This was touching Martin on his weak point, and having him at a great advantage. He could not help thinking, either, what a brisk fellow this Mark was, and how great a change he had wrought in the atmosphere of the dismal little room already.
"Why, certainly, Mark," he said, "I have hopes of doing well there, or I shouldn"t go. I may have the qualifications for doing well, perhaps."
"Of course you have, sir," returned Mark Tapley. "Everybody knows that."
"You see," said Martin, leaning his chin upon his hand, and looking at the fire, "ornamental architecture applied to domestic purposes, can hardly fail to be in great request in that country; for men are constantly changing their residences there, and moving further off; and it"s clear they must have houses to live in."
"I should say, sir," observed Mark, "that that"s a state of things as opens one of the jolliest look-outs for domestic architecture that ever I heerd tell on."
Martin glanced at him hastily, not feeling quite free from a suspicion that this remark implied a doubt of the successful issue of his plans.
But Mr Tapley was eating the boiled beef and bread with such entire good faith and singleness of purpose expressed in his visage that he could not but be satisfied. Another doubt arose in his mind however, as this one disappeared. He produced the blank cover in which the note had been enclosed, and fixing his eyes on Mark as he put it in his hands, said:
"Now tell me the truth. Do you know anything about that?"
Mark turned it over and over; held it near his eyes; held it away from him at arm"s length; held it with the superscription upwards and with the superscription downwards; and shook his head with such a genuine expression of astonishment at being asked the question, that Martin said, as he took it from him again:
"No, I see you don"t. How should you! Though, indeed, your knowing about it would not be more extraordinary than its being here. Come, Tapley,"
he added, after a moment"s thought, "I"ll trust you with my history, such as it is, and then you"ll see more clearly what sort of fortunes you would link yourself to, if you followed me."
"I beg your pardon, sir," said Mark; "but afore you enter upon it will you take me if I choose to go? Will you turn off me--Mark Tapley--formerly of the Blue Dragon, as can be well recommended by Mr Pinch, and as wants a gentleman of your strength of mind to look up to; or will you, in climbing the ladder as you"re certain to get to the top of, take me along with you at a respectful distance? Now, sir,"
said Mark, "it"s of very little importance to you, I know, there"s the difficulty; but it"s of very great importance to me, and will you be so good as to consider of it?"
If this were meant as a second appeal to Martin"s weak side, founded on his observation of the effect of the first, Mr Tapley was a skillful and shrewd observer. Whether an intentional or an accidental shot, it hit the mark fully for Martin, relenting more and more, said with a condescension which was inexpressibly delicious to him, after his recent humiliation:
"We"ll see about it, Tapley. You shall tell me in what disposition you find yourself to-morrow."
"Then, sir," said Mark, rubbing his hands, "the job"s done. Go on, sir, if you please. I"m all attention."
Throwing himself back in his arm-chair, and looking at the fire, with now and then a glance at Mark, who at such times nodded his head sagely, to express his profound interest and attention. Martin ran over the chief points in his history, to the same effect as he had related them, weeks before, to Mr Pinch. But he adapted them, according to the best of his judgment, to Mr Tapley"s comprehension; and with that view made as light of his love affair as he could, and referred to it in very few words. But here he reckoned without his host; for Mark"s interest was keenest in this part of the business, and prompted him to ask sundry questions in relation to it; for which he apologised as one in some measure privileged to do so, from having seen (as Martin explained to him) the young lady at the Blue Dragon.
"And a young lady as any gentleman ought to feel more proud of being in love with," said Mark, energetically, "don"t draw breath."
"Aye! You saw her when she was not happy," said Martin, gazing at the fire again. "If you had seen her in the old times, indeed--"
"Why, she certainly was a little down-hearted, sir, and something paler in her colour than I could have wished," said Mark, "but none the worse in her looks for that. I think she seemed better, sir, after she come to London."
Martin withdrew his eyes from the fire; stared at Mark as if he thought he had suddenly gone mad; and asked him what he meant.
"No offence intended, sir," urged Mark. "I don"t mean to say she was any the happier without you; but I thought she was a-looking better, sir."
"Do you mean to tell me she has been in London?" asked Martin, rising hurriedly, and pushing back his chair.
"Of course I do," said Mark, rising too, in great amazement from the bedstead.
"Do you mean to tell me she is in London now?"
"Most likely, sir. I mean to say she was a week ago."
"And you know where?"
"Yes!" cried Mark. "What! Don"t you?"
"My good fellow!" exclaimed Martin, clutching him by both arms, "I have never seen her since I left my grandfather"s house."
"Why, then!" cried Mark, giving the little table such a blow with his clenched fist that the slices of beef and ham danced upon it, while all his features seemed, with delight, to be going up into his forehead, and never coming back again any more, "if I an"t your nat"ral born servant, hired by Fate, there an"t such a thing in natur" as a Blue Dragon. What!
when I was a-rambling up and down a old churchyard in the City, getting myself into a jolly state, didn"t I see your grandfather a-toddling to and fro for pretty nigh a mortal hour! Didn"t I watch him into Todgers"s commercial boarding-house, and watch him out, and watch him home to his hotel, and go and tell him as his was the service for my money, and I had said so, afore I left the Dragon! Wasn"t the young lady a-sitting with him then, and didn"t she fall a-laughing in a manner as was beautiful to see! Didn"t your grandfather say, "Come back again next week," and didn"t I go next week; and didn"t he say that he couldn"t make up his mind to trust n.o.body no more; and therefore wouldn"t engage me, but at the same time stood something to drink as was handsome! Why,"
cried Mr Tapley, with a comical mixture of delight and chagrin, "where"s the credit of a man"s being jolly under such circ.u.mstances! Who could help it, when things come about like this!"
For some moments Martin stood gazing at him, as if he really doubted the evidence of his senses, and could not believe that Mark stood there, in the body, before him. At length he asked him whether, if the young lady were still in London, he thought he could contrive to deliver a letter to her secretly.
"Do I think I can?" cried Mark. "THINK I can? Here, sit down, sir. Write it out, sir!"
With that he cleared the table by the summary process of tilting everything upon it into the fireplace; s.n.a.t.c.hed some writing materials from the mantel-shelf; set Martin"s chair before them; forced him down into it; dipped a pen into the ink; and put it in his hand.
"Cut away, sir!" cried Mark. "Make it strong, sir. Let it be wery pinted, sir. Do I think so? I should think so. Go to work, sir!"
Martin required no further adjuration, but went to work at a great rate; while Mr Tapley, installing himself without any more formalities into the functions of his valet and general attendant, divested himself of his coat, and went on to clear the fireplace and arrange the room; talking to himself in a low voice the whole time.
"Jolly sort of lodgings," said Mark, rubbing his nose with the k.n.o.b at the end of the fire-shovel, and looking round the poor chamber; "that"s a comfort. The rain"s come through the roof too. That an"t bad. A lively old bedstead, I"ll be bound; popilated by lots of wampires, no doubt.
Come! my spirits is a-getting up again. An uncommon ragged nightcap this. A very good sign. We shall do yet! Here, Jane, my dear," calling down the stairs, "bring up that there hot tumbler for my master as was a-mixing when I come in. That"s right, sir," to Martin. "Go at it as if you meant it, sir. Be very tender, sir, if you please. You can"t make it too strong, sir!"
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
IN WHICH MARTIN BIDS ADIEU TO THE LADY OF HIS LOVE; AND HONOURS AN OBSCURE INDIVIDUAL WHOSE FORTUNE HE INTENDS TO MAKE BY COMMENDING HER TO HIS PROTECTION
The letter being duly signed, sealed, and delivered, was handed to Mark Tapley, for immediate conveyance if possible. And he succeeded so well in his emba.s.sy as to be enabled to return that same night, just as the house was closing, with the welcome intelligence that he had sent it upstairs to the young lady, enclosed in a small ma.n.u.script of his own, purporting to contain his further pet.i.tion to be engaged in Mr Chuzzlewit"s service; and that she had herself come down and told him, in great haste and agitation, that she would meet the gentleman at eight o"clock to-morrow morning in St. James"s Park. It was then agreed between the new master and the new man, that Mark should be in waiting near the hotel in good time, to escort the young lady to the place of appointment; and when they had parted for the night with this understanding, Martin took up his pen again; and before he went to bed wrote another letter, whereof more will be seen presently.
He was up before daybreak, and came upon the Park with the morning, which was clad in the least engaging of the three hundred and sixty-five dresses in the wardrobe of the year. It was raw, damp, dark, and dismal; the clouds were as muddy as the ground; and the short perspective of every street and avenue was closed up by the mist as by a filthy curtain.
"Fine weather indeed," Martin bitterly soliloquised, "to be wandering up and down here in, like a thief! Fine weather indeed, for a meeting of lovers in the open air, and in a public walk! I need be departing, with all speed, for another country; for I have come to a pretty pa.s.s in this!"
He might perhaps have gone on to reflect that of all mornings in the year, it was not the best calculated for a young lady"s coming forth on such an errand, either. But he was stopped on the road to this reflection, if his thoughts tended that way, by her appearance at a short distance, on which he hurried forward to meet her. Her squire, Mr Tapley, at the same time fell discreetly back, and surveyed the fog above him with an appearance of attentive interest.
"My dear Martin," said Mary.
"My dear Mary," said Martin; and lovers are such a singular kind of people that this is all they did say just then, though Martin took her arm, and her hand too, and they paced up and down a short walk that was least exposed to observation, half-a-dozen times.
"If you have changed at all, my love, since we parted," said Martin at length, as he looked upon her with a proud delight, "it is only to be more beautiful than ever!"
Had she been of the common metal of love-worn young ladies, she would have denied this in her most interesting manner; and would have told him that she knew she had become a perfect fright; or that she had wasted away with weeping and anxiety; or that she was dwindling gently into an early grave; or that her mental sufferings were unspeakable; or would, either by tears or words, or a mixture of both, have furnished him with some other information to that effect, and made him as miserable as possible. But she had been reared up in a sterner school than the minds of most young girls are formed in; she had had her nature strengthened by the hands of hard endurance and necessity; had come out from her young trials constant, self-denying, earnest, and devoted; had acquired in her maidenhood--whether happily in the end, for herself or him, is foreign to our present purpose to inquire--something of that n.o.bler quality of gentle hearts which is developed often by the sorrows and struggles of matronly years, but often by their lessons only. Unspoiled, unpampered in her joys or griefs; with frank and full, and deep affection for the object of her early love; she saw in him one who for her sake was an outcast from his home and fortune, and she had no more idea of bestowing that love upon him in other than cheerful and sustaining words, full of high hope and grateful trustfulness, than she had of being unworthy of it, in her lightest thought or deed, for any base temptation that the world could offer.
"What change is there in YOU, Martin," she replied; "for that concerns me nearest? You look more anxious and more thoughtful than you used."
"Why, as to that, my love," said Martin as he drew her waist within his arm, first looking round to see that there were no observers near, and beholding Mr Tapley more intent than ever on the fog; "it would be strange if I did not; for my life--especially of late--has been a hard one."
"I know it must have been," she answered. "When have I forgotten to think of it and you?"