I
wrote back eagerly to agree. He was a hardy cheery
little fellow of nine, who would, I knew, gladly share
hard times with me; while, if they became unduly so, I
could always have him taken home again. Some weeks must
pass before he could come, but it cheered me to think of
him. Apart from his company, there were a thousand ways
in which he might be useful.
Who should come in on the second day but old Captain
Whitehall? I was in the back room, trying how many
slices I could make out of a pound of potted beef, when
he rang my bell, and I only just shut my mouth in time to
prevent my heart jumping out.
How that bell clanged through the empty house! I saw
who it was, however, when I went into the hall; for the
middle panels of my door are of glazed glass, so
that I can always study a silhouette of my visitors
before coming to closer quarters.
I was not quite sure yet whether I loathed the man or
liked him. He was the most extraordinary mixture of
charity and drunkenness, lechery and self-sacrifice that
I had ever come across. But he brought into the house
with him a whiff of cheeriness and hope for which I could
not but be grateful. He had a large brown paper parcel
under his arm, which he unwrapped upon my table,
displaying a great brown jar. This he carried over and
deposited on the centre of my mantel-piece.
"You will permit me, Dr. Munro, sir, to place this
trifle in your room.
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