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"God bless my soul, I forgot all about Mary," he exclaimed with vexation. "She must go and sit somewhere. I shan't be ready yet. Henslow wants us to go down to the Bell, and have a bit of supper." "In that case," Brooks said, "you had better allow me to take Miss Scott home, and I will come then to you." "Capital, if you really don't mind," Mr. Bullsom declared. "Put her in a cab.
There was an influx of guests. Mrs. Bullsom, reduced to a state of chaotic nervousness, was pushed as far into the background as possible by her daughters, and Mr. Bullsom, banished from the hearth where he felt surest of himself, plunged into a conversation with Mr. Seventon on the weather. Brooks leaned over towards Mary. "Wednesday week at eight o'clock, then," he said.
Any fool can work, but it takes a shrewd man to keep a lot of others working hard for him while he pockets the oof himself." "I suppose," the younger man remarked, thoughtfully, "that you would consider Mr. Henslow a shrewd man?" "Shrewd! Oh, Henslow's shrewd enough. There's no question about that!" "And honest?" Mr. Bullsom hesitated. He drew his hand down his stubbly grey beard. "Honest!
Brooks shook his head. "No. I am settling down in London. I have found some work there I like." "Then are you the Mr. Brooks who has started what the Daily Courier calls a 'Whiteby's Charity Scheme' in the East End?" "Quite true, Miss Bullsom. And your cousin is helping me." Selina raised her eyebrows.
Nothing would have made me happier than to have been able to accept it. But I am absolutely powerless." "You don't funk it?" Mr. Bullsom asked. "Not I. The fact is, there are circumstances connected with myself which make it inadvisable for me to seek any public position at present." Mr. Bullsom's first sensations of astonishment were augmented into stupefaction. He was scarcely capable of speech.
"You cabled out the money to bring me home," Mary reminded him. "Well, well!" Mr. Bullsom declared. "You must go and see these chaps. There's no harm in that, at any rate. We must all have that trip to London. I expect Brooks will be wanting to go and see Henslow. We'll have to give that chap what for, I know."
He had some sort of a reputation as a speaker, and was well spoken of by those who had entrusted business to him. Yet he was still fighting for a living when this piece of luck had befallen him. Mr. Bullsom had entrusted a small case to him, and found him capable and cheap.
Bullsom remarked, with scorn. "A young fellow like Brooks would tog himself out for dinner all right even if we were alone, as long as there were ladies there. And as for the dinner, you don't suppose I'm such a mug as to leave that to Ann. I shall go to the Queen's Hotel, and have 'em send a cook and waiters, and run the whole show. Don't know that I shan't send to London. You get the people!
Bullsom laid hold of the strap of the carriage. The road was rough, the horses were fresh, and Mr. Bullsom's head had felt steadier. "Well," Mr. Bullsom said, "you'd think to hear em we'd stepped straight into heaven. We're close to the barracks, you know, and I'm blest if half the officers haven't called already.
Brooks, whose self-possession seldom failed him, smiled to himself as he recognized the bishop, who was his /vis-a-vis/. Hennibul, however, from a little lower down nodded to him pleasantly, and Lord Arranmore spoke a few words of dry greeting. "Your friend Bullsom," he remarked, "has soon distinguished himself. He made quite a decent speech the other night on the Tariff Bill."
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