"By all means, sir," said Mr Tappertit, suiting the action to theword.
"You"ll excuse my mentioning it, I hope?"
"Don"t apologise, sir, I beg. And now, if you please, tobusiness."
During the whole of this dialogue, Mr Chester had suffered nothingbut his smile of unvarying serenity and politeness to appear uponhis face. Sim Tappertit, who had far too good an opinion ofhimself to suspect that anybody could be playing upon him, thoughtwithin himself that this was something like the respect to which hewas entitled, and drew a comparison from this courteous demeanourof a stranger, by no means favourable to the worthy locksmith.
"From what passes in our house," said Mr Tappertit, "I am aware,sir, that your son keeps company with a young lady against yourinclinations. Sir, your son has not used me well."
"Mr Tappertit," said the other, "you grieve me beyond description."
"Thank you, sir," replied the "prentice. "I"m glad to hear you sayso. He"s very proud, sir, is your son; very haughty."
"I am afraid he IS haughty," said Mr Chester. "Do you know I wasreally afraid of that before; and you confirm me?"
"To recount the menial offices I"ve had to do for your son, sir,"
said Mr Tappertit; "the chairs I"ve had to hand him, the coachesI"ve had to call for him, the numerous degrading duties, whollyunconnected with my indenters, that I"ve had to do for him, wouldfill a family Bible. Besides which, sir, he is but a young manhimself and I do not consider "thank"ee Sim," a proper form ofaddress on those occasions."
"Mr Tappertit, your wisdom is beyond your years. Pray go on."
"I thank you for your good opinion, sir," said Sim, much gratified,"and will endeavour so to do. Now sir, on this account (andperhaps for another reason or two which I needn"t go into) I am onyour side. And what I tell you is this--that as long as our peoplego backwards and forwards, to and fro, up and down, to that therejolly old Maypole, lettering, and messaging, and fetching andcarrying, you couldn"t help your son keeping company with thatyoung lady by deputy,--not if he was minded night and day by allthe Horse Guards, and every man of "em in the very fullestuniform."
Mr Tappertit stopped to take breath after this, and then startedfresh again.
"Now, sir, I am a coming to the point. You will inquire of me,"how is this to he prevented?" I"ll tell you how. If an honest,civil, smiling gentleman like you--"
"Mr Tappertit--really--"
"No, no, I"m serious," rejoined the "prentice, "I am, upon my soul.
If an honest, civil, smiling gentleman like you, was to talk butten minutes to our old woman--that"s Mrs Varden--and flatter her upa bit, you"d gain her over for ever. Then there"s this point got-thather daughter Dolly,"--here a flush came over Mr Tappertit"sface--"wouldn"t be allowed to be a go-between from that timeforward; and till that point"s got, there"s nothing ever willprevent her. Mind that."
"Mr Tappertit, your knowledge of human nature--"
"Wait a minute," said Sim, folding his arms with a dreadfulcalmness. "Now I come to THE point. Sir, there is a villain atthat Maypole, a monster in human shape, a vagabond of the deepestdye, that unless you get rid of and have kidnapped and carried offat the very least--nothing less will do--will marry your son tothat young woman, as certainly and as surely as if he was theArchbishop of Canterbury himself. He will, sir, for the hatred andmalice that he bears to you; let alone the pleasure of doing a badaction, which to him is its own reward. If you knew how this chap,this Joseph Willet--that"s his name--comes backwards and forwardsto our house, libelling, and denouncing, and threatening you, andhow I shudder when I hear him, you"d hate him worse than I do,-worsethan I do, sir," said Mr Tappertit wildly, putting his hairup straighter, and making a crunching noise with his teeth; "ifsich a thing is possible."
"A little private vengeance in this, Mr Tappertit?"
"Private vengeance, sir, or public sentiment, or both combined-destroy him," said Mr Tappertit. "Miggs says so too. Miggs and meboth say so. We can"t bear the plotting and undermining that takesplace. Our souls recoil from it. Barnaby Rudge and Mrs Rudge arein it likewise; but the villain, Joseph Willet, is the ringleader.
Their plottings and schemes are known to me and Miggs. If you wantinformation of "em, apply to us. Put Joseph Willet down, sir.
Destroy him. Crush him. And be happy."
With these words, Mr Tappertit, who seemed to expect no reply, andto hold it as a necessary consequence of his eloquence that hishearer should be utterly stunned, dumbfoundered, and overwhelmed,folded his arms so that the palm of each hand rested on theopposite shoulder, and disappeared after the manner of thosemysterious warners of whom he had read in cheap story-books.
"That fellow," said Mr Chester, relaxing his face when he wasfairly gone, "is good practice. I HAVE some command of myfeatures, beyond all doubt. He fully confirms what I suspected,though; and blunt tools are sometimes found of use, where sharperinstruments would fail. I fear I may be obliged to make greathavoc among these worthy people. A troublesome necessity! Iquite feel for them."
With that he fell into a quiet slumber:--subsided into such agentle, pleasant sleep, that it was quite infantine.