Eric, or Little by Little Part 26

Duncan didn't re-enter the study that evening.

The next day, about half-past four, Eric found himself on the way to Ellan. As he was starting, Ball caught him up and said--

"Are you going to the Anti-m.u.f.fs?"

"Yes; why? are you going too?"

"Yes; do you mind our going together?"

"Not at all."

In fact, Eric was very glad of some one--no matter who--to keep him in countenance, for he felt considerably more than half ashamed of himself.

They went to "The Jolly Herring," as the pot-house was called, and pa.s.sed through the dingy beery taproom into the back parlour, to which Eric had already been introduced by Wildney. About a dozen boys were a.s.sembled, and there was a great clapping as the two newcomers entered.

A long table was laid down the room, which was regularly spread for dinner.

"Now then, Billy; make haste with the goose," called Brigson. "I vote, boys, that Eric Williams takes the chair."

"Hear! hear!" said half a dozen; and Eric, rather against his will, found himself ensconced at the end of the table, with Brigson and Ball on either hand. The villainous low-foreheaded man, whom they called Billy, soon brought in a tough goose at one end of the table, and some fowls at the other; and they fell to, doing ample justice to the _dais eise_, while Billy waited on them. There was immense uproar during the dinner, every one eating as fast, and talking as loud, as he could.

The birds soon vanished, and were succeeded by long roly-poly puddings, which the boys called Goliahs; and they, too, rapidly disappeared.

Meanwhile beer was circling only too plentifully.

"Now for the dessert, Billy," called several voices; and that worthy proceeded to put on the table some figs, cakes, oranges, and four black bottles of wine. There was a general grab for these dainties, and one boy shouted, "I say, I've had no wine."

"Well, it's all gone. We must get some brandy--it's cheaper," said Brigson; and accordingly some brandy was brought in, which the boys diluted with hot water, and soon despatched.

"Here! before you're all done swilling," said Brigson, "I've got a health: 'Confound m.u.f.fs and masters, and success to the antis.'"

"And their chairman," suggested Wildney.

"And their chairman, the best fellow in the school," added Brigson.

The health was drunk with due clamour, and Eric (ridiculous and meaningless as he thought the toast) got up to thank them.

"I'm not going to spout," he said; "but boys must be boys, and there's no harm in a bit of fun, I for one have enjoyed it, and am much obliged to you for asking me; and now I call for a song."

"Wildney! Wildney's song," called several.

Wildney had a good voice, and struck up without the least bashfulness--

"Come, landlord, fill the flowing bowl Until it does run over Come, landlord, fill, etc."

"Now," he said, "join in the chorus!" The boys, all more or less excited, joined in heartily and uproariously--

"For to-night we'll merry merry be!

For to-night we'll merry merry be!

For to-night we'll merry merry be!

To-morrow we'll be sober!"

While Wildney sang, Eric had time to think. As he glanced round the room at the flushed faces of the boys, some of whom he could not recognise in the dusky atmosphere, a qualm of disgust and shame pa.s.sed over him. Several of them were smoking, and, with Ball and Brigson heading the line on each side of the table, he could not help observing what a bad set they looked. The remembrance of Russell came back to him. Oh, if Edwin could have known that he was in such company at such a place! And by the door stood Billy, watching them all like an evil spirit, with a leer of saturnine malice on his evil face.

But the bright little Wildney, unconscious of Eric's bitter thoughts, sang on with overflowing mirth.

As Eric looked at him, shining out like a sunbeam among the rest, he felt something like blood-guiltiness on his soul, when he felt that he was sanctioning the young boy's presence in that degraded a.s.semblage.

Wildney meanwhile was just beginning the next verse, when he was interrupted by a general cry of "Cave, cave." In an instant the room was in confusion; some one dashed the candles upon the floor, the table was overturned with a mighty crash, and plates, gla.s.ses, and bottles rushed on to the ground in shivers. Nearly every one bolted for the door, which led through the pa.s.sage into the street; and in their headlong flight and selfishness, they stumbled over each other, and prevented all egress, several being knocked down and bruised in the crush. Others made for the taproom; but, as they opened the door leading into it, there stood Mr Ready and Mr Gordon! and as it was impossible to pa.s.s without being seen, they made no further attempt at escape. All this was the work of a minute. Entering the back parlour, the two masters quickly took down the names of full half the boys who, in the suddenness of the surprise, had been unable to make their exit.

And Eric?

The instant that the candles were knocked over, he felt Wildney seize his hand, and whisper, "This way; all serene;" following, he groped his way in the dark to the end of the room, where Wildney, shoving aside a green baize curtain, noiselessly opened a door, which at once led them into a little garden. There they both crouched down under a lilac tree beside the house, and listened intently.

There was no need for this precaution; their door remained unsuspected, and in five minutes the coast was clear. Creeping into the house again, they whistled, and Billy coming in, told them that the masters had gone, and all was safe.

"Glad ye're not twigged, gen'lemen," he said; "but there'll be a pretty sight of damage for all this gla.s.s and plates."

"Shut up with your gla.s.s and plates," said Wildney. "Here, Eric, we must cut for it again."

It was the dusk of a winter evening when they got out from the close room into the open-air, and they had to consider which way they would choose to avoid discovery. They happened to choose the wrong, but escaped by dint of hard running, and Wildney's old short cut. As they ran they pa.s.sed several boys (who, having been caught, were walking home leisurely), and managed to get back undiscovered, when they both answered their names quite innocently at the roll-call, immediately after lock-up.

"What lucky dogs you are to get off," said many boys to them.

"Yes; it's precious lucky for me," said Wildney. "If I'd been caught at this kind of thing a second time, I should have got something worse than a swishing."

"Well it's all through you I escaped," said Eric, "you knowing little scamp."

"I'm glad of it, Eric," said Wildney, in his fascinating way, "since it was all through me you went. It's rather too hazardous though; we must manage better another time."

During tea-time Eric was silent, as he felt pretty sure that none of the sixth-form or other study-boys would particularly sympathise with his late a.s.sociates. Since the previous evening he had been cool with Duncan, and the rest had long rather despised him as a boy who'd do anything to be popular; so he sat there silent, looking as disdainful as he could, and not touching the tea, for which he felt disinclined after the recent potations. But the contemptuous exterior hid a self-reproving heart, and he felt how far more worthy Owen and Montagu were than he. How gladly would he have changed places with them; how much he would have given to recover some of their forfeited esteem.

The master on duty was Mr Rose, and after tea he left the room for a few minutes while the tables were cleared for "preparation," and the boys were getting out their books and exercises. All the study and cla.s.sroom boys were expected to go away during this interval; but Eric, not noticing Mr Rose's entrance, sat gossiping with Wildney about the dinner and its possible consequences to the school.

He was sitting on the desk carelessly, with one leg over the other, and bending down towards Wildney. He had just told him that he looked like a regular little sunbeam in the smoking-room of "The Jolly Herring," and Wildney was pretending to be immensely offended by the simile.

"Hush! no more talking," said Mr Rose, who did everything very gently and quietly. Eric heard him, but he was inclined to linger, and had always received such mild treatment from Mr Rose, that he didn't think he would take much notice of the delay. For the moment he did not, so Wildney began to chatter again.

"All study-boys to leave the room," said Mr Rose.

Eric just glanced round and moved slightly; he might have gone away, but that he caught a satirical look in Wildney's eye, and besides wanted to show off a little indifference to his old master, with whom he had had no intercourse since their last-mentioned conversation.

"Williams, go away instantly; what do you mean by staying after I have dismissed you?" said Mr Rose sternly.

Every one knew what a favourite Eric had once been, so this speech created a slight t.i.tter. The boy heard it just as he was going out of the room, and it annoyed him, and called to arms all his proud and dogged obstinacy. Pretending to have forgotten something, he walked conceitedly back to Wildney, and whispered to him, "I shan't go if he chooses to speak like that."

A red flush pa.s.sed over Mr Rose's cheek; he took two strides to Eric, and laid the cane sharply once across his back.

Eric was not quite himself, or he would not have acted as he had done.

His potations, though not deep, had, with the exciting events of the evening, made his head giddy, and the stroke of the cane, which he had not felt now for two years, roused him to madness. He bounded up, sprang towards Mr Rose, and almost before he knew what he was about, had wrenched the cane out of his hands, twisted it violently in the middle until it broke, and flung one of the pieces furiously into the fire.