Nicholas could not refrain from smiling at the abruptness of the question;but, thinking it scarcely worth while to parry it, owned that he was under some apprehensions lest he might not succeed in the object which had brought him to that part of the country.
`And what's that?' asked the manager.
`Getting something to do which will keep me and my poor fellow-traveller in the common necessaries of life,' said Nicholas. `That's the truth. You guessed it long ago, I dare say, so I may as well have the credit of telling it you with a good grace.'
`What's to be got to do at Portsmouth more than anywhere else?' asked Mr Vincent Crummles, melting the sealing-wax on the stem of his pipe in the candle, and rolling it out afresh with his little finger.
`There are many vessels leaving the port, I suppose,' replied Nicholas.
`I shall try for a berth in some ship or other. There is meat and drink there at all events.'
`Salt meat and new rum; pease-pudding and chaff-biscuits,' said the manager, taking a whiff at his pipe to keep it alight, and returning to his work of embellishment.
`One may do worse than that,' said Nicholas. `I can rough it, I believe, as well as most young men of my age and previous habits.'
`You need be able to,' said the manager, `if you go on board ship; but you won't.'
`Why not?'
`Because there's not a skipper or mate that would think you worth your salt, when he could get a practised hand,' replied the manager; `and they as plentiful there, as the oysters in the streets.'
`What do you mean?' asked Nicholas, alarmed by this prediction, and the confident tone in which it had been uttered. `Men are not born able seamen. They must be reared, I suppose?'
Mr Vincent Crummles nodded his head. `They must; but not at your age, or from young gentlemen like you.'
There was a pause. The countenance of Nicholas fell, and he gazed ruefully at the fire.
`Does no other profession occur to you, which a young man of your figure and address could take up easily, and see the world to advantage in?' asked the manager.
`No,' said Nicholas, shaking his head.
`Why, then, I'll tell you one,' said Mr Crummles, throwing his pipe into the fire, and raising his voice. `The stage.'
`The stage!' cried Nicholas, in a voice almost as loud.
`The theatrical profession,' said Mr Vincent Crummles. `I am in the theatrical profession myself, my wife is in the theatrical profession, my children are in the theatrical profession. I had a dog that lived and died in it from a puppy; and my chaise-pony goes on, in Timour the Tartar.
I'll bring you out, and your friend too. Say the word. I want a novelty.'
`I don't know anything about it,' rejoined Nicholas, whose breath had been almost taken away by this sudden proposal. `I never acted a part in my life, except at school.'
`There's genteel comedy in your walk and manner, juvenile tragedy in your eye, and touch-and-go farce in your laugh,' said Mr Vincent Crummles.
`You'll do as well as if you had thought of nothing else but the lamps, from your birth downwards.'
Nicholas thought of the small amount of small change that would remain in his pocket after paying the tavern bill: and he hesitated.
`You can be useful to us in a hundred ways,' said Mr Crummles. `Think what capital bills a man of your education could write for the shop-windows.'
`Well, I think I could manage that department,' said Nicholas.
`To be sure you could,' replied Mr Crummles. ` "For further particulars see small hand-bills" -- we might have half a volume in every one of 'em.
Pieces too; why, you could write us a piece to bring out the whole strength of the company, whenever we wanted one.'
`I am not quite so confident about that,' replied Nicholas. `But I dare say I could scribble something now and then, that would suit you.'
`We'll have a new show-piece out directly,' said the manager. `Let me see -- peculiar resources of this establishment -- new and splendid scenery -- you must manage to introduce a real pump and two washing-tubs.'
`Into the piece?' said Nicholas.
`Yes,' replied the manager. `I bought 'em cheap, at a sale the other day, and they'll come in admirably. That's the London plan. They look up some dresses, and properties, and have a piece written to fit 'em. Most of the theatres keep an author on purpose.'
`Indeed!' cried Nicholas.
`Oh, yes,' said the manager; `a common thing. It'll look very well in the bills in separate lines -- Real pump! -- Splendid tubs! -- Great attraction!
You don't happen to be anything of an artist, do you?'
`That is not one of my accomplishments,' rejoined Nicholas.
`Ah! Then it can't be helped,' said the manager. `If you had been, we might have had a large woodcut of the last scene for the posters, showing the whole depth of the stage, with the pump and tubs in the middle; but, however, if you're not, it can't be helped.'
`What should I get for all this?' inquired Nicholas, after a few moments'
reflection. `Could I live by it?'
`Live by it!' said the manager. `Like a prince! With your own salary, and your friend's, and your writings, you'd make -- ah! you'd make a pound a week!'
`You don't say so!'
`I do indeed, and if we had a run of good houses, nearly double the money.'
Nicholas shrugged his shoulders; but sheer destitution was before him;and if he could summon fortitude to undergo the extremes of want and hardship, for what had he rescued his helpless charge if it were only to bear as hard a fate as that from which he had wrested him? It was easy to think of seventy miles as nothing, when he was in the same town with the man who had treated him so ill and roused his bitterest thoughts; but now, it seemed far enough. What if he went abroad, and his mother or Kate were to die the while?
Without more deliberation, he hastily declared that it was a bargain, and gave Mr Vincent Crummles his hand upon it.