Oscar arose very early, before his wife was awake. He went to his study, and, after long fervent prayer, took out the large sealed letter and carried it himself to the post. The postmaster was making up the bag for the Calcutta mail, whistling a light air as he did so. Oscar gave in the letter with a hand that did not tremble, and turned away with the thought, “I have plucked out the right eye.” (? See Illustration.) Coldstream did not at once direct his steps homewards. He went first to a kind of warehouse with a deep veranda half filled up with advertisements on placards, pieces of second-hand furniture too large to be stowed inside, empty packing-cases, and other articles of a heterogeneous nature. This was the establishment of Hersey the agent, who monopolized most of the custom of the European residents in Moulmein. The proprietor, seated in the veranda, was taking his morning cup of coffee before business hours should commence.
Mr. Coldstream was well known to Hersey, who had procured for that gentleman most of the furniture of his house. Hersey rose, put down his cup, raised his hat, and wished Mr. Coldstream good-morning. He offered Oscar a seat, but his offer was declined. Mr. Coldstream preferred standing.
Much astonished was Hersey when he found on what business his early visitor had come, when Coldstream informed the agent that he wished to put his dwelling, with all its fittings, into his hands for sale in the following month.
Hersey expressed his surprise. He could hardly believe that Mr. Coldstream could really intend to dispose of the house prepared at the cost of much labour and expense, which was generally acknowledged to be the one best fitted up in the station.
“It is my wish to sell it furnished,” said Mr. Coldstream. “My wife and I are about to quit Moulmein.”
“I am sure, sir, we shall be very sorry to lose you,” said Hersey.
After settling this affair, Coldstream, with a quick step—for he wished to get over painful business as rapidly as he might—proceeded to his own office, which opened on the wharf. Coldstream, as he expected, found Smith overlooking labourers at work in the extensive yard which adjoined the premises. There were some repairs going on, and the sound of hammer and saw rose in the morning air. Smith respectfully greeted his chief, and made a remark on the work on which the labourers were employed.
“A fine bit of timber that, Mr. Coldstream; one does not see such every day,” he observed.
“No; the tree must have been a grand one before it fell beneath the axe,” said Oscar.—“Smith, come with me to the office; I have some matters which I wish to talk over with you there.”
The two men were soon seated in the office. Smith, a shrewd, intelligent man of business, thoroughly master of his work, listened with unfeigned surprise to a proposal made by his employer by which his own position in life would be entirely changed. The reader need not be troubled by details. Coldstream’s plan, matured during his long pedestrian journey, was to make over his whole business to a man who had twice managed it satisfactorily during his own absence. An agreement would have to be drawn up by a lawyer by which Smith would engage to pay a certain yearly sum to Mrs. Coldstream as interest on the capital which his former employer had sunk in the business. The offer was a liberal one, and its acceptance would at once place Smith in a position to which he had never hoped to attain.
“But, my dear sir, Mr. Coldstream, why should you give up the business?” cried Smith. “You are in the prime of life; thoroughly master of the work. I have served you, and your respected father before you, for more than twenty years. I never looked even to partnership; and now you would place everything in my hands! I hope that your health is not failing—nothing the matter with your heart.” The honest man looked with affectionate anxiety at the pale, worn face of his chief, that anxiety mitigating but not destroying the pleasure which he naturally felt at the prospect of his own advancement.
“It is not want of health that takes me from Moulmein,” replied Oscar.
“But you will return, my dear sir—you will certainly return and take up the business again? I will act under your orders and in your name, as I have twice done when you were absent in England.”
Mr. Coldstream shook his head gravely. “No, Smith; I wish to make an arrangement definite—final. I shall never return to Moulmein.” Then, after a pause, he went on: “I have one other stipulation to make, though it cannot be put into legal form like the arrangement in favour of Mrs. Coldstream. I must add the condition that you give employment at a moderate salary to her brother, young Thorn, who has come to Moulmein in the hope of finding some means of earning his living.”
Smith raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders a little. Something like a smile came to his lips.
“I willingly agree to take the young master into the business,” said he, “and give him a sufficient salary, with prospect of increase; but I cannot engage to keep him on unless he shows himself willing to work. Master Thorn is so desirous to instruct, that I find it uncommonly hard to get him to learn; and we can’t get into any profession by jumping over the wall—we must take the trouble of opening the gate.”
“Do you think the lad deficient in intellect?” inquired Mr. Coldstream.
“Oh dear, no, sir! he has as much brain as most other boys; only he thinks that he has a thousand times more,” replied Smith with a grin. “Master Thorn is lazy too, he is; he ought to have been at his work here more than an hour ago.”
“I see him coming; I will go and meet him. I will tell him of our arrangement, and say that you agree to give him a trial.”
“Yes, sir, a trial. I’ll do what I can, for your sake and the lady’s; but Master Thorn should know that the result must depend on his own behaviour.”
“Young Thorn needs the spur of necessity,” observed Mr. Coldstream; “he may do better when we are away.” Then, bidding Smith good-morning, Oscar quitted the office, and went with quick step to meet Thud, who was approaching with a slow one.
“Why—I say—you back already! I did not expect you for a fortnight!” exclaimed Thud. The lad’s heavy face showed signs of the effect of the festival of the last evening; his cheeks were more puffed and his eyes a little more blinking than usual.
“We met with an adventure,” replied Oscar, “and both Io and I decided to return at once. Besides, I have many arrangements to make. We are going to leave Moulmein.”
“Oh, I am glad of that!” cried Thud. “It’s the most stupid place under the sun; it has not so much as a club-room or a museum. When shall we start?”
“It is not a case of we,” replied Mr. Coldstream; “I am compelled to leave you behind in Moulmein.”
“I won’t stay behind when you go,” said Thud bluntly.
“I am afraid that you will hardly have a choice,” replied his brother-in-law; and Oscar explained to Thud the arrangement which he had made for his benefit, and tried to show him how much to his advantage it was to be received at once as a paid assistant, instead of being simply apprenticed.
“I—an assistant to that low fellow Smith, the son of a London tailor!” exclaimed Thud, with intense disgust.
“No matter whose son he may be; he is a good, honest, sensible man, who has worked his own way up in the world. Mr. Smith is the only person whom I know willing to give you such a chance.”
“I’ll go with you. Where are you going?” asked Thud.
“Where we go is not the question; I have told you already that you cannot go with us.”
Thud ground his teeth in anger. “I’ll return to England at once,” growled he.
“Who will pay for your passage? I certainly shall not,” said Oscar. “Listen, my boy,” he continued, laying his hand in a kindly way on the shoulder of Thud. “I believe that the separation will be for your good. Thrown on your own resources, you will show what mettle is in you; you will learn to work so as to be a help to a widowed mother, and not a burden. You have an opportunity of redeeming the time; the ball is at your foot—”
Thud showed what he was likely to do with the symbolical ball by violently kicking a............