ay
borrowed my only decanter, in return, and, hang them, cracked it!--Curse
me, say I, if this life is worth having! It's all the very vanity of
vanities--as it's said somewhere in the Bible--and no mistake! Fag, fag,
fag, all one's days, and--what for? Thirty-five pounds a-year, and '_no
advance!_' (Here occurred a pause and revery, from which he was roused
by the clangor of the church-bells.) Bah, bells! ring away till you're
all cracked!--Now do you think _I'm_ going to be mewed up in church on
this the only day out of the seven I've got to sweeten myself in, and
sniff fresh air? A precious joke that would be! (A yawn.) Whew!--after
all, I'd almost as lieve sit here; for what's the use of my going out?
Everybody I see out is happy, excepting me, and the poor chaps that are
like me!--Everybody laughs when they see me, and know that I'm only a
tallow-faced counter-jumper--I know that's the odious name we gents go
by!--for whom it's no use to go out--for one day in seven can't give one
a bloom! Oh, Lord! what's the use of being good-looking, as _some_ chaps
say I am?"--Here he instinctively passed his left hand through a
profusion of sandy-colored hair, and cast an eye towards the bit of
fractured looking-glass which hung against the wall, and had, by
faithfully representing to him a by no means ugly set of features
(despite the dismal hue of his hair) whenever he chose to appeal to it,
afforded him more enjoyment than any other object in the world, for
years. "Ah, by Jove! many and many's the fine gal I've done my best to
attract the notice of, while I was serving her in the shop--that is,
when I've seen her get out of a carriage! There has been luck to many a
chap like me, in the same line of speculation: look at Tom Tarnish--how
did he get Miss Twang, the rich pianoforte-maker's daughter?--and _now_
he's cut the shop, and lives at Hackney, like a regular gentleman! Ah!
that _was_ a stroke! But somehow it hasn't answered with _me_ yet; the
gals don't take! How I have set my eyes to be sure, and ogled
them!--_All_ of them don't seem to dislike the thing--and sometimes
they'll smile, in a sort of way that says I'm safe--but it's been no use
yet, not a bit of it!--My eyes! catch me, by the way, ever nodding again
to a lady on the Sunday, that had smiled when I stared at her while
serving her in the shop--after what happened to me a month or two ago in
the Park! Didn't I feel like damaged goods, just then? But it's no
matt