So Leander went to his troubled pillow, full of this new resolution, which seemed to promise a way of escape.
BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA
VIII.
"Some, when they take _Revenge_, are Desirous the party should know whence it cometh: This is the more Generous."--BACON.
In the Tottenham Court Road was a certain Commercial Dining-room, where Leander occasionally took his evening meal, after the conclusion of his day"s work, and where Mr. Freemoult was accustomed to take his supper, on leaving the British Museum Library.
To this eating-house Leander repaired the very next evening, urged by a consuming desire to learn the full particulars of the adventure which his prototype in misfortune had met with.
It was an unpretending little place, with the bill of fare wafered to the door, and red curtains in the windows, setting off a display of joints, cauliflowers, and red herrings. He pa.s.sed through into a long, low room, with dark-brown grained walls, part.i.tioned off in the usual manner; and taking a seat in a box facing the door, he ordered dinner from one of the shirtsleeved attendants.
The first glance had told him that the man he wished to see was not there, but he knew he must come in before long; and, in fact, before Leander"s food could be brought, the old scholar made his appearance.
He was hardly a man of attractive exterior, being of a yellow complexion, with a stubbly chin, and lank iron-grey locks. He wore a tall and superannuated hat with a staring nap, and the pockets of his baggy coat bulged with doc.u.ments. Altogether he did not seem exactly the person to be an authority on the subject of Venus.
But, as the hairdresser was aware, he had the reputation of being a mine of curious and out-of-the-way information, though few thought it worth their while to work him. He gained a living, however, by hackwork of various descriptions, and was in slightly better circ.u.mstances than he allowed to appear.
As he pa.s.sed slowly along the central pa.s.sage, in his usual state of abstraction, Leander touched him eagerly on the sleeve. "Come in "ere, Mr. Freemoult, sir," he said; "there"s room in this box."
"It"s the barber, is it?" said the old man. "What do you want me to eat with you for, eh?"
"Why, for the pleasure of your company, sir, of course," said Leander, politely.
"Well," said the old gentleman, sitting down, while doc.u.ments bristled out of him in all directions, "there are not many who would say that--not many now."
"Don"t you say so, Mr. Freemoult, sir. I"m sure it"s a benefit, if only for your conversation. I often say, "I never meet Mr. Freemoult without I learn somethink;" I do indeed."
"Then we must have met less often than I had imagined."
"Now, you"re too modest, sir; you reelly are--a scholar like you, too!
Talking of scholarship, you"ll be gratified to hear that that t.i.tle you were good enough to suggest for the "Regenerator" is having a quite surprising success. I disposed of five bottles over the counter only yesterday." ("These old scholars," was his wily reflection, "like being flattered up.")
"Does that mean you"ve another beastly bottle you want me to stand G.o.dfather to?" growled the ungrateful old gentleman.
"Oh no, indeed, sir! It"s only----But p"r"aps you"ll allow me previously the honour of sending out for whatever beverage you was thinking of washing down your boiled beef with, sir."
"Do you know who I am?" Mr. Freemoult burst out. "I"m a scholar, and gentleman enough still to drink at my own expense!"
"I intended no offence, I"m sure, sir; it was only meant in a friendly way."
"That is the offence, sir; that _is_ the offence! But, there, we"ll say no more about it; you can"t help your profession, and I can"t help my prejudices. What was it you wanted to ask me?"
"Well," said Leander, "I was desirous of getting some information respecting--ahem--a party by the name of (if I"ve caught the foreign p.r.o.nounciation) Haphrodite, otherwise known as Venus. Do you happen to have heard tell of her?"
"Have I had a cla.s.sical education, sir, or haven"t I? Heard of her? Of course I have. But why, in the name of Mythology, any hairdresser living should trouble his head about Aphrodite, pa.s.ses my comprehension. Leave her alone, sir!"
"It"s her who won"t leave _me_ alone!" thought Leander; but he did not say so. "I"ve a very particular reason for wishing to know; and I"m sure if you could tell me all you"d heard about her, I"d take it very kind of you."
"Want to pick my brains; well, you wouldn"t be the first. But I am here, sir, to rest my brain and refresh my body, not to deliver peripatetic lectures to hairdressers on Grecian mythology."
"Well," said Leander, "I never meant you to give your information peripatetic; I"m willing to go as far as half a crown."
"Conf----But, there, what"s the good of being angry with you? Is this the sort of thing you want for your half-crown?--Aphrodite, a later form of the a.s.syrian Astarte; the daughter, according to some theogonies, of Zeus and Dione; others have it that she was the offspring of the foam of the sea, which gathered round the fragments of the mutilated Uranos----"
"That don"t seem so likely, do it, sir?" said Leander.
"If you are going to crop in with idiotic remarks, I shall confine myself to my supper."
"Don"t stop, Mr. Freemoult, sir; it"s most instructive. I"m attending."
But the old gentleman, after a manner he had, was sunk in a dreamy abstraction for the moment, in which he apparently lost the thread, as he resumed, "Whereupon Zeus, to punish her, gave her in wedlock to his deformed son, Hephaestus."
"She never mentioned him to _me_," thought Leander; "but I suppose she"s a widow G.o.ddess by this time; I"m sure I _hope_ so."
"Whom," Mr. Freemoult was saying, "she deceived upon several occasions, notably in the case of ----" And here he launched into a scandalous chronicle, which determined Leander more than ever that Matilda must never know he had entertained a personage with such a past.
"Angered by her indiscretions, Zeus inspired her with love for a mortal man."
"Poor devil!" said Leander, involuntarily. "And what became of _him_, sir?"
"There were several thus distinguished; amongst others, Anchises, Adonis, and Cinyras. Of these, the first was struck by lightning; the second slain by a wild boar; and the third is reputed to have perished in a contest with Apollo."
"They don"t seem to have had no luck, any of them," was Leander"s depressed conclusion.
"Aphrodite, or Venus, as you choose to call her, took a prominent part in the Trojan war, the origin of which ten years" struggle may be traced to a certain golden apple."
"What an old rag-bag it is!" thought Leander. "I"m only wasting money on him. He"s like a bran-pie at a fancy fair: what you get out of him is always the thing you didn"t want."
"No, no, Mr. Freemoult," he said, with some impatience; "leave out about the war and the apple. It--it isn"t either of them as I wanted to hear about."
"Then I have done," said the old man, curtly. "You"ve had considerably more than half a crown"s worth, as it is."
"Look here, Mr. Freemoult," said the reckless hairdresser, "if you can"t give me no better value, I don"t mind laying out another sixpence in questions."
"Put your questions, then, by all means; and I"ll give you your fair sixpenn"orth of answers. Now, then, I"m ready for you. What"s your difficulty? Out with it."
"Why," said Leander, in no small confusion, "isn"t there a story somewhere of a statue to Venus as some young man (a long time back it was, of course) was said to have put his ring on? and do you know the rights of it? I--I can"t remember how it ended, myself."
"Wait a bit, sir; I think I do remember something of the legend you refer to. You found it in the _Earthly Paradise_, I make no doubt?"
"I found it in Rosherwich Gardens," Leander very nearly blurted out; but he stopped himself, and said instead, "I don"t think I"ve ever been there, sir; not to remember it."
"Well, well! you"re no lover of poetry, that"s very evident; but the story is there. Yes, yes; and Burton has a version of it, too, in his _Anatomy_. How does it go? Give my head a minute to clear, and I"ll tell you. Ha! I have it! It was something like this: There was a certain young gentleman of Rome who, on his wedding-day, went out to play tennis; and in the tennis-court was a bra.s.s statue of the G.o.ddess Venus----"