hat old boy in the carriage is worth
a hundred thousand pounds to me? There he was asleep, and nobody there
but you! But I spared him, because I'm a Conservative in politics.'
Mr Wickham, pleased to be in a luggage van, was flitting to and fro like
a gentlemanly butterfly.
'By Jingo!' he cried, 'here's something for you! "M. Finsbury, 16 John
Street, Bloomsbury, London." M. stands for Michael, you sly dog; you
keep two establishments, do you?'
'O, that's Morris,' responded Michael from the other end of the van,
where he had found a comfortable seat upon some sacks. 'He's a little
cousin of mine. I like him myself, because he's afraid of me. He's
one of the ornaments of Bloomsbury, and has a collection of some
kind--birds' eggs or something that's supposed to be curious. I bet it's
nothing to my clients!'
'What a lark it would be to play billy with the labels!' chuckled Mr
Wickham. 'By George, here's a tack-hammer! We might send all these
things skipping about the premises like what's-his-name!'
At this moment, the guard, surprised by the sound of voices, opened the
door of his little cabin.
'You had best step in here, gentlemen,' said he, when he had heard their
story.
'Won't you come, Wickham?' asked Michael.
'Catch me--I want to travel in a van,' replied the youth.
And so the door of communication was closed; and for the rest of the run
Mr Wickham was left alone over his diversions on the one side, and on
the other Michael and the guard were closeted together in familiar talk.
'I can get you a compartment here, sir,' observed the official, as the
train began to slacken speed before Bishopstoke station. 'You had best
get out at my door, and I can bring your friend.'
Mr Wickham, whom we left (as the reader has shrewdly suspected)
beginning to 'play billy' with the labels in the van, was a young
gentleman of much wealth, a pleasing but sandy exterior, and a highly
vacant mind. Not many months before, he had contrived to get himself
blackmailed by the family of a Wallachian Hospodar, resident for
political reasons in the gay city of Paris. A common friend (to whom he
had confided his distress) recommended him to Michael; and the lawyer
was no sooner in possession of the facts than he instantly assumed
the offensive, fell on the flank of the Wallachian forces, and, in the
inside of three days, had the satisfaction to behold them routed and
fleeing for the Danube. It is no business of ours to follow
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