In Order To Avoid Seeing Him, For
I Was Not A Little Ashamed Of Myself For Having Failed To Enjoy His
Treat Sufficiently, I Determined To Continue Up The River, And, At
All Prices, To Find Some Other Way Back Into The Town In Time For
Dinner.
As I went, I was thinking of Smethurst with admiration; a
look into that man's mind was like a
Retrospect over the smiling
champaign of his past life, and very different from the Sinai-
gorges up which one looks for a terrified moment into the dark
souls of many good, many wise, and many prudent men. I cannot be
very grateful to such men for their excellence, and wisdom, and
prudence. I find myself facing as stoutly as I can a hard,
combative existence, full of doubt, difficulties, defeats,
disappointments, and dangers, quite a hard enough life without
their dark countenances at my elbow, so that what I want is a
happy-minded Smethurst placed here and there at ugly corners of my
life's wayside, preaching his gospel of quiet and contentment.
ANOTHER
I was shortly to meet with an evangelist of another stamp. After I
had forced my way through a gentleman's grounds, I came out on the
high road, and sat down to rest myself on a heap of stones at the
top of a long hill, with Cockermouth lying snugly at the bottom.
An Irish beggar-woman, with a beautiful little girl by her side,
came up to ask for alms, and gradually fell to telling me the
little tragedy of her life. Her own sister, she told me, had
seduced her husband from her after many years of married life, and
the pair had fled, leaving her destitute, with the little girl upon
her hands. She seemed quite hopeful and cheery, and, though she
was unaffectedly sorry for the loss of her husband's earnings, she
made no pretence of despair at the loss of his affection; some day
she would meet the fugitives, and the law would see her duly
righted, and in the meantime the smallest contribution was
gratefully received. While she was telling all this in the most
matter-of-fact way, I had been noticing the approach of a tall man,
with a high white hat and darkish clothes. He came up the hill at
a rapid pace, and joined our little group with a sort of half-
salutation. Turning at once to the woman, he asked her in a
business-like way whether she had anything to do, whether she were
a Catholic or a Protestant, whether she could read, and so forth;
and then, after a few kind words and some sweeties to the child, he
despatched the mother with some tracts about Biddy and the Priest,
and the Orangeman's Bible. I was a little amused at his abrupt
manner, for he was still a young man, and had somewhat the air of a
navy officer; but he tackled me with great solemnity. I could make
fun of what he said, for I do not think it was very wise; but the
subject does not appear to me just now in a jesting light, so I
shall only say that he related to me his own conversion, which had
been effected (as is very often the case) through the agency of a
gig accident, and that, after having examined me and diagnosed my
case, he selected some suitable tracts from his repertory, gave
them to me, and, bidding me God-speed, went on his way.
LAST OF SMETHURST
That evening I got into a third-class carriage on my way for
Keswick, and was followed almost immediately by a burly man in
brown clothes. This fellow-passenger was seemingly ill at ease,
and kept continually putting his head out of the window, and asking
the bystanders if they saw HIM coming. At last, when the train was
already in motion, there was a commotion on the platform, and a way
was left clear to our carriage door. HE had arrived. In the hurry
I could just see Smethurst, red and panting, thrust a couple of
clay pipes into my companion's outstretched band, and hear him
crying his farewells after us as we slipped out of the station at
an ever accelerating pace. I said something about it being a close
run, and the broad man, already engaged in filling one of the
pipes, assented, and went on to tell me of his own stupidity in
forgetting a necessary, and of how his friend had good-naturedly
gone down town at the last moment to supply the omission. I
mentioned that I had seen Mr. Smethurst already, and that he had
been very polite to me; and we fell into a discussion of the
hatter's merits that lasted some time and left us quite good
friends at its conclusion. The topic was productive of goodwill.
We exchanged tobacco and talked about the season, and agreed at
last that we should go to the same hotel at Keswick and sup in
company. As he had some business in the town which would occupy
him some hour or so, on our arrival I was to improve the time and
go down to the lake, that I might see a glimpse of the promised
wonders.
The night had fallen already when I reached the water-side, at a
place where many pleasure-boats are moored and ready for hire; and
as I went along a stony path, between wood and water, a strong wind
blew in gusts from the far end of the lake. The sky was covered
with flying scud; and, as this was ragged, there was quite a wild
chase of shadow and moon-glimpse over the surface of the shuddering
water. I had to hold my hat on, and was growing rather tired, and
inclined to go back in disgust, when a little incident occurred to
break the tedium. A sudden and violent squall of wind sundered the
low underwood, and at the same time there came one of those brief
discharges of moonlight, which leaped into the opening thus made,
and showed me three girls in the prettiest flutter and disorder.
It was as though they had sprung out of the ground.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 29 of 70
Words from 28472 to 29519
of 70588
