"Your father"s stipeend is leeberal, young man, and I trust ye"ve deescovered nothing wrong in my accounts."
Mr. James fled: had the familiar address been overheard by the old gentleman, Jamie"s discharge had followed instantly.
McMurtagh mopped his reddened face, and tried to enjoy his victory; but the ill-natured thrust about the accuracy of the accounts embittered many a sleepless night of his in after-years.
X.
Jamie McMurtagh still continued his rather sidelong gait as he walked twice daily up State Street to the Old Colony Bank, bearing in a rusty leathern wallet anything, from nothing to a hundred thousand dollars, the daily notes and discounts of James Bowdoin"s Sons. James Bowdoin and his father used to watch him occasionally from the window. There were certain pensioners, mostly undeserving, who knew old Mr.
Bowdoin"s hours better than he did himself. It was funny to see old McMurtagh elbow these aside as he sidelonged up the street. There was an old drunken longsh.o.r.eman; and a wood-chopper who never chopped wood; and a retired ch.o.r.eman discharged for cause by Mr. Bowdoin"s wife; and another shady party, suspected by Mr. James, not without cause, of keeping in his more prosperous moments a modest farobank,--all of whom were sure enough of their shilling could they catch old Mr. Bowdoin in the office alone. If they waylaid him in the street, it annoyed him a little, and he would give them only ninepence. It was currently believed by Mr. James and Jamie that there was a combination among these gentry not to give away the source whence they derived this modest but a.s.sured income. Once there had been Homeric strife and outcry on the dusty wooden stairs; and Mr.
James had rushed out only in time to see the longsh.o.r.eman, in a moment of sober strength, ejecting with some violence a newcomer of appearance more needy than himself. It was suggested to Jamie by this that a similar but mutual exclusion might be effected, at least against the weaker couple of the primal four; but there was an honorable sense of property among these beggars, and they refused to fail in respect for each other"s vested rights. But Jamie was most impatient of them, and would sometimes attempt to hold the counting-room by fraudulent devices, even after the old gentleman would get down town. It was after an attempt of this sort, ending in something like a row between Jamie and his master, that the two Bowdoins, father and son, stood now watching the clerk"s progress up the street. A touch of sulkiness, left by his late down-putting, affected his gait, which was more crablike than usual.
"An invaluable fellow, after all," said Mr. Bowdoin; "a very Caleb."
"How d.i.c.kensy he is!" answered Mr. James, more familiar with the recent light literature just appearing.
"A perfect bookkeeper! Not an error in twenty years!"
"Do you notice he"s rather looking younger?"
""Tis that little child he"s adopted," said the old gentleman. "The poor fellow"s got something to love. All men need that--and even a few women," he chuckled. Mr. Bowdoin was addicted to portentous cynicism against the s.e.x, which he wholly disbelieved in.
"The little child--yes," said Mr. James, more thoughtfully. "Do you know what he wants?"
"He wants?"
"She wants, I mean. Old Jamie came halting up to me yesterday, and ventured to suggest his Mercy might be invited to the dancing-cla.s.s Mrs. Bowdoin is having for the children."
"Whew!" said Mr. Bowdoin. "The old lady"ll never stand it."
"Never in the world," said Mr. James.
"Upon my word, I don"t know why not, though!"
"I"m afraid she does, though!"
"I"ll ask her, anyhow. And, James, if I don"t get to the office to-morrow, I"ll write you her answer."
"And have me tell poor Jamie," laughed Mr. James.
"Well," said Mr. Bowdoin hastily, "you can say it"s my letter--I"m late at the bank"--
The old gentleman hurried off; but his prediction proved well founded.
Whether Mrs. Bowdoin had noticed the effect of pretty Mercedes upon young Harley, her grandson, or whether the claims of the pirate"s daughter to social equality with the descendants of Salem privateersmen were to be negatived, she promptly replied that questions of social consideration rested with her alone. Mr. Bowdoin accepted the decision with no surprise; what pretty Miss Mercy said is unknown; but Jamie actually treated his employers for some weeks with an exaggerated deference in which there was almost a touch of sarcasm.
"Poor old Jamie!" said Mr. James to his father. "How he adores the child!"
McMurtagh was not five years older than himself,--he may have been forty at this period; but his little rosy face was prematurely wrinkled, and his gait was always so odd, and he had no young friends about town, nor seemed ever to have had any youth.
Meantime Miss Mercy went on with her piano. She was graduated from the high school the next year, and then had nothing else to do. The same year, Master Harley went to college. And there occurred a thing which gave rise to much secret consultation among the Bowdoins.
For every morning, upon the appearance of Mr. James, or more usually upon the later advent of Mr. Bowdoin, old Jamie would get off his high stool, where for many minutes he had made no entries upon the books (indeed, the entries already were growing fewer every year), and come with visible determination into the main office. There, upon being asked by Mr. Bowdoin what he wanted, he would portentously clear his throat; then, on being asked a second time, he would suddenly fall to poking the fire, and finally respond with some business question, an obvious and laborious invention of the moment.
"It"s either Mercy or his accounts," said Mr. James to his father.
"His accounts--are sure to be all right," said the old gentleman. "Try him on the little lady."
So the next day, to Jamie, Mr. James, just as his mouth was open about the last shipment from Bordeaux:--
"Well, what is it, Jamie? Something about Miss Mercedes?"
"It"s na aboot the la.s.sie, but I"m thinkin" young Master Harleston is aye coming to tha hoose abune his needs," said Jamie, taken off his guard, in broadest Scotch. And he mopped his face; the conflict between love and loyalty had been exhausting.
"Harley Bowdoin? Dear me!" cried Mr. James. "How far has it gone?"
"It canna go too far for the gude o" the young man," said Jamie testily. "But I was bound to tell ye, and I ha" done so."
"Does he go to your house,--Salem Street?"
Jamie nodded. "He"s aye there tha Fridays."
"Dancing-cla.s.s nights," muttered Mr. James. Then he remembered that Abby, his wife, had spoken of their nephew"s absence. He was studying so hard, it had been said. "Thank you, Jamie. I"ll see to it. Thank you very much, Jamie."
Jamie turned to go.
"Has Miss Mercy--has Miss McMurtagh encouraged him?"
Jamie turned back angrily. "She"ll forbid the lad tha hoose, an ye say so."
Mr. James seized his hat and fled precipitately, leaving Jamie glowering at the grate. On his way up the street he met his father, and took him into the old Ship tavern to have a gla.s.s of flip; and then he told the story.
Mr. Bowdoin took his hat off to rub his forehead with his old bandanna, thereby setting fluttering a pair of twenty-thousand-dollar notes he had just discounted. "Dear me! I"ll tell Harley not to go there any more. Poor old Jamie!"
"Better ship the rascal to Bordeaux," said Mr. James, picking up the notes.
"And have him lose his course in college?"
"What good did that do us? We were rusticated most of the time, as he has just been"--
"Speak for yourself, young man!" cried Mr. Bowdoin.
"Haven"t I a copy of the verses you addressed to Miss Sally White when you were rusticated under Parson White at Clapboardtrees?"
An allusion to Miss White always tickled the old gentleman; and father and son parted in high good humor. Only, Mr. James thought wise to inform Mrs. Harleston Bowdoin of what had happened. And some days after, Mr. James, coming to the office, found fair Miss Mercedes in full possession. The old gentleman was visibly embarra.s.sed. The lady was quite at her ease.