, and his little black breeches, with the rusty little bunches of ribbons at the knees, come quivering up in a last ineffectual struggle. At length, however, he got better, though he still panted hard, and was so exhausted that he was obliged to sit on the stool of the shop-desk.
"You see," he said, wiping his head, and breathing with difficulty, "she hasn"t taken much to any companions here; she hasn"t taken kindly to any particular acquaintances and friends, not to mention sweethearts. In consequence, an ill-natured story got about, that Em"ly wanted to be a lady. Now my opinion is, that it came into circulation princ.i.p.ally on account of her sometimes saying, at the school, that if she was a lady she would like to do so-and-so for her uncle--don"t you see?--and buy him such-and-such fine things."
"I a.s.sure you, Mr. Omer, she has said so to me," I returned eagerly, "when we were both children."
Mr. Omer nodded his head and rubbed his chin. "Just so. Then out of a very little, she could dress herself, you see, better than most others could out of a deal, and that made things unpleasant. Moreover, she was rather what might be called wayward--I"ll go so far as to say what I should call wayward myself," said Mr. Omer; "-didn"t know her own mind quite--a little spoiled--and couldn"t, at first, exactly bind herself down. No more than that was ever said against her, Minnie?"
"No, father," said Mrs. Joram. "That"s the worst, I believe."
"So when she got a situation," said Mr. Omer, "to keep a fractious old lady company, they didn"t very well agree, and she didn"t stop. At last she came here, apprenticed for three years. Nearly two of "em are over, and she has been as good a girl as ever was. Worth any six! Minnie, is she worth any six, now?"
"Yes, father," replied Minnie. "Never say I detracted from her!"
"Very good," said Mr. Omer. "That"s right. And so, young gentleman," he added, after a few moments" further rubbing of his chin, "that you may not consider me long-winded as well as short-breathed, I believe that"s all about it."
As they had spoken in a subdued tone, while speaking of Em"ly, I had no doubt that she was near. On my asking now, if that were not so, Mr.
Omer nodded yes, and nodded towards the door of the parlour. My hurried inquiry if I might peep in, was answered with a free permission; and, looking through the gla.s.s, I saw her sitting at her work. I saw her, a most beautiful little creature, with the cloudless blue eyes, that had looked into my childish heart, turned laughingly upon another child of Minnie"s who was playing near her; with enough of wilfulness in her bright face to justify what I had heard; with much of the old capricious coyness lurking in it; but with nothing in her pretty looks, I am sure, but what was meant for goodness and for happiness, and what was on a good and happy course.
The tune across the yard that seemed as if it never had left off--alas!
it was the tune that never DOES leave off--was beating, softly, all the while.
"Wouldn"t you like to step in," said Mr. Omer, "and speak to her? Walk in and speak to her, sir! Make yourself at home!"
I was too bashful to do so then--I was afraid of confusing her, and I was no less afraid of confusing myself.--but I informed myself of the hour at which she left of an evening, in order that our visit might be timed accordingly; and taking leave of Mr. Omer, and his pretty daughter, and her little children, went away to my dear old Peggotty"s.
Here she was, in the tiled kitchen, cooking dinner! The moment I knocked at the door she opened it, and asked me what I pleased to want. I looked at her with a smile, but she gave me no smile in return. I had never ceased to write to her, but it must have been seven years since we had met.
"Is Mr. Barkis at home, ma"am?" I said, feigning to speak roughly to her.
"He"s at home, sir," returned Peggotty, "but he"s bad abed with the rheumatics."