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And if he had known all, he could have counted two; for Mr Durfy, finding himself in a mood to wreak his wrath on some one, summoned the ill-favoured Barber to sweep out the back case-room, and gave his orders so viciously that Barber felt distinctly aggrieved, and jumping to the conclusion that Reginald had somehow contrived to turn the tables on him, he registered a secret vow, there and then, that he would on the first opportunity, and on all subsequent opportunities, be square with that luckless youth.
Reginald said nothing, but let his brother lead him back slowly to the big room presided over by Mr Durfy. "Where is it?" Horace inquired of him at the door. "That little room in the corner." "All right. I'll come if I possibly can. Do try it, old man, won't you?" "I'll try it," said Reginald, with something very like a groan as he opened the door and walked grimly back to the back case-room.
"No," muttered Reg, through his teeth, "I've not got a broom." "Go and get that one, then, out of the corner there." Reginald flushed crimson, and hesitated a moment. "Do you 'ear? Are you deaf? Get that one there." Reginald got it, and trailing it behind him dismally, followed his guide to the back case-room. It was a small room, which apparently had known neither broom nor water for years.
He passed a newspaper-office, where the thunder of machinery and the glare of the case-room reminded him of his own bitter apprenticeship at the Rocket. They might find him a job here if he applied. Faugh! who would take a gaol-bird, a "let-off" swindler, into their employ? He strolled down to the docks. The great river lay asleep. The docks were, deserted; the dockyards silent.
For the matter of that, after the blowing-up about the back case-room, he had got into it the wrong side last night, so that he was doubly perturbed in spirit, and a short conversation he had just had with the manager below had not tended to compose him. "Durfy," said that brusque official, as the overseer passed his open door, "come in. What about those two lads I sent up to you yesterday?
Among those who displayed no unseemly haste in applying themselves to their tasks was Barber, who, with the dust of the back case-room still in his mind, and equally on his countenance, considered the present opportunity of squaring up accounts with Reginald too good to be neglected.
"No," said Mr Durfy, scornfully, "I guessed not. You're too stuck-up for us, I can tell you. Here, Barber." An unhealthy-looking young man answered to the name. "Take this chap here to the back case-room, and see he sweeps it out and dusts the cases.
Tossing the broom unceremoniously into a corner, he opened the door and walked out of the room. Barber was already out of sight, chuckling inwardly over the delicious task he had been privileged to set to his dandy subordinate, and none of the men working near knew or cared what this pale, handsome new boy did either in or out of the back case-room.
Among the papers left at Borrow's death was a fragment of a political article in dispraise of the Radicals. The editorial "We" suggests that Borrow might possibly have been engaged in political journalism. The fragment itself proves nothing. Many would-be journalists write "leaders" that never see the case-room.
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