“Umph! so it should be always. I see, now I come to look at you, you are one of the cap-and-gown gentlemen.” (Then came an aside—“Cap, indeed! it's a fool's cap would fit one half of 'em best!”) “Pray, may I ask what college you belong to, Mr. ——?”
“Legh is my name, sir—Legh of Trinity.”
“Umph! Trinity; just the man I wanted to get hold of. My name's Frampton, Mr. Lee: they know me well at the India House, sir. When we've had a bit of dinner, and washed this horrid fog out of our throats with a few glasses of wine, I shall be glad to ask you a question or two. Umph!”
“Any information it may be in my power to afford you,” I began——
“That'll do, sir, that'll do,” was the reply. “Perhaps you won't be quite so ready when you hear what it is I want.” Then, in an undertone—“Tell me a parcel of lies, most likely; I know how these young scamps hang by one another, and think it high fun 'to do the governor,' as they call it. Umph!”
On our arrival at the Hoop we were ushered into one of the best sitting-rooms the inn afforded, where a blazing fire soon effaced all traces of the wet-blanket-like fog in which we had been so lately enveloped. I was shown into a comfortable dressing-room to get ready for dinner, an opportunity of which I availed myself to render my appearance as unlike what it had been in former days as circumstances would allow, before again subjecting myself to Mr. Framptqn's scrutiny. For this purpose, I combed my hair back from my face as far as possible, and brushed my whiskers—an acquisition of which I had only lately become possessed—as prominently forward as the growth of the crop permitted. I poked my shirt-collar entirely out of sight, and tied my black neckcloth stiffly up under my chin, and finally buttoned my coat, so as to show off the breadth of my chest and shoulders to the greatest advantage. Thus accoutred, and drawing myself up to my full height, I hastened to rejoin Mr. Frampton. My arrangements seemed thoroughly to have answered their purpose, for he gazed at me without evincing the slightest symptom of recognition. He shook me by the hand, however, and thanked me more cordially than he had yet done for the assistance rendered him, and then rang for dinner. The bill of fare embraced all the Asiatic luxuries he had enumerated, to which, on the strength of having invited a guest, sundry European dishes were added; and with appetites sharpened by our recent adventures, we did full justice to the good cheer that was set before us.
CHAPTER XXX — MR. FRAMPTON'S INTRODUCTION TO A TIGER
“Had I been seized by a hungry tiger,
I would have been a breakfast to the beast.”
—Shakspeare.
“He started
Like one who sees a spectre, and exclaimed,
'Blind that I was to know him not till now!'”
—Southey.
“Go to, you are a counterfeit knave!”—Shakspeare.
“I HOPE you feel no ill effects from your adventure, sir: you resisted the fellow's attack most spiritedly, and would have beaten him off, I believe, if you had possessed a more serviceable weapon than an umbrella,” observed I to Mr. Frampton, as we drew our chairs to the fire after dinner.