“Noll,” said she—“you are something of a man.”
CHAPTER XXXVII
Which is Uneasy with the Restlessness of Youth
Sir Pompey Malahide came into his baronetcy on a fine summer’s day; and Noll spent the resulting week of high festivities with Horace and the family, and there strengthened his friendship with Bartholomew Doome, whose unsnobbish affection and care of the rough merchant won Noll’s regard even more than his grim humour.
Horace, his father baroneted and the feasting done, decided to go to Paris for a change—“to get the odour of cooked bullocks from his nostrils.” Noll saw him off at the railway-station; saw his man Jonkin, of the ducal manner, tuck him up in his railway-carriage; watched the train slide out of the station—and sighed to lose the light-hearted companionship of the sunny youth.
The departing of a comrade sends a cloud across the bluest sky.
Noll, with the confidence of youth, decided to be a literary celebrity.
He felt that it would be a brilliant and fascinating position to hold; and it required no capital. It was not to be bought. There was an air about it.