Lavengro, George Borrow [i love reading books txt] 📗

the towel to Jenny, I gave a deep sigh and said: “Surely this is one of the pleasant moments of life.”

Then, having set my dress to rights, and combed my hair with a pocket comb, I followed Jenny, who conducted me back through the long passage, and showed me into a neat, sanded parlour on the ground floor.

I sat down by a window which looked out upon the dusty street; presently in came the handmaid, and commenced laying the tablecloth. “Shall I spread the table for one, sir,” said she, “or do you expect anybody to dine with you?”

“I can’t say that I expect anybody,” said I, laughing inwardly to myself; “however, if you please you can lay for two, so that if any acquaintance of mine should chance to step in, he may find a knife and fork ready for him.”

So I sat by the window, sometimes looking out upon the dusty street, and now glancing at certain old-fashioned prints which adorned the wall over against me. I fell into a kind of doze, from which I was almost instantly awakened by the opening of the door. Dinner, thought I; and I sat upright in my chair. No, a man of the middle age, and rather above the middle height dressed in a plain suit of black, made his appearance, and sat down in a chair at some distance from me, but near to the table, and appeared to be lost in thought.

“The weather is very warm, sir,” said I.

“Very,” said the stranger184 laconically, looking at me for the first time.

“Would you like to see the newspaper?” said I, taking up one which lay on the window seat.

“I never read newspapers,” said the stranger, “nor, indeed⁠—” Whatever it might be that he had intended to say he left unfinished. Suddenly he walked to the mantelpiece at the farther end of the room, before which he placed himself with his back towards me. There he remained motionless for some time; at length, raising his hand, he touched the corner of the mantelpiece with his finger, advanced towards the chair which he had left, and again seated himself.

“Have you come far?” said he, suddenly looking towards me, and speaking in a frank and open manner, which denoted a wish to enter into conversation. “You do not seem to be of this place.”

“I come from some distance,” said I; “indeed, I am walking for exercise, which I find as necessary to the mind as the body. I believe that by exercise people would escape much mental misery.”

Scarcely had I uttered these words when the stranger laid his hand, with seeming carelessness, upon the table, near one of the glasses; after a moment or two he touched the glass with his finger as if inadvertently, then, glancing furtively at me, he withdrew his hand and looked towards the window.

“Are you from these parts?” said I at last, with apparent carelessness.

“From this vicinity,” replied the stranger. “You think, then, that it is as easy to walk off the bad humours of the mind as of the body.”

“I, at least, am walking in that hope,” said I.

“I wish you may be successful,” said the stranger; and here he touched one of the forks which lay on the table near him.

Here the door, which was slightly ajar, was suddenly pushed open with some fracas, and in came the stout landlord, supporting with some difficulty an immense dish, in which was a mighty round mass of smoking meat garnished all round with vegetables; so high was the mass that it probably obstructed his view, for it was not until he had placed it upon the table that he appeared to observe the stranger; he almost started, and quite out of breath exclaimed: “God bless me, your honour; is your honour the acquaintance that the young gentleman was expecting?”

“Is the young gentleman expecting an acquaintance?” said the stranger.

There is nothing like putting a good face upon these matters, thought I to myself; and, getting up, I bowed to the unknown. “Sir,” said I, “when I told Jenny that she might lay the tablecloth for two, so that in the event of any acquaintance dropping in he might find a knife and fork ready for him, I was merely jocular, being an entire stranger in these parts, and expecting no one. Fortune, however, it would seem, has been unexpectedly kind to me; I flatter myself, sir, that since you have been in this room I have had the honour of making your acquaintance; and in the strength of that hope I humbly entreat you to honour me with your company to dinner, provided you have not already dined.”

The stranger laughed outright.

“Sir,” I continued, “the round of beef is a noble one, and seems exceedingly well boiled, and the landlord was just right when he said I should have such a dinner as is not seen every day. A round of beef, at any rate such a round of beef as this, is seldom seen smoking upon the table in these degenerate times. Allow me, sir,” said I, observing that the stranger was about to speak, “allow me another remark. I think I saw you just now touch the fork, I venture to hail it as an omen that you will presently seize it and apply it to its proper purpose, and its companion the knife also.”

The stranger changed colour, and gazed upon me in silence.

“Do, sir,” here put in the landlord; “do, sir, accept the young gentleman’s invitation. Your honour has of late been looking poorly, and the young gentleman is a funny young gentleman, and a clever young gentleman; and I think it will do your honour good to have a dinner’s chat with the young gentleman.”

“It is not my dinner hour,” said the stranger; “I dine considerably later; taking anything now would only discompose me; I shall, however, be most happy to sit down with the young gentleman; reach me that paper, and, when