And he took Drusilla’s hand, and drew it within his arm and led the way down-stairs.
A large, open barouche, with a fine pair of horses, stood waiting the General’s family. A jaunty gig with a spirited horse awaited the two young gentlemen.
Drusilla and Anna were handed into the back seat. The General sat in front, and by his side sat Pina with little Lenny. Dick perched himself up beside the driver. Jacob rode behind. The two young men were in their gig.
The party started—the General’s barouche taking the lead.
The drizzling rain had ceased and the clouds were dispersing before a light wind.
The streets of London, always crowded, were now thronged; but with this difference also,—that nine-tenths of the people’s faces and the horses’ heads were turned in one direction, and everybody,—man, woman, and child, saint and sinner,—was becoming more and more intoxicated; and not with spirituous or fermented liquors, but with the Derby Day. Crowded carriages of all descriptions, saddle-horses, donkeys, and foot-passengers of all ranks and sexes, thronged the streets; and talk and laughter, calls and shouts resounded through the air. It looked as if London were suddenly being evacuated by its whole population, and the people were making a merry joke of the matter. And all were pouring towards the south-western suburb.
In such a throng the progress of our party was necessarily very slow, yet with none of the tedium of a slow progress. The great crowd of people and of vehicles going all one way; the variety of individuals and characters; the total abandonment of all reserve; the hailings and the chaffings; the jests and the snatches of song; the grotesque decorations of some of the horses and carriages, and even of some of the people; the perfect novelty of the scene; and the exhilaration of all animated creatures that composed it, made every step of the progress charming to the unaccustomed minds and eyes of our new-comers.
Drusilla and Anna were delighted. Little Lenny shouted. Pina was not a whit behind them in her ecstasies. Old General Lyon’s eyes twinkled and lips smiled, and sometimes he broke into a good hearty laugh. As for Dick, the oldest Derby goer on the road could not have got ahead of him in bandying back the jokes that were bandied at him on the way. Only that Jacob, hanging on behind, stared with “all his eyes,” and looked as if he thought he was enjoying a pleasant sort of nightmare.
“I say, you jolly old howl (owl),” called a cockney from a neighboring carriage to General Lyon, “where did you get that gorilla you’ve got perched up behind there, heh?”
“From a country where they muzzle monkeys sometimes,” retorted Dick, answering for the General.