“H’m!” he grunted between his teeth, but whether meaning to thank me or not, I could not say; and then, without waiting for the door to be opened, as I naturally imagined, he turned on his heel, and made off back again towards the station.
I had to ring a second time at the side-bell before any person appeared to answer my summons; and then, sad be it to relate, the portal of the mansion was opened by a dirty, down-at-heels, draggle-tailed old woman instead of the staid, respectable man-servant who should have officiated as janitor to be in proper keeping with the brilliant prospectus before mentioned.
“Oh, it’s you, is it!” exclaimed the old woman, who had drawn back the door gingerly as if she had expected some one else on possibly a hostile mission, for an expression of relief came over her face when she saw only me; and then, ushering me into a little room leading out of the hall, she left me there, telling me to sit down. I had brought my box in with me, you may be sure, otherwise this feat would have been impossible, as there was not a single chair in the apartment, the major portion of the furniture of the house, as I subsequently learnt, having been seized by the sheriff’s officers for rent.
My first interview with Doctor Hellyer did not last very long; but it certainly was to the point, so far as it went towards impressing me with his ponderous personality, for he was a big, smooth-faced, fat, oily man, with a crafty look in his little twinkling eyes.
“Ah, Leigh—ah,” said he on coming, presently, into the room, “you’ve come at last—ah?”
This “ah-ing” of his was a confirmed habit, for he never seemed able to begin or end a sentence without dragging in the ejaculation.
“Yes, sir,” I replied, rising up from my box, and taking off my cap politely.
“Ah—I’ve had a nice character of you from your aunt, my dear young gentleman,” he proceeded, blinking his little ferret-like eyes furiously, and with a dubious sort of grin expanding his wide mouth, which was furnished with a set of teeth like a shark’s. “She tells me—ah—Master Leigh, that you are rude, and bold, and bad, and disobedient—ah—and that I shall have to keep a strict watch over your conduct; but I think—ah—you will find yourself in good hands here, my dee-er boy, really in good hands at last—ah!” and, smiling an ogreish smile, he rubbed the palms of the said members together up and down and over one another in a circular way as if he were kneading up a little ball of putty within them, and I was that ball!