It speaks to me in every tone
Of Life’s significance.
J. O. W.
THE QUOD CORRESPONDENCE.
Harry Harson.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Harry Harson strode into his own house, with his jolly face brimful of cheerfulness. It shone out of his eyes; out of the corners of his half-closed mouth; and even out of his full, round double chin. Every part of him seemed glowing with it; and no sooner had he got in his parlor, than he flung his hat on the table; snapped his fingers over his head in perfect ecstacy; made the hazardous experiment of a slow pirouette around the table, and concluded his performances by making two or three passes with his cane at the nose of Spite, who had been watching his conduct with an air of extreme surprise, not unmingled with disapprobation. The attack upon himself was carrying the joke too far; and after several ineffectual attempts to avoid the point of the cane, with a discontented grumble, between a whine and a growl, he retreated under an old side-board, sadly troubled with misgivings as to the state of his master’s intellect.
‘Ha, ha! old pup! you don’t understand the science of fence; but don’t take it hard. I’ve got a drop of comfort in store for you; for we’re to have a blow-out, Spite—a real, regular, out-and-out blow-out—ha! ha! And you shall be under the table during the whole of it,’ exclaimed Harson, rubbing his hands together, and chuckling with indescribable glee. ‘I’ll speak about it at once.’ He opened the door and bawled out, in a voice that made the old house shake: ‘Hallo! there, Martha, Martha, come here, quick!’
A frantic rush across the kitchen was heard, succeeded by a violent clatter of slip-shod shoes through the entry; for Martha, since the late burglary, being haunted in idea by shabby looking gentlemen with pistols in their pockets, and dark lanterns under their arms, even in broad daylight, was on the look-out for emergencies, and had every thing ready for speedy egress to the street, either through the front door or the cellar window; and the tone of Harson’s voice being that of a man in extremity, had such an effect upon her, that when she reached the door, she could only gasp out:
‘Lor’ me! is they here ag’in?’