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As he passed one of the tables Silas Trimmer leered up at him with the circular smile, which, bisected by a row of yellow teeth and hooded with a bristle of stubby mustache, had now come to aggravate him almost past endurance. To-night it made him approach his dinner with vexation, and, failing to find the man he had sought, he finished hastily.
"You're getting foolish." "That's right, Trimmer that's right. You abuse me, too!" whined the old man, bursting into tears. "Isn't it bad enough to have one's child a thief, without servants bullying one?" "You are the last person to talk to Mrs. Swinton about stealing." "Keep your tongue still!" "If your daughter knew what I know!" "You don't know anything, sir you don't know anything!"
"There, there, I told you so!" he whined, recoiling in mock terror. "Trimmer, Trimmer! Help! She'll kill me!" "It would serve you right if I did lay violent hands upon you," she cried. "If I took you by the throat, and squeezed the life out of you, as I could, though you are my father. You're not a man, you're a beast a monster a soulless caricature, whose only delight is the torturing of others.
He didn't speak until he had sat down on the coverlet; then he shaded his eyes with his hand and stared at me as if he wanted to make sure that it was I. "I've just been down to Hugo Siffles's drugstore," he said, speaking very slowly and carefully, "and Hugo was telling a crowd about a conver conversation between you and Passley Trimmer.
Don't go, Trimmer!" cried the miser extending one hand helplessly. "Raise me, Trimmer. Don't let her touch me." Trimmer obeyed his master, ignoring Mrs. Swinton, and lifted the old bag of bones with a jerk that seemed to rattle it.
One need not pay too great heed to acrimonious colleagues who set him down as a word-weaving trimmer, between whose utterances and thoughts there is no organic nexus, who declines to take the initiative unless he sees adequate forces behind him ready to his to his support, who lacks the moral courage that serves as a parachute for a fall from popularity, but possesses in abundance that of taking at the flood the rising tide which balloon-like lifts its possessor high above his fellows.
In a word, he possessed in an eminent degree that great quality in a statesman, called perseverance by the polite, but nicknamed obstinacy by the vulgar. A wonderful salve for official blunders; since he who perseveres in error without flinching gets the credit of boldness and consistency, while he who wavers, in seeking to do what is right, gets stigmatised as a trimmer.
"As far as Trimmer is concerned," said he, quite undisturbed, "you can have his head any minute. He's a mutt." "You don't need to give me Mr. Trimmer's head," replied Bobby, quite as calmly. "I intend to get that myself." "And as for the Brightlight," continued Stone as if he had not been interrupted, "I sent Sharpe over to see you about that this morning.
"By the way," called Chalmers with a curious smile as Bobby opened the door; "I've just learned that one of the foremost enthusiasts in this whole manipulation has been quiet and conservative Silas Trimmer." Bobby did not swear. He simply slammed the door. Two days later Bobby was surprised to see Sharpe drop in upon him.
Trimmer was sixty at least. Yet, his face bore scarce a wrinkle, his back was as straight as any young man's. His hair was coal black Mrs. Ripon declared that he dyed it. And he was about Herresford's height, spare of figure, and always faultlessly dressed in close-fitting garments with a tendency toward a horsey cut.
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