Higher and higher were the capers that we cut; the
moon repeated in shadow our antic footsteps and gestures; and it
came over my mind of a sudden--really like balm--what appearance of
man I was dancing with, what a long bilious countenance he had
shown under his shaven pate, and what a world of trouble the rascal
had given me in the immediate past.
Presently we began to see the lights of Bedford. My Puritanic
companion stopped and disengaged himself.
'This is a trifle infra dig., sir, is it not?' said he. 'A party
might suppose we had been drinking.'
'And so you shall be, Dudgeon,' said I. 'You shall not only be
drinking, you old hypocrite, but you shall be drunk--dead drunk,
sir--and the boots shall put you to bed! We'll warn him when we go
in. Never neglect a precaution; never put off till to-morrow what
you can do to-day!'
But he had no more frivolity to complain of. We finished our stage
and came to the inn-door with decorum, to find the house still
alight and in a bustle with many late arrivals; to give our orders
with a prompt severity which ensured obedience, and to be served
soon after at a side-table, close to the fire and in a blaze of
candle-light, with such a meal as I had been dreaming of for days
past. For days, you are to remember, I had been skulking in the
covered cart, a prey to cold, hunger, and an accumulation of
discomforts that might have daunted the most brave; and the white
table napery, the bright crystal, the reverberation of the fire,
the red curtains, the Turkey carpet, the portraits on the coffee-
room wall, the placid faces of the two or three late guests who
were silently prolonging the pleasures of digestion, and (last, but
not by any means least) a glass of an excellent light dry port, put
me in a humour only to be described as heavenly.
Pages:
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211