Berry, heatedly; "that"s you men."
Her glance was so fiery that Mr. Joseph Piper was unable to allow the remark to pa.s.s unchallenged.
"I never p.a.w.ned a clock," he said, stroking his little grey head.
"That"s a lot to boast of, isn"t it?" demanded his niece; "if I hadn"t got anything better than that to boast of I wouldn"t boast at all."
Mr. Piper said that he was not boasting.
"It"ll go on like this, my dear, till you"re ruined," said the sympathetic Mrs. Berry, turning to her friend again; "what"ll you do then?"
"Yes, I know," said Mrs. c.o.x. "I"ve had a bad season, too, and I"m so anxious about him in spite of it all. I can"t sleep at nights for fearing that he"s in some trouble. I"m sure I laid awake half last night crying."
Mrs. Berry sniffed loudly, and Mr. Piper making a remark in a low voice, turned on him with ferocity.
"What did you say?" she demanded.
"I said it does her credit," said Mr. Piper, firmly.
"I might have known it was nonsense," retorted his niece, hotly. "Can"t you get him to take the pledge, Mary?"
"I couldn"t insult him like that," said Mrs. c.o.x, with a shiver; "you don"t know his pride. He never admits that he drinks; he says that he only takes a little for his indigestion. He"d never forgive me. When he p.a.w.ns the things he pretends that somebody has stolen them, and the way he goes on at me for my carelessness is alarming. He gets worked up to such a pitch that sometimes I almost think he believes it himself."
"Rubbish," said Mrs. Berry, tartly, "you"re too easy with him."
Mrs. c.o.x sighed, and, leaving the room, returned with a bottle of wine which was port to the look and red-currant to the taste, and a seedcake of formidable appearance. The visitors attacked these refreshments mildly, Mr. Piper sipping his wine with an obtrusive carefulness which his niece rightly regarded as a reflection upon her friend"s hospitality.
"What c.o.x wants is a shock," she said; "you"ve dropped some crumbs on the carpet, uncle."
Mr. Piper apologised and said he had got his eye on them, and would pick them up when he had finished and pick up his niece"s at the same time to prevent her stooping. Mrs. Berry, in an aside to Mrs. c.o.x, said that her Uncle Joseph"s tongue had got itself disliked on both sides of the family.
"And I"d give him one," said Mrs. Berry, returning again to the subject of Mr. c.o.x and shocks. "He has a gentleman"s life of it here, and he would look rather silly if you were sold up and he had to do something for his living."
"It"s putting away the things that is so bad," said Mrs. c.o.x, shaking her head; "that clock won"t last him out, I know; he"ll come back and take some of the other things. Every spring I have to go through his pockets for the tickets and get the things out again, and I mustn"t say a word for fear of hurting his feelings. If I do he goes off again."
"If I were you," said Mrs. Berry, emphatically, "I"d get behind with the rent or something and have the brokers in. He"d look rather astonished if he came home and saw a broker"s man sitting in a chair-"
"He"d look more astonished if he saw him sitting in a flower-pot,"
suggested the caustic Mr. Piper.
"I couldn"t do that," said Mrs. c.o.x. "I couldn"t stand the disgrace, even though I knew I could pay him out. As it is, c.o.x is always setting his family above mine."
Mrs. Berry, without ceasing to stare Mr. Piper out of countenance, shook her head, and, folding her arms, again stated her opinion that Mr. c.o.x wanted a shock, and expressed a great yearning to be the humble means of giving him one.
"If you can"t have the brokers in, get somebody to pretend to be one,"
she said, sharply; "that would prevent him p.a.w.ning any more things, at any rate. Why wouldn"t he do?" she added, nodding at her uncle.
Anxiety on Mrs. c.o.x"s face was exaggerated on that of Mr. Piper.
"Let uncle pretend to be a broker"s man in for the rent," continued the excitable lady, rapidly. "When Mr. c.o.x turns up after his spree, tell him what his doings have brought you to, and say you"ll have to go to the workhouse."
"I look like a broker"s man, don"t I?" said Mr. Piper, in a voice more than tinged with sarcasm.
"Yes," said his niece, "that"s what put it into my head."
"It"s very kind of you, dear, and very kind of Mr. Piper," said Mrs.
c.o.x, "but I couldn"t think of it, I really couldn"t."
"Uncle would be delighted," said Mrs. Berry, with a wilful blinking of plain facts. "He"s got nothing better to do; it"s a nice house and good food, and he could sit at the open window and sniff at the sea all day long."
Mr. Piper sniffed even as she spoke, but not at the sea.
"And I"ll come for him the day after to-morrow," said Mrs. Berry.
It was the old story of the stronger will: Mrs. c.o.x after a feeble stand gave way altogether, and Mr. Piper"s objections were demolished before he had given them full utterance. Mrs. Berry went off alone after dinner, secretly glad to have got rid of Mr. Piper, who was making a self-invited stay at her house of indefinite duration; and Mr. Piper, in his new role of broker"s man, essayed the part with as much help as a clay pipe and a pint of beer could afford him.
That day and the following he spent amid the faded grandeurs of the drawing-room, gazing longingly at the wide expanse of beach and the tumbling sea beyond. The house was almost uncanily quiet, an occasional tinkle of metal or crash of china from the bas.e.m.e.nt giving the only indication of the industrious Mrs. c.o.x; but on the day after the quiet of the house was broken by the return of its master, whose annoyance, when he found the drawing-room clock stolen and a man in possession, was alarming in its vehemence. He lectured his wife severely on her mismanagement, and after some hesitation announced his intention of going through her books. Mrs. c.o.x gave them to him, and, armed with pen and ink and four square inches of pink blotting-paper, he performed feats of balancing which made him a very Blondin of finance.
"I shall have to get something to do," he said, gloomily, laying down his pen.
"Yes, dear," said his wife.
Mr. c.o.x leaned back in his chair and, wiping his pen on the blotting-paper, gazed in a speculative fashion round the room. "Have you any money?" he inquired.
For reply his wife rummaged in her pocket and after a lengthy search produced a bunch of keys, a thimble, a needle-case, two pocket-handkerchiefs, and a halfpenny. She put this last on the table, and Mr. c.o.x, whose temper had been mounting steadily, threw it to the other end of the room.
"I can"t help it," said Mrs. c.o.x, wiping her eyes. "I"m sure I"ve done all I could to keep a home together. I can"t even raise money on anything."
Mr. c.o.x, who had been glancing round the room again, looked up sharply.
"Why not?" he inquired.
"The broker"s man," said Mrs. c.o.x, nervously; "he"s made an inventory of everything, and he holds us responsible."
Mr. c.o.x leaned back in his chair. "This is a pretty state of things," he blurted, wildly. "Here have I been walking my legs off looking for work, any work so long as it"s honest labour, and I come back to find a broker"s man sitting in my own house and drinking up my beer."
He rose and walked up and down the room, and Mrs. c.o.x, whose nerves were hardly equal to the occasion, slipped on her bonnet and announced her intention of trying to obtain a few necessaries on credit. Her husband waited in indignant silence until he heard the front door close behind her, and then stole softly upstairs to have a look at the fell destroyer of his domestic happiness.
Mr. Piper, who was already very tired of his imprisonment, looked up curiously as he heard the door pushed open, and discovered an elderly gentleman with an appearance of great stateliness staring at him. In the ordinary way he was one of the meekest of men, but the insolence of this stare was outrageous. Mr. Piper, opening his mild blue eyes wide, stared back. Whereupon Mr. c.o.x, fumbling in his vest pocket, found a pair of folders, and putting them astride his nose, gazed at the pseudo-broker"s man with crushing effect.
"What do you want here?" he asked, at length. "Are you the father of one of the servants?"
"I"m the father of all the servants in the house," said Mr. Piper, sweetly.
"Don"t answer me, sir," said Mr. c.o.x, with much pomposity; "you"re an eyesore to an honest man, a vulture, a harpy."
Mr. Piper pondered.
"How do you know what"s an eyesore to an honest man?" he asked, at length.