s prairies, where his other life was: the forests, the
mountains, the endless expanses; the horses, the flocks, the slipshod
ease of language and attire; and the grog-shops. Aha! There could be no
mistake about him as a gentleman and a scholar out there! Nor would
Nature shut up her pocket and demand innumerable things of him, as
civilization did. This he thought in the vengefulness of his outraged
mind.
Not only had Algernon never failed to dine every day of his life: he had
no recollection of having ever dined without drinking wine. His
conception did not embrace the idea of a dinner lacking wine. Possibly he
had some embodied understanding that wine did not fall to the lot of
every fellow upon earth: he had heard of gullets unrefreshed even by
beer: but at any rate he himself was accustomed to better things, and he
did not choose to excavate facts from the mass of his knowledge in order
to reconcile himself to the miserable chop he saw for his dinner in the
distance--a spot of meat in the arctic circle of a plate, not shone upon
by any rosy-warming sun of a decanter!
But metaphorical language, though nothing other will convey the extremity
of his misery, or the form of his thoughts, must be put aside.
"Egad, and every friend I have is out of town!" he exclaimed, quite
willing to think it part of the plot.
He stuck his hands in his pockets, and felt vagabond-like and reckless.
The streets were revelling in their winter muck. The carriages rolling by
insulted him with their display of wealth.
He had democratic sentiments regarding them. Oh for a horse upon the
boundless plains! he sighed to his heart. He remembered bitterly how he
had that day ridden his stool at the bank, dreaming of his wilds, where
bailiff never ran, nor duns obscured the firmament.
And then there were theatres here--huge extravagant places! Algernon went
over to an entrance of one, to amuse his mind, cynically criticizing the
bill. A play was going forward within, that enjoyed great popular esteem,
"The Holly Berries." Seeing that the pit was crammed, Algernon made
application to learn the state of the boxes, but hearing that one box was
empty, he lost his interest in the performance.
As he was strolling forth, his attention was taken by a noise at the
pit-doors, which swung open, and out tumbled a tough little old man with
a younger one grasping his coat-collar, who proclaimed that he would
sicken him of pushing past him at the end o
|