How much the pleasure of success is increased by the sympathy of our friends! The triumph of a school-boy over his competitors is sometimes despicable; but Howard’s joy was not of this selfish and puerile sort. All the good passions had stimulated him to exertion, and he was rewarded by his own generous feelings. He would not have exchanged the delight which he saw in his little friend Oliver’s face, the approving smile of his aunt, and the proud satisfaction Mr. Russell expressed at the sight of his medal, for all the solid gold which Alderman Holloway deemed the highest reward of literature.
Alderman Holloway was filled with indignation when he heard from Mr. Supine that his son’s essay had been rejected with contempt. The young gentleman was also much surprised at the decision of the judges; and his tutor, by way of pleasing his pupil’s friends, hesitated not to hint, that there “certainly was great injustice done to Mr. Augustus Holloway’s talents.” The subject was canvassed at a turtle dinner at the alderman’s. “There shall not be injustice done to my Augustus,” said the irritated father, wisely encouraging his Augustus in all his mean feelings. “Never mind ‘em all, my boy; you have a father, you may thank Heaven, who can judge for himself, and will: you shall not be the loser by Dr. B.‘s or doctor any body’s injustice; I’ll make it up to you, my boy; in the meantime, join us in a bumper of port. Here’s to Dr. B.‘s better judgment; wishing him health and happiness these Easter holidays, and a new pair of spectacles,—hey, Mr. Supine?”
This well-chosen toast was drunk with much applause and laughter by the company. The alderman insisted upon having his Augustus’s essay produced in the evening. Holloway had now ample satisfaction, for the whole company were unanimous in their plaudits, after Mr. Supine had read two or three sentences: the alderman, to confirm his own critical judgment, drew out his purse, and counting out ten bright guineas, presented them, with a look of high self-satisfaction, to his son. “Here, Augustus, my boy,” said he; “I promised you five guineas if you brought me home the prize medal; but I now present you with ten, to make you the amends you so richly deserve, for not having got their medal. Thank God, I am able to afford it; and I hope,” added the alderman, looking round, and laughing, “I hope I’m as good a patron of the belles lettres as the head doctor of Westminster himself.”
Holloway’s eyes sparkled with joy at the sight of the glittering bribe. He began some speech in reply, in which he compared his father to Maecenas; but being entangled in a sentence, in which the nominative case had been too long separated from the verb, he was compelled to pause abruptly. Nevertheless, the alderman rubbed his hands with exultation; and “Hear him! hear him!—hear your member!” was vociferated by all the friends of the young orator. “Well, really,” concluded his mother to the ladies, who were complimenting her upon her son’s performance, “it was not a bad speech, considering he had nothing to say!”
Lord Rawson, who was one of the company, now congratulated his friend in a whisper—“You’ve made a good job of it to-day, Augustus,” said he: “solid pudding’s better than empty praise. We’re going,” continued his lordship to the alderman, “to try my new horses this evening;” and he pulled Augustus with him out of the room.
“There they go,” said the prudent father, delighted with his own son’s being the chosen friend of a nobleman—“there they go, arm in arm, a couple of rare ones: we shall have fine work with them, I foresee, when Augustus gets to college—but young men of spirit must not be curbed like common boys—we must make allowances—I have been young myself,—hey, Mr. Supine?”
“Certainly, sir,” said the obsequious tutor; “and you still have all the sprightliness of youth; and my ideas of education square completely with yours.”
According to Alderman Holloway’s ideas of education, the holy days were always to be made a season of complete idleness and dissipation, to relieve his son from his school studies. It was his great delight to contrast the pleasures of home with the hardships of school, and to make his son compare the indulgence of a father with the severity of a schoolmaster. How he could expect an education to succeed which he sedulously endeavoured to counteract, it may be difficult for any rational person to conceive.
After Lord Rawson and Holloway had enjoyed the pleasures of driving the new horses, tandem, in a dog-cart, and had conversed about dogs and horses till they had nothing left to say to each other, his lordship proposed stepping in to Mr. Carat, the jeweller’s shop, to look at some new watches: his lordship said he was tired of his own, for he had had it six months. Mr. Carat was not in the way when they first went in. One of the young men who attended in the shop said, “that his master was extremely busy, in settling some accounts with a captain of a ship, who was to leave England in a few days.”
“Don’t tell me of settling accounts,” cried Lord Ramon—“I hate the sound of settling accounts: run and tell Mr. Carat that Lord Rawson is here, and must speak to him this instant, for I’m in a desperate hurry.”