"Disgusting machines!" rejoined Evenson, who extended his dislike to almost every created object, masculine, feminine, or neuter.
"Disgusting, Mr. Evenson!" said Gobler, in a tone of strong indignation.-"Disgusting! Look at their utility-consider how many lives they have saved by promoting perspiration."
"Promoting perspiration, indeed," growled John Evenson, stopping short in his walk across the large squares in the pattern of the carpet-"I was a.s.s enough to be persuaded some time ago to have one in my bedroom. "Gad, I was in it once, and it effectually cured _me_, for the mere sight of it threw me into a profuse perspiration for six months afterwards."
A t.i.tter followed this announcement, and before it had subsided James brought up "the tray," containing the remains of a leg of lamb which had made its _debut_ at dinner; bread; cheese; an atom of b.u.t.ter in a forest of parsley; one pickled walnut and the third of another; and so forth.
The boy disappeared, and returned again with another tray, containing gla.s.ses and jugs of hot and cold water. The gentlemen brought in their spirit-bottles; the housemaid placed divers plated bedroom candlesticks under the card-table; and the servants retired for the night.
Chairs were drawn round the table, and the conversation proceeded in the customary manner. John Evenson, who never ate supper, lolled on the sofa, and amused himself by contradicting everybody. O"Bleary ate as much as he could conveniently carry, and Mrs. Tibbs felt a due degree of indignation thereat; Mr. Gobler and Mrs. Bloss conversed most affectionately on the subject of pill-taking, and other innocent amus.e.m.e.nts; and Tomkins and Wisbottle "got into an argument;" that is to say, they both talked very loudly and vehemently, each flattering himself that he had got some advantage about something, and neither of them having more than a very indistinct idea of what they were talking about.
An hour or two pa.s.sed away; and the boarders and the plated candlesticks retired in pairs to their respective bedrooms. John Evenson pulled off his boots, locked his door, and determined to sit up until Mr. Gobler had retired. He always sat in the drawing-room an hour after everybody else had left it, taking medicine, and groaning.
Great Coram-street was hushed into a state of profound repose: it was nearly two o"clock. A hackney-coach now and then rumbled slowly by; and occasionally some stray lawyer"s clerk, on his way home to Somers-town, struck his iron heel on the top of the coal-cellar with a noise resembling the click of a smoke-Jack. A low, monotonous, gushing sound was heard, which added considerably to the romantic dreariness of the scene. It was the water "coming in" at number eleven.
"He must be asleep by this time," said John Evenson to himself, after waiting with exemplary patience for nearly an hour after Mr. Gobler had left the drawing-room. He listened for a few moments; the house was perfectly quiet; he extinguished his rushlight, and opened his bedroom door. The staircase was so dark that it was impossible to see anything.
"S-s-s!" whispered the mischief-maker, making a noise like the first indication a catherine-wheel gives of the probability of its going off.
"Hush!" whispered somebody else.
"Is that you, Mrs. Tibbs?"
"Yes, sir."
"Where?"
"Here;" and the misty outline of Mrs. Tibbs appeared at the staircase window, like the ghost of Queen Anne in the tent scene in Richard.
"This way, Mrs. Tibbs," whispered the delighted busybody: "give me your hand-there! Whoever these people are, they are in the store-room now, for I have been looking down from my window, and I could see that they accidentally upset their candlestick, and are now in darkness. You have no shoes on, have you?"
"No," said little Mrs. Tibbs, who could hardly speak for trembling.
"Well; I have taken my boots off, so we can go down, close to the store-room door, and listen over the banisters;" and down-stairs they both crept accordingly, every board creaking like a patent mangle on a Sat.u.r.day afternoon.
"It"s Wisbottle and somebody, I"ll swear," exclaimed the radical in an energetic whisper, when they had listened for a few moments.
"Hush-pray let"s hear what they say!" exclaimed Mrs. Tibbs, the gratification of whose curiosity was now paramount to every other consideration.
"Ah! if I could but believe you," said a female voice coquettishly, "I"d be bound to settle my missis for life."
"What does she say?" inquired Mr. Evenson, who was not quite so well situated as his companion.
"She says she"ll settle her missis"s life," replied Mrs. Tibbs. "The wretch! they"re plotting murder."
"I know you want money," continued the voice, which belonged to Agnes; "and if you"d secure me the five hundred pound, I warrant she should take fire soon enough."
"What"s that?" inquired Evenson again. He could just hear enough to want to hear more.
"I think she says she"ll set the house on fire," replied the affrighted Mrs. Tibbs. "But thank G.o.d I"m insured in the Phoenix!"
"The moment I have secured your mistress, my dear," said a man"s voice in a strong Irish brogue, "you may depend on having the money."
"Bless my soul, it"s Mr. O"Bleary!" exclaimed Mrs. Tibbs, in a parenthesis.
"The villain!" said the indignant Mr. Evenson.
"The first thing to be done," continued the Hibernian, "is to poison Mr.
Gobler"s mind."
"Oh, certainly," returned Agnes.
"What"s that?" inquired Evenson again, in an agony of curiosity and a whisper.
"He says she"s to mind and poison Mr. Gobler," replied Mrs. Tibbs, aghast at this sacrifice of human life.
"And in regard of Mrs. Tibbs," continued O"Bleary.-Mrs. Tibbs shuddered.
"Hush!" exclaimed Agnes, in a tone of the greatest alarm, just as Mrs.
Tibbs was on the extreme verge of a fainting fit. "Hush!"
"Hush!" exclaimed Evenson, at the same moment to Mrs. Tibbs.
"There"s somebody coming _up_-stairs," said Agnes to O"Bleary.
"There"s somebody coming _down_-stairs," whispered Evenson to Mrs. Tibbs.
"Go into the parlour, sir," said Agnes to her companion. "You will get there, before whoever it is, gets to the top of the kitchen stairs."
"The drawing-room, Mrs. Tibbs!" whispered the astonished Evenson to his equally astonished companion; and for the drawing-room they both made, plainly hearing the rustling of two persons, one coming down-stairs, and one coming up.
"What can it be?" exclaimed Mrs. Tibbs. "It"s like a dream. I wouldn"t be found in this situation for the world!"
"Nor I," returned Evenson, who could never bear a joke at his own expense. "Hush! here they are at the door."
"What fun!" whispered one of the new-comers.-It was Wisbottle.
"Glorious!" replied his companion, in an equally low tone.-This was Alfred Tomkins. "Who would have thought it?"
"I told you so," said Wisbottle, in a most knowing whisper. "Lord bless you, he has paid her most extraordinary attention for the last two months. I saw "em when I was sitting at the piano to-night."
"Well, do you know I didn"t notice it?" interrupted Tomkins.
"Not notice it!" continued Wisbottle. "Bless you; I saw him whispering to her, and she crying; and then I"ll swear I heard him say something about to-night when we were all in bed."
"They"re talking of _us_!" exclaimed the agonised Mrs. Tibbs, as the painful suspicion, and a sense of their situation, flashed upon her mind.
"I know it-I know it," replied Evenson, with a melancholy consciousness that there was no mode of escape.
"What"s to be done? we cannot both stop here!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Tibbs, in a state of partial derangement.