When PUNCH is king, I declare there shall be no such thing as old maids and old bachelors. The Reverend Mr. Malthus shall be burned annually, instead of Guy Fawkes. Those who don"t marry shall go into the workhouse. It shall be a sin for the poorest not to have a pretty girl to love him.
The above reflections came to mind after taking a walk with an old comrade, Jack Spiggot by name, who is just pa.s.sing into the state of old-bachelorhood, after the manly and blooming youth in which I remember him. Jack was one of the handsomest fellows in England when we entered together in the Highland Buffs; but I quitted the Cuttykilts early, and lost sight of him for many years.
Ah! how changed he is from those days! He wears a waistband now, and has begun to dye his whiskers. His cheeks, which were red, are now mottled; his eyes, once so bright and steadfast, are the colour of peeled plovers" eggs.
"Are you married, Jack?" says I, remembering how consumedly in love he was with his cousin Letty Lovelace, when the Cuttykilts were quartered at Strathbungo some twenty years ago.
"Married? no," says he. "Not money enough. Hard enough to keep myself, much more a family, on five hundred a year. Come to d.i.c.kinson"s; there"s some of the best Madeira in London there, my boy." So we went and talked over old times. The bill for dinner and wine consumed was prodigious, and the quant.i.ty of brandy-and-water that Jack took showed what a regular boozer he was. "A guinea or two guineas. What the devil do I care what I spend for my dinner?" says he.
"And Letty Lovelace?" says I.
Jack"s countenance fell. However, he burst into a loud laugh presently.
"Letty Lovelace!" says he. "She"s Letty Lovelace still; but Gad, such a wizened old woman! She"s as thin as a thread-paper; (you remember what a figure she had:) her nose has got red, and her teeth blue. She"s always ill; always quarrelling with the rest of the family; always psalm-singing, and always taking pills. Gad, I had a rare escape THERE.
Push round the grog, old boy."
Straightway memory went back to the days when Letty was the loveliest of blooming young creatures: when to hear her sing was to make the heart jump into your throat; when to see her dance, was better than Montessu or n.o.blet (they were the Ballet Queens of those days); when Jack used to wear a locket of her hair, with a little gold chain round his neck, and, exhilarated with toddy, after a sederunt of the Cuttykilt mess, used to pull out this token, and kiss it, and howl about it, to the great amus.e.m.e.nt of the bottle-nosed old Major and the rest of the table.
"My father and hers couldn"t put their horses together," Jack said. "The General wouldn"t come down with more than six thousand. My governor said it shouldn"t be done under eight. Lovelace told him to go and be hanged, and so we parted company. They said she was in a decline. Gammon! She"s forty, and as tough and as sour as this bit of lemon-peel. Don"t put much into your punch, Sn.o.b my boy. No man CAN stand punch after wine."
"And what are your pursuits, Jack?" says I.
"Sold out when the governor died. Mother lives at Bath. Go down there once a year for a week. Dreadful slow. Shilling whist. Four sisters--all unmarried except the youngest--awful work. Scotland in August. Italy in the winter. Cursed rheumatism. Come to London in March, and toddle about at the Club, old boy; and we won"t go home till maw-aw-rning till daylight does appear.
"And here"s the wreck of two lives!" mused the present Sn.o.bographer, after taking leave of Jack Spiggot. "Pretty merry Letty Lovelace"s rudder lost and she cast away, and handsome Jack Spiggot stranded on the sh.o.r.e like a drunken Trinculo."
What was it that insulted Nature (to use no higher name), and perverted her kindly intentions towards them? What cursed frost was it that nipped the love that both were bearing, and condemned the girl to sour sterility, and the lad to selfish old-bachelorhood? It was the infernal Sn.o.b tyrant who governs us all, who says, "Thou shalt not love without a lady"s maid; thou shalt not marry without a carriage and horses; thou shalt have no wife in thy heart, and no children on thy knee, without a page in b.u.t.tons and a French BONNE; thou shalt go to the devil unless thou hast a brougham; marry poor, and society shall forsake thee; thy kinsmen shall avoid thee as a criminal; thy aunts and uncles shall turn up their eyes and bemoan the sad, sad manner in which Tom or Harry has thrown himself away." You, young woman, may sell yourself without shame, and marry old Croesus; you, young man, may lie away your heart and your life for a jointure. But if "you are poor, woe be to you! Society, the brutal Sn.o.b autocrat, consigns you to solitary perdition. Wither, poor girl, in your garret; rot, poor bachelor, in your Club.
When I see those graceless recluses--those unnatural monks and nuns of the order of St. Beelzebub, (1) my hatred for Sn.o.bs, and their worship, and their idols, pa.s.ses all continence. Let us hew down that man-eating Juggernaut, I say, that hideous Dagon; and I glow with the heroic courage of Tom Thumb, and join battle with the giant Sn.o.b.
(1) This, of course, is understood to apply only to those unmarried persons whom a mean and Sn.o.bbish fear about money has kept from fulfilling their natural destiny. Many persons there are devoted to celibacy because they cannot help it. Of these a man would be a brute who spoke roughly. Indeed, after Miss O"Toole"s conduct to the writer, he would be the last to condemn. But never mind, these are personal matters.
CHAPTER x.x.xIV--Sn.o.bS AND MARRIAGE
In that n.o.ble romance called "Ten Thousand a Year," I remember a profoundly pathetic description of the Christian manner in which the hero, Mr. Aubrey, bore his misfortunes. After making a display of the most florid and grandiloquent resignation, and quitting his country mansion, the writer supposes Aubrey to come to town in a post-chaise and pair, sitting bodkin probably between his wife and sister. It is about seven o"clock, carriages are rattling about, knockers are thundering, and tears bedim the fine eyes of Kate and Mrs. Aubrey as they think that in happier times at this hour--their Aubrey used formerly to go out to dinner to the houses of the aristocracy his friends. This is the gist of the pa.s.sage--the elegant words I forget. But the n.o.ble, n.o.ble sentiment I shall always cherish and remember. What can be more sublime than the notion of a great man"s relatives in tears about--his dinner? With a few touches, what author ever more happily described A Sn.o.b?
We were reading the pa.s.sage lately at the house of my friend, Raymond Gray, Esquire, Barrister-at-Law, an ingenuous youth without the least practice, but who has luckily a great share of good spirits, which enables him to bide his time, and bear laughingly his humble position in the world. Meanwhile, until it is altered, the stern laws of necessity and the expenses of the Northern Circuit oblige Mr. Gray to live in a very tiny mansion in a very queer small square in the airy neighbourhood of Gray"s Inn Lane.
What is the more remarkable is, that Gray has a wife there. Mrs.
Gray was a Miss Harley Baker: and I suppose I need not say THAT is a respectable family. Allied to the Cavendishes, the Oxfords, the Marrybones, they still, though rather DECHUS from their original splendour, hold their heads as high as any. Mrs. Harley Baker, I know, never goes to church without John behind to carry her prayer-book; nor will Miss Welbeck, her sister, walk twenty yards a-shopping without the protection of Figby, her sugar-loaf page; though the old lady is as ugly as any woman in the parish and as tall and whiskery as a grenadier.
The astonishment is, how Emily Harley Baker could have stooped to marry Raymond Gray. She, who was the prettiest and proudest of the family; she, who refused Sir c.o.c.kle Byles, of the Bengal Service; she, who turned up her little nose at Ess.e.x Temple, Q.C., and connected with the n.o.ble house of Albyn; she, who had but 4,000L. POUR TOUT POTAGE, to marry a man who had scarcely as much more. A scream of wrath and indignation was uttered by the whole family when they heard of this MESALLIANCE. Mrs. Harley Baker never speaks of her daughter now but with tears in her eyes, and as a ruined creature. Miss Welbeck says, "I consider that man a villain;" and has denounced poor good-natured Mrs.
Perkins as a swindler, at whose ball the young people met for the first time.
Mr. and Mrs. Gray, meanwhile, live in Gray"s Inn Lane aforesaid, with a maid-servant and a nurse, whose hands are very full, and in a most provoking and unnatural state of happiness. They have never once thought of crying about their dinner, like the wretchedly puling and Sn.o.bbish womankind of my favourite Sn.o.b Aubrey, of "Ten Thousand a Year;" but, on the contrary, accept such humble victuals as fate awards them with a most perfect and thankful good grace--nay, actually have a portion for a hungry friend at times--as the present writer can gratefully testify.
I was mentioning these dinners, and some admirable lemon puddings which Mrs. Gray makes, to our mutual friend the great Mr. Goldmore, the East India Director, when that gentleman"s face a.s.sumed an expression of almost apoplectic terror, and he gasped out, "What! Do they give dinners?" He seemed to think it a crime and a wonder that such people should dine at all, and that it was their custom to huddle round their kitchen-fire over a bone and a crust. Whenever he meets them in society, it is a matter of wonder to him (and he always expresses his surprise very loud) how the lady can appear decently dressed, and the man have an unpatched coat to his back. I have heard him enlarge upon this poverty before the whole room at the "Conflagrative Club," to which he and I and Gray have the honour to belong.
We meet at the Club on most days. At half-past four, Goldmore arrives in St. James"s Street, from the City, and you may see him reading the evening papers in the bow-window of the Club, which enfilades Pall Mall--a large plethoric man, with a bunch of seals in a large bow-windowed light waistcoat. He has large coat-tails, stuffed with agents" letters and papers about companies of which he is a Director.
His seals jingle as he walks. I wish I had such a man for an uncle, and that he himself were childless. I would love and cherish him, and be kind to him.
At six o"clock in the full season, when all the world is in St. James"s Street, and the carriages are cutting in and out among the cabs on the stand, and the tufted dandies are showing their listless faces out of "White"s," and you see respectable grey-headed gentlemen waggling their heads to each other through the plate-gla.s.s windows of "Arthur"s:" and the red-coats wish to be Briareian, so as to hold all the gentlemen"s horses; and that wonderful red-coated royal porter is sunning himself before Marlborough House;--at the noon of London time, you see a light-yellow carriage with black horses, and a coachman in a tight floss-silk wig, and two footmen in powder and white and yellow liveries, and a large woman inside in shot-silk, a poodle, and a pink parasol, which drives up to the gate of the Conflagrative, and the page goes and says to Mr. Goldmore (who is perfectly aware of the fact, as he is looking out of the windows with about forty other "Conflagrative"
bucks), "Your carriage, Sir." G. wags his head. "Remember, eight o"clock precisely," says he to Mulligatawney, the other East India Director; and, ascending the carriage, plumps down by the side of Mrs. Goldmore for a drive in the Park, and then home to Portland Place. As the carriage whirls off, all the young bucks in the Club feel a secret elation. It is a part of their establishment, as it were. That carriage belongs to their Club, and their Club belongs to them. They follow the equipage with interest; they eye it knowingly as they see it in the Park. But halt! we are not come to the Club Sn.o.bs yet. O my brave Sn.o.bs, what a flurry there will be among you when those papers appear!
Well, you may judge, from the above description, what sort of a man Goldmore is. A dull and pompous Leadenhall Street Croesus, good-natured withal, and affable--cruelly affable. "Mr. Goldmore can never forget,"
his lady used to say, "that it was Mrs. Gray"s Grandfather who sent him to India; and though that young woman has made the most imprudent marriage in the world, and has left her station in society, her husband seems an ingenious and laborious young man, and we shall do everything in our power to be of use to him." So they used to ask the Grays to dinner twice or thrice in a season, when, by way of increasing the kindness, Buff, the butler, is ordered to hire a fly to convey them to and from Portland Place.
Of course I am much too good-natured a friend of both parties not to tell Gray of Goldmore"s opinion in him, and the nabob"s astonishment at the of the briefless barrister having any dinner at all. Indeed, Goldmore"s saying became a joke against Gray amongst us wags at the Club, and we used to ask him when he tasted meat last? whether we should bring him home something from dinner? and cut a thousand other mad pranks with him in our facetious way.
One day, then, coming home from the Club, Mr. Gray conveyed to his wife the astounding information that he had asked Goldmore to dinner.
"My love," says Mrs. Gray, in a tremor, "how could you be so cruel? Why, the dining-room won"t hold Mrs. Goldmore."
"Make your mind easy, Mrs. Gray; her ladyship is in Paris. It is only Croesus that"s coming, and we are going to the play afterwards--to Sadler"s Wells. Goldmore said at the Club that he thought Shakspeare was a great dramatic poet, and ought to be patronized; whereupon, fired with enthusiasm, I invited him to our banquet."
"Goodness gracious! what CAN we give him for dinner? He has two French cooks; you know Mrs. Goldmore is always telling us about them; and he dines with Aldermen every day."
""A plain leg of mutton, my Lucy, I prythee get ready at three; Have it tender, and smoking, and juicy, And what better meat can there be?""
says Gray, quoting my favourite poet.
"But the cook is ill; and you know that horrible Pattypan the pastrycook"s---"
"Silence, Frau!" says Gray, in a deep tragedy voice. "I will have the ordering of this repast. Do all things as I bid thee. Invite our friend Sn.o.b here to partake of the feast. Be mine the task of procuring it."
"Don"t be expensive, Raymond," says his wife.
"Peace, thou timid partner of the briefless one. Goldmore"s dinner shall be suited to our narrow means. Only do thou in all things my commands."
And seeing by the peculiar expression of the rogue"s countenance, that some mad waggery was in preparation, I awaited the morrow with anxiety.
CHAPTER x.x.xV--Sn.o.bS AND MARRIAGE
Punctual to the hour--(by the way, I cannot omit to mark down my hatred, scorn, and indignation towards those miserable Sn.o.bs who come to dinner at nine when they are asked at eight, in order to make a sensation in the company. May the loathing of honest folks, the backbiting of others, the curses of cooks, pursue these wretches, and avenge the society on which they trample!)--Punctual, I say, to the hour of five, which Mr.
and Mrs. Raymond Gray had appointed, a youth of an elegant appearance, in a neat evening-dress, whose trim whiskers indicated neatness, whose light step denoted activity (for in sooth he was hungry, and always is at the dinner hour, whatsoever that hour may be), and whose rich golden hair, curling down his shoulders, was set off by a perfectly new four-and-ninepenny silk hat, was seen wending his way down Bittlestone Street, Bittlestone Square, Gray"s Inn. The person in question, I need not say, was Mr. Sn.o.b. HE was never late when invited to dine. But to proceed my narrative:--
Mr. Sn.o.b may have flattered himself that he made a sensation as he strutted down Bittlestone with his richly gilt k.n.o.bbed cane (and indeed I vow I saw heads looking at me from Miss Squilsby"s, the bra.s.s-plated milliner opposite Raymond Gray"s, who has three silver-paper bonnets, and two fly-blown prints of fashion in the window), yet what was the emotion produced by my arrival, compared to that which the little street thrilled, when at five minutes past five the floss-wigged coachman, the yellow hammer-cloth and flunkeys, the black horses and blazing silver harness of Mr. Goldmore whirled down the street!
It is a very little street, of very little houses, most of them with very large bra.s.s plates like Miss Squilsby"s. Coal-merchants, architects and surveyors, two surgeons, a solicitor, a dancing-master, and of course several house-agents, occupy the houses--little two-storeyed edifices with little stucco porticoes. Goldmore"s carriage overtopped the roofs almost; the first floors might shake hands with Croesus as he lolled inside; all the windows of those first floors thronged with children and women in a twinkling. There was Mrs. Hammerly in curl-papers; Mrs. Saxby with her front awry; Mr. Wriggles peering through the gauze curtains, holding the while his hot gla.s.s of rum-and-water--in fine, a tremendous commotion in Bittlestone Street, as the Goldmore carriage drove up to Mr. Raymond Gray"s door.
"How kind it is of him to come with BOTH the footmen!" says little Mrs.
Gray, peeping at the vehicle too. The huge domestic, descending from his perch, gave a rap at the door which almost drove in the building. All the heads were out; the sun was shining; the very organ-boy paused; the footman, the coach, and Goldmore"s red face and white waistcoat were blazing in splendour. The herculean plushed one went back to open the carriage-door.
Raymond Gray opened his--in his shirt-sleeves. He ran up to the carriage. "Come in, Goldmore," says he; "just in time, my boy. Open the door, What-d"ye-call"um, and let your master out,"--and What-d"ye-call"um obeyed mechanically, with a face of wonder and horror, only to be equalled by the look of stupefied astonishment which ornamented the purple countenance of his master.
"Wawt taim will you please have the CAGE, sir?" says What-d"ye-call"um, in that peculiar, unspellable, inimitable, flunkefied p.r.o.nunciation which forms one of the chief charms of existence.
Best have it to the theatre at night," Gray exclaims; "it is but a step from here to the Wells, and we can walk there. I"ve got tickets for all.