He looked at Tom Pinch curiously, but with an entire freedom from any such expression as could be reasonably construed into an unusual display of interest. After a short silence, during which Mr Fips was so perfectly unembarra.s.sed as to render it manifest that he could have broken it sooner without hesitation, if he had felt inclined to do so, he asked if Mr Westlock had made his offer fully known to Mr Pinch.
John answered in the affirmative.
"And you think it worth your while, sir, do you?" Mr Fips inquired of Tom.
"I think it a piece of great good fortune, sir," said Tom. "I am exceedingly obliged to you for the offer."
"Not to me," said Mr Fips. "I act upon instructions."
"To your friend, sir, then," said Tom. "To the gentleman with whom I am to engage, and whose confidence I shall endeavour to deserve. When he knows me better, sir, I hope he will not lose his good opinion of me.
He will find me punctual and vigilant, and anxious to do what is right.
That I think I can answer for, and so," looking towards him, "can Mr Westlock."
"Most a.s.suredly," said John.
Mr Fips appeared to have some little difficulty in resuming the conversation. To relieve himself, he took up the wafer-stamp, and began stamping capital F"s all over his legs.
"The fact is," said Mr Fips, "that my friend is not, at this present moment, in town."
Tom"s countenance fell; for he thought this equivalent to telling him that his appearance did not answer; and that Fips must look out for somebody else.
"When do you think he will be in town, sir?" he asked.
"I can"t say; it"s impossible to tell. I really have no idea. But," said Fips, taking off a very deep impression of the wafer-stamp upon the calf of his left leg, and looking steadily at Tom, "I don"t know that it"s a matter of much consequence."
Poor Tom inclined his head deferentially, but appeared to doubt that.
"I say," repeated Mr Fips, "that I don"t know it"s a matter of much consequence. The business lies entirely between yourself and me, Mr Pinch. With reference to your duties, I can set you going; and with reference to your salary, I can pay it. Weekly," said Mr Fips, putting down the wafer-stamp, and looking at John Westlock and Tom Pinch by turns, "weekly; in this office; at any time between the hours of four and five o"clock in the afternoon." As Mr Fips said this, he made up his face as if he were going to whistle. But he didn"t.
"You are very good," said Tom, whose countenance was now suffused with pleasure; "and nothing can be more satisfactory or straightforward. My attendance will be required--"
"From half-past nine to four o"clock or so, I should say," interrupted Mr Fips. "About that."
"I did not mean the hours of attendance," retorted Tom, "which are light and easy, I am sure; but the place."
"Oh, the place! The place is in the Temple."
Tom was delighted.
"Perhaps," said Mr Fips, "you would like to see the place?"
"Oh, dear!" cried Tom. "I shall only be too glad to consider myself engaged, if you will allow me; without any further reference to the place."
"You may consider yourself engaged, by all means," said Mr Fips; "you couldn"t meet me at the Temple Gate in Fleet Street, in an hour from this time, I suppose, could you?"
Certainly Tom could.
"Good," said Mr Fips, rising. "Then I will show you the place; and you can begin your attendance to-morrow morning. In an hour, therefore, I shall see you. You too, Mr Westlock? Very good. Take care how you go.
It"s rather dark."
With this remark, which seemed superfluous, he shut them out upon the staircase, and they groped their way into the street again. The interview had done so little to remove the mystery in which Tom"s new engagement was involved, and had done so much to thicken it, that neither could help smiling at the puzzled looks of the other. They agreed, however, that the introduction of Tom to his new office and office companions could hardly fail to throw a light upon the subject; and therefore postponed its further consideration until after the fulfillment of the appointment they had made with Mr Fips.
After looking at John Westlock"s chambers, and devoting a few spare minutes to the Boar"s Head, they issued forth again to the place of meeting. The time agreed upon had not quite come; but Mr Fips was already at the Temple Gate, and expressed his satisfaction at their punctuality.
He led the way through sundry lanes and courts, into one more quiet and more gloomy than the rest, and, singling out a certain house, ascended a common staircase; taking from his pocket, as he went, a bunch of rusty keys. Stopping before a door upon an upper story, which had nothing but a yellow smear of paint where custom would have placed the tenant"s name, he began to beat the dust out of one of these keys, very deliberately, upon the great broad handrail of the bal.u.s.trade.
"You had better have a little plug made," he said, looking round at Tom, after blowing a shrill whistle into the barrel of the key. "It"s the only way of preventing them from getting stopped up. You"ll find the lock go the better, too, I dare say, for a little oil."
Tom thanked him; but was too much occupied with his own speculations, and John Westlock"s looks, to be very talkative. In the meantime Mr Fips opened the door, which yielded to his hand very unwillingly, and with a horribly discordant sound. He took the key out, when he had done so, and gave it to Tom.
"Aye, aye!" said Mr Fips. "The dust lies rather thick here."
Truly, it did. Mr Fips might have gone so far as to say, very thick.
It had acc.u.mulated everywhere; lay deep on everything, and in one part, where a ray of sun shone through a crevice in the shutter and struck upon the opposite wall, it went twirling round and round, like a gigantic squirrel-cage.
Dust was the only thing in the place that had any motion about it. When their conductor admitted the light freely, and lifting up the heavy window-sash, let in the summer air, he showed the mouldering furniture, discoloured wainscoting and ceiling, rusty stove, and ashy hearth, in all their inert neglect. Close to the door there stood a candlestick, with an extinguisher upon it; as if the last man who had been there had paused, after securing a retreat, to take a parting look at the dreariness he left behind, and then had shut out light and life together, and closed the place up like a tomb.
There were two rooms on that floor; and in the first or outer one a narrow staircase, leading to two more above. These last were fitted up as bed-chambers. Neither in them, nor in the rooms below, was any scarcity of convenient furniture observable, although the fittings were of a bygone fashion; but solitude and want of use seemed to have rendered it unfit for any purposes of comfort, and to have given it a grisly, haunted air.
Movables of every kind lay strewn about, without the least attempt at order, and were intermixed with boxes, hampers, and all sorts of lumber.
On all the floors were piles of books, to the amount, perhaps, of some thousands of volumes: these, still in bales; those, wrapped in paper, as they had been purchased; others scattered singly or in heaps; not one upon the shelves which lined the walls. To these Mr Fips called Tom"s attention.
"Before anything else can be done, we must have them put in order, catalogued, and ranged upon the book-shelves, Mr Pinch. That will do to begin with, I think, sir."
Tom rubbed his hands in the pleasant antic.i.p.ation of a task so congenial to his taste, and said:
"An occupation full of interest for me, I a.s.sure you. It will occupy me, perhaps, until Mr--"
"Until Mr--" repeated Fips; as much as to ask Tom what he was stopping for.
"I forgot that you had not mentioned the gentleman"s name," said Tom.
"Oh!" cried Mr Fips, pulling on his glove, "didn"t I? No, by-the-bye, I don"t think I did. Ah! I dare say he"ll be here soon. You will get on very well together, I have no doubt. I wish you success I am sure. You won"t forget to shut the door? It"ll lock of itself if you slam it.
Half-past nine, you know. Let us say from half-past nine to four, or half-past four, or thereabouts; one day, perhaps, a little earlier, another day, perhaps, a little later, according as you feel disposed, and as you arrange your work. Mr Fips, Austin Friars of course you"ll remember? And you won"t forget to slam the door, if you please!"
He said all this in such a comfortable, easy manner, that Tom could only rub his hands, and nod his head, and smile in acquiescence which he was still doing, when Mr Fips walked coolly out.
"Why, he"s gone!" cried Tom.
"And what"s more, Tom," said John Westlock, seating himself upon a pile of books, and looking up at his astonished friend, "he is evidently not coming back again; so here you are, installed. Under rather singular circ.u.mstances, Tom!"
It was such an odd affair throughout, and Tom standing there among the books with his hat in one hand and the key in the other, looked so prodigiously confounded, that his friend could not help laughing heartily. Tom himself was tickled; no less by the hilarity of his friend than by the recollection of the sudden manner in which he had been brought to a stop, in the very height of his urbane conference with Mr Fips; so by degrees Tom burst out laughing too; and each making the other laugh more, they fairly roared.
When they had had their laugh out, which did not happen very soon, for give John an inch that way and he was sure to take several ells, being a jovial, good-tempered fellow, they looked about them more closely, groping among the lumber for any stray means of enlightenment that might turn up. But no sc.r.a.p or shred of information could they find. The books were marked with a variety of owner"s names, having, no doubt, been bought at sales, and collected here and there at different times; but whether any one of these names belonged to Tom"s employer, and, if so, which of them, they had no means whatever of determining. It occurred to John as a very bright thought to make inquiry at the steward"s office, to whom the chambers belonged, or by whom they were held; but he came back no wiser than he went, the answer being, "Mr Fips, of Austin Friars."
"After all, Tom, I begin to think it lies no deeper than this. Fips is an eccentric man; has some knowledge of Pecksniff; despises him, of course; has heard or seen enough of you to know that you are the man he wants; and engages you in his own whimsical manner."
"But why in his own whimsical manner?" asked Tom.