第12章

HOW THE HAPPY DIAMOND-WEARER DINES AT

PENTONVILLE

I did not go to the office till half-an-hour after opening time on Monday.If the truth must be told, I was not sorry to let Hoskins have the start of me, and tell the chaps what had taken place,--for we all have our little vanities, and I liked to be thought well of by my companions.

When I came in, I saw my business had been done, by the way in which the chaps looked at me; especially Abednego, who offered me a pinch out of his gold snuff-box the very first thing.Roundhand shook me, too, warmly by the hand, when he came round to look over my day- book, said I wrote a capital hand (and indeed I believe I do, without any sort of flattery), and invited me for dinner next Sunday, in Myddelton Square."You won't have," said he, "quite such a grand turn-out as with YOUR FRIENDS AT THE WEST END"--he said this with a particular accent--"but Amelia and I are always happy to see a friend in our plain way,--pale sherry, old port, and cut and come again.Hey?"I said I would come and bring Hoskins too.

He answered that I was very polite, and that he should be very happy to see Hoskins; and we went accordingly at the appointed day and hour; but though Gus was eleventh clerk and I twelfth, I remarked that at dinner I was helped first and best.I had twice as many force-meat balls as Hoskins in my mock-turtle, and pretty nearly all the oysters out of the sauce-boat.Once, Roundhand was going to help Gus before me; when his wife, who was seated at the head of the table, looking very big and fierce in red crape and a turban, shouted out, "ANTONY!" and poor R.dropped the plate, and blushed as red as anything.How Mrs.R.did talk to me about the West End to be sure! She had a "Peerage," as you may be certain, and knew everything about the Drum family in a manner that quite astonished me.She asked me how much Lord Drum had a year; whether I thought he had twenty, thirty, forty, or a hundred and fifty thousand a year; whether I was invited to Drum Castle; what the youngladies wore, and if they had those odious gigot sleeves which were just coming in then; and here Mrs.R.looked at a pair of large mottled arms that she was very proud of.

"I say, Sam my boy!" cried, in the midst of our talk, Mr.Roundhand, who had been passing the port-wine round pretty freely, "I hope you looked to the main chance, and put in a few shares of the West Diddlesex,--hey?"

"Mr.Roundhand, have you put up the decanters downstairs?" cries the lady, quite angry, and wishing to stop the conversation.

"No, Milly, I've emptied 'em," says R.

"Don't Milly me, sir! and have the goodness to go down and tell Lancy my maid" (a look at me) "to make the tea in the study.We have a gentleman here who is not USED to Pentonville ways" (another look); "but he won't mind the ways of FRIENDS." And here Mrs.Roundhand heaved her very large chest, and gave me a third look that was so severe, that I declare to goodness it made me look quite foolish.As to Gus, she never so much as spoke to him all the evening; but he consoled himself with a great lot of muffins, and sat most of the evening (it was a cruel hot summer) whistling and talking with Roundhand on the verandah.I think I should like to have been with them,--for it was very close in the room with that great big Mrs.Roundhand squeezing close up to one on the sofa.