Rivers of Ice by Robert Michael Ballantyne (books to read to improve english TXT) 📖

of looking earnestly at people as if he expected to meet with some one. "If I had got into this state," he sometimes said to himself, "because of being merely in love with a pretty face, I should consider myself a silly nincompoop; but it is such a terrible thing for so sweet and young a creature to be chained to a man who must in the nature of things, land her in beggary and break her heart." Thus he deceived himself as to his main motive. Poor Lewis!

One morning Captain Wopper got up a little earlier than usual, and began a series of performances which Mrs Roby had long ago styled "rampadgin" round his garret.

The reader may have discovered by this time that the Captain was no ordinary man. Whatever he did in connection with himself was done with almost superhuman energy and noise. Since the commencement of his residence in the garret he had unwittingly subjected the nerves of poor Mrs Roby to such a variety of shocks, that the mere fact of her reason remaining on its throne was an unquestionable proof of a more than usually powerful constitution. It could not well be otherwise. The Captain's limbs resembled the limbs of oaks in regard to size and toughness. His spirits were far above "proof." His organs were cathedral organs compared with the mere barrel-organs of ordinary men. On the other hand, the "cabin" in Grubb's Court was but a flimsy tenement; its plank floorings were thin, and its beams and rafters slim and somewhat loose owing to age, so that when the captain snored, which he did regularly and continuously, it was as if a mastiff had got inside a double-bass and were growling hideously.

But Mrs Roby had now got pretty well accustomed to her lodger's ways. Her nerves had become strung to the ordeal, and she even came to like the galvanic battery in which she dwelt, because of its being worked by the intimate friend of her dear William; such is the power of love--we might almost say, in this case, of reflected love! The good old lady had even become so acute in her perceptions, that, without seeing the "rampadger," she knew precisely the part of his daily programme with which he happened to be engaged. Of course the snoring told its own tale with brazen-tongued clamour, and the whole tenement trembled all night long from top to bottom. Nothing but the regardless nature of the surrounding population prevented the Captain from being indicted as a nuisance; but there were other sounds that were not so easily recognised.

On the morning in question, Mrs Roby, lying placidly in her neat white little bed, and gazing with a sweet contented face through one of her cabin windows at the bright blue sky, heard a sound as though a compound animal--hog and whale--had aroused itself and rolled over on its other side. A low whistling followed. Mrs Roby knew that the Captain was pleasantly engaged with his thoughts--planning out the proceedings of the day. Suddenly the whistling ceased and was followed by a sonorous "how-ho!" terminating in a gasp worthy of an express locomotive. The Captain had stretched himself and Mrs Roby smiled at her own thoughts, as well she might for they embraced the idea that a twentieth part of the force employed in that stretch would have rent in twain every tendon, muscle, sinew, and filament in her, Mrs Roby's, body. Next, there descended on the floor overhead a sixteen-stone cannon ball, which caused--not the neighbours, but the boards and rafters to complain. The Captain was up! and succeeding sounds proved that he had had another stretch, for there was a bump in the middle of it which showed that, forgetting his stature, the careless man had hit the ceiling with his head. That was evidently a matter of no consequence.

From this point the boards and rafters continued to make unceasing complaint, now creaking uneasily as if under great provocation, anon groaning or yelling as though under insufferable torment. From the ceiling of Mrs Roby's room numerous small bits of plaster, unable to stand it longer, fell and powdered Mrs Roby's floor. The curtains of her little bed saved her face. There was a slushing and swishing and gasping and blowing now, which might have done credit to a school of porpoises. The Captain was washing. Something between the flapping of a main top-sail in a shifting squall and the currying of a hippopotamus indicated that the Captain was drying himself. The process was interrupted by an unusual, though not quite unknown, crash and a howl; he had overturned the wash-hand basin, and a double thump, followed by heavy dabs, told that the Captain was on his knees swabbing it up.

Next instant the Captain's head, with beard and hair in a tremendously rubbed-up condition, appeared upside down at the hatchway.

"Hallo! old girl, has she sprung a leak anywhere?"

"Nowhere," replied Mrs Roby, with a quiet smile. She felt the question to be unnecessary. "She," that is, the roof above her, never did leak in such circumstances. If the Thames had suddenly flooded the garret, the Captain's energy was sufficient to have swabbed it up in time to prevent a drop reaching "the lower deck."

Soon after this catastrophe there was a prolonged silence. The Captain was reading. Mrs Roby shut her eyes and joined him in spirit. Thereafter the Captain's feet appeared at the trap where his head had been, and he descended with a final and tremendous crash to the floor.

"See here, mother," he cried, with a look of delight, holding up a very soiled and crumpled letter, "that's from Willum."

"From William," exclaimed the old woman, eagerly; "why, when did you get it? the postman can't have been here this morning."

"Of course he hasn't; I got it last night from the limb-o'-the-law that looks after my little matters. I came in late, and you were asleep, so I kep' it to whet yer appetite for breakfast. Now listen, you must take it first; I'll get you breakfast afterwards."

The Captain had by this time got into the way of giving the old woman her breakfast in bed every morning.

"Go on," said the old woman, nodding.

The Captain spread out the letter on his knee with great care, and read aloud:--

"My Dear Wopper, Got yer letter all right.

"My blissin' to the poor widdy. Help her? ov coorse I'll help her.
You did right in advancin' the money, though you fell short, by a long
way, when you advanced so little. Hows'ever, no matter. I gave you
my last will an' testimony w'en we parted. Here's a noo un. Inside
o' this, if I don't forget it before I've done, you'll find a cheque
for thirteen thousand pounds sterling. Give three to the widdy, with
my respects; give four to dear Emma Gray, with my best love and
blissin'; give two to Mister Lewis, with my compliments; an' give four
to young Lawrence, with my benediction, for his father's sake. As for
the old 'ooman Roby, you don't need to give nothin' to her. She and I
understand each other. _I'll_ look after her myself. I'll make her
my residooary legatee, an' wotever else is needful; but, in the
meantime, you may as well see that she's got all that she wants.
Build her a noo house too. I'm told that Grubb's Court ain't exactly
aristocratic or clean; see to that. Wotever you advance out o' yer
own pocket, I'll pay back with interest. That's to begin with, tell
'em. There's more comin'. There--I'm used up wi' writin' such a long
screed. I'd raither dig a twenty-futt hole in clay sile any day.--
Yours to command, Willum.

"P.S.--You ain't comin' back soon--are you?"

"Now, mother, what d'ee think o' that?" said the Captain, folding the letter and putting it in his pocket.

"It's a good, kind letter--just like William," answered the old woman.

"Well, so I'm inclined to think," rejoined the Captain, busying himself about breakfast while he spoke; "it provides for everybody in a sort o' way, and encourages 'em to go on hopeful like--don't it strike you so? Then, you see, that's four to Miss Emma, and four to Dr Lawrence, which would be eight, equal to four hundred a year; and that, with the practice he's gettin' into, would make it six, or thereabouts--not bad to begin with, eh?"

The Captain followed his remark with a sigh.

"What's the matter?" asked Mrs Roby.

"Why, you remember, mother, before goin' abroad I set my heart on these two gettin' spliced; but I fear it's no go. Sometimes I think they looks fond o' one another, at other times I don't. It's a puzzler. They're both young an' good-lookin' an' good. What more would they have?"

"Perhaps they want money," suggested the old woman. "You say Dr Lawrence's income just now is about two hundred; well, gentlefolks find it summat difficult to keep house on that, though it's plenty for the likes of you an' me."

"That's true. P'r'aps the Doctor is sheerin' off for fear o' draggin' a young creeter into poverty. It never struck me in that light before."

Beaming under the influence of this hopeful view of the case, the Captain proceeded to make another move in the complicated game which he had resolved to play out and win; but this move, which he had considered one of the easiest of all, proved to be the most unfortunate, or rather unmanageable.

"Now, mother," said he, "I mean to make a proposal to 'ee, before going out for the day, so that you may have time to think over it. This cabin o' yours ain't just the thing, you know,--raither dirty, and too high in the clouds by a long way, so I've bin an' seen a noo house on the river, not unlike this one, an' I wants you to shift your berth. What say 'ee--eh?"

To the Captain's surprise and dismay, the old woman shook her head decidedly, and no argument which he could bring to bear had the least effect on her. She had, in fact, got used to her humble old home, and attached to it, and could not bear the thought of leaving it. Having exhausted his powers of suasion in vain, he left her to think over it, and sallied forth crestfallen. However, he consoled himself with the hope that time and consideration would bring her to a right state of mind. Meanwhile he would go to the parties interested, and communicate the contents of Willum's letter.

He went first to Doctor Lawrence, who was delighted as well as pleased at what it contained. The Captain at first read only the clauses which affected his friends the Stoutleys, and said nothing about that which referred to the Doctor himself.

"So you see, Doctor, I'm off to let the Stoutleys know about this little matter, and just looked in on you in passing."

"It was very kind of you, Captain."

"Not at all, by no means," returned the Captain, pulling out a large clasp-knife, with which he proceeded carefully