Some agreed with the last speaker and some were against him, so that a brisk argument was being carried on around me. In the midst of it the Prince took his departure, which was the signal for the greater part of the company to make for the door. In this way I was able at last to reach the corner where Jim had just finished his dressing, while Champion Harrison, with tears of joy still shining upon his cheeks, was helping him on with his overcoat.
“In four rounds!” he kept repeating in a sort of an ecstasy. “Joe Berks in four rounds! And it took Jem Belcher fourteen!”
“Well, Roddy,” cried Jim, holding out his hand, “I told you that I would come to London and make my name known.”
“It was splendid, Jim!”
“Dear old Roddy! I saw your white face staring at me from the corner. You are not changed, for all your grand clothes and your London friends.”
“It is you who are changed, Jim,” said I; “I hardly knew you when you came into the room.”
“Nor I,” cried the smith. “Where got you all these fine feathers, Jim? Sure I am that it was not your aunt who helped you to the first step towards the prize-ring.”
“Miss Hinton has been my friend—the best friend I ever had.”
“Humph! I thought as much,” grumbled the smith. “Well, it is no doing of mine, Jim, and you must bear witness to that when we go home again. I don’t know what—but, there, it is done, and it can’t be helped. After all, she’s—Now, the deuce take my clumsy tongue!”
I could not tell whether it was the wine which he had taken at supper or the excitement of Boy Jim’s victory which was affecting Harrison, but his usually placid face wore a most disturbed expression, and his manner seemed to betray an alternation of exultation and embarrassment. Jim looked curiously at him, wondering evidently what it was that lay behind these abrupt sentences and sudden silences. The coach-house had in the mean time been cleared; Berks with many curses had staggered at last to his feet, and had gone off in company with two other bruisers, while Jem Belcher alone remained chatting very earnestly with my uncle.