As Mr Swiveller was decidedly favourable to these performances, upon the ground that looking at a Punch, or indeed looking at anything out of window, was better than working; and as he had been, for this reason, at some pains to awaken in his fellow clerk a sense of their beauties and manifold deserts; both he and Miss Sally rose as with one accord and took up their positions at the window: upon the sill whereof, as in a post of honour, sundry young ladies and gentlemen who were employed in the dry nurture of babies, and who made a point of being present, with their young charges, on such occasions, had already established themselves as comfortably as the circumstances would allow.
The glass being dim, Mr Swiveller, agreeably to a friendly custom which he had established between them, hitched off the brown head-dress from Miss Sally's head, and dusted it carefully therewith.By the time he had handed it back, and its beautiful wearer had put it on again (which she did with perfect composure and indifference), the lodger returned with the show and showmen at his heels, and a strong addition to the body of spectators.The exhibitor disappeared with all speed behind the drapery; and his partner, stationing himself by the side of the Theatre, surveyed the audience with a remarkable expression of melancholy, which became more remarkable still when he breathed a hornpipe tune into that sweet musical instrument which is popularly termed a mouth-organ, without at all changing the mournful expression of the upper part of his face, though his mouth and chin were, of necessity, in lively spasms.
The drama proceeded to its close, and held the spectators enchained in the customary manner.The sensation which kindles in large assemblies, when they are relieved from a state of breathless suspense and are again free to speak and move, was yet rife, when the lodger, as usual, summoned the men up stairs.
'Both of you,' he called from the window; for only the actual exhibitor--a little fat man--prepared to obey the summons.'Iwant to talk to you.Come both of you!'
Come, Tommy,' said the little man.
I an't a talker,' replied the other.'Tell him so.What should Igo and talk for?'
'Don't you see the gentleman's got a bottle and glass up there?'
returned the little man.
'And couldn't you have said so at first?' retorted the other with sudden alacrity.'Now, what are you waiting for? Are you going to keep the gentleman expecting us all day? haven't you no manners?'
With this remonstrance, the melancholy man, who was no other than Mr Thomas Codlin, pushed past his friend and brother in the craft, Mr Harris, otherwise Short or Trotters, and hurried before him to the single gentleman's apartment.
'Now, my men,' said the single gentleman; 'you have done very well.
What will you take? Tell that little man behind, to shut the door.'
'Shut the door, can't you?' said Mr Codlin, turning gruffly to his friend.'You might have knowed that the gentleman wanted the door shut, without being told, I think.'
Mr Short obeyed, observing under his breath that his friend seemed unusually 'cranky,' and expressing a hope that there was no dairy in the neighbourhood, or his temper would certainly spoil its contents.
The gentleman pointed to a couple of chairs, and intimated by an emphatic nod of his head that he expected them to be seated.
Messrs Codlin and Short, after looking at each other with considerable doubt and indecision, at length sat down--each on the extreme edge of the chair pointed out to him--and held their hats very tight, while the single gentleman filled a couple of glasses from a bottle on the table beside him, and presented them in due form.
'You're pretty well browned by the sun, both of you,' said their entertainer.'Have you been travelling?'
Mr Short replied in the affirmative with a nod and a smile.Mr Codlin added a corroborative nod and a short groan, as if he still felt the weight of the Temple on his shoulders.
'To fairs, markets, races, and so forth, I suppose?' pursued the single gentleman.
'Yes, sir,' returned Short, 'pretty nigh all over the West of England.'
'I have talked to men of your craft from North, East, and South,'
returned their host, in rather a hasty manner; 'but I never lighted on any from the West before.'
'It's our reg'lar summer circuit is the West, master,' said Short;'that's where it is.We takes the East of London in the spring and winter, and the West of England in the summer time.Many's the hard day's walking in rain and mud, and with never a penny earned, we've had down in the West.'
'Let me fill your glass again.'
'Much obleeged to you sir, I think I will,' said Mr Codlin, suddenly thrusting in his own and turning Short's aside.'I'm the sufferer, sir, in all the travelling, and in all the staying at home.In town or country, wet or dry, hot or cold, Tom Codlin suffers.But Tom Codlin isn't to complain for all that.Oh, no!