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PAUL CLIFFORD, Volume 4.
By Edward Bulwer Lytton
Whackum. My dear rogues, dear boys, Bluster and Dingboy! you
are the bravest fellows that ever scoured yet!—SUADWELL:
Scourers.
Cato, the Thessalian, was wont to say that some things may be done unjustly, that many things may be done justly.—LORD BACON (being a, justification of every rascality).
Although our three worthies had taken unto themselves a splendid lodgingin Milsom Street, which, to please Ned, was over a hairdresser's shop,yet, instead of returning thither, or repairing to such taverns as mightseem best befitting their fashion and garb, they struck at once from thegay parts of the town, and tarried not till they reached a mean-lookingalehouse in a remote suburb.
The door was opened to them by an elderly lady; and Clifford, stalkingbefore his companions into an apartment at the back of the house, askedif the other gentlemen were come yet.
"No," returned the dame. "Old Mr. Bags came in about ten minutes ago;but hearing more work might be done, he went out again."
"Bring the lush and the pipes, old blone!" cried Ned, throwing himself ona bench; "we are never at a loss for company!"
"You, indeed, never can be, who are always inseparably connected with theobject of your admiration," said Tomlin, son, dryly, and taking up an oldnewspaper. Ned, who, though choleric, was a capital fellow, and couldbear a joke on himself, smiled, and drawing forth a little pair ofscissors, began trimming his nails.
"Curse me," said he, after a momentary silence, "if this is not adevilish deal pleasanter than playing the fine gentleman in that greatroom, with a rose in one's button-hole! What say you, Master Lovett?"
Clifford (as henceforth, despite his other aliases, we shall denominateour hero), who had thrown himself at full length on a bench at the farend of the room, and who seemed plunged into a sullen revery, now lookedup for a moment, and then, turning round and presenting the dorsal partof his body to Long Ned, muttered, "Fish!"
"Harkye, Master Lovett!" said Long Ned, colouring. "I don't know whathas come over you of late; but I would have you to learn that gentlemenare entitled to courtesy and polite behaviour; and so, d' ye see, if youride your high horse upon me, splice my extremities if I won't havesatisfaction!"
"Hist, man! be quiet," said Tomlinson, philosophically, snuffing thecandles,—
"'For companions to quarrel,
Is extremely immoral.'
"Don't you see that the captain is in a revery? What good man ever lovesto be interrupted in his meditations? Even Alfred the Great could notbear it! Perhaps at this moment, with the true anxiety of a worthychief, the captain is designing something for our welfare!"
"Captain indeed!" muttered Long Ned, darting a wrathful look at Clifford,who had not deigned to pay any attention to Mr. Pepper's threat; "for mypart I cannot conceive what was the matter with us when we chose thisgreen slip of the gallows-tree for our captain of the district. To besure, he did very well at first, and that robbery of the old lord was notill-planned; but lately—"
"Nay, nay," quoth Augustus, interrupting the gigantic grumbler; "then