pg5247 [52]
"I stayed in the town on purpose to go to a New Year's party at Mr.
Lawton's," Mr. Scales was saying.
"Ah! So you know Lawyer Lawton!" observed Mrs. Baines, impressed, for
Lawyer Lawton did not consort with tradespeople. He was jolly with
them, and he did their legal business for them, but he was not of them.
His friends came from afar.
"My people are old acquaintances of his," said Mr. Scales, sipping the milk which Maggie had brought.
"Now, Mr. Scales, you must taste my mince. A happy month for every tart you eat, you know," Mrs. Baines reminded him.
He bowed. "And it was as I was coming away from there that I got into difficulties." He laughed.
Then he recounted the struggle, which had, however, been brief, as the assailants lacked pluck. He had slipped and fallen on his elbow on the kerb, and his elbow might have been broken, had not the snow been so thick. No, it did not hurt him now; doubtless a mere bruise. It was fortunate that the miscreants had not got the better of him, for he had in his pocket-book a considerable sum of money in notes—accounts paid! He had often thought what an excellent thing it would be if commercials could travel with dogs, particularly in winter. There was nothing like a dog.
"You are fond of dogs?" asked Mr. Povey, who had always had a secret but impracticable ambition to keep a dog.
"Yes," said Mr. Scales, turning now to Mr. Povey.
"Keep one?" asked Mr. Povey, in a sporting tone.
"I have a fox-terrier bitch," said Mr. Scales, "that took a first at
Knutsford; but she's getting old now."
The sexual epithet fell queerly on the room. Mr. Povey, being a man of the world, behaved as if nothing had happened; but Mrs. Baines's curls protested against this unnecessary coarseness. Constance pretended not to hear. Sophia did not understandingly hear. Mr. Scales had no suspicion that he was transgressing a convention by virtue of which dogs have no sex. Further, he had no suspicion of the local fame of Mrs. Baines's mince-tarts. He had already eaten more mince-tarts than he could enjoy, before beginning upon hers, and Mrs. Baines missed the enthusiasm to which she was habituated from consumers of her pastry.
Mr. Povey, fascinated, proceeded in the direction of dogs, and it grew more and more evident that Mr. Scales, who went out to parties in evening dress, instead of going in respectable broad-cloth to watch night-services, who knew the great ones of the land, and who kept dogs of an inconvenient sex, was neither an ordinary commercial traveller nor the kind of man to which the Square was accustomed. He came from a different world.
"Lawyer Lawton's party broke up early—at least I mean, considering—"
Mrs. Baines hesitated.
After a pause Mr. Scales replied, "Yes, I left immediately the clock struck twelve. I've a heavy day to-morrow—I mean to-day."
It was not an hour for a prolonged visit, and in a few minutes Mr. Scales was ready again to depart. He admitted a certain feebleness ('wankiness,' he playfully called it, being proud of his skill in the dialect), and a burning in his elbow; but otherwise he was quite well—thanks to Mrs. Baines's most kind hospitality … He really didn't know how he came to be sitting on her doorstep. Mrs. Baines urged him, if he met a policeman on his road to the Tiger, to furnish all particulars about the attempted highway robbery, and he said he decidedly would.
He took his leave with distinguished courtliness.
"If I have a moment I shall run in to-morrow morning just to let you know I'm all right," said he, in the white street.
"Oh, do!" said Constance. Constance's perfect innocence made her strangely forward at times.
"A happy New Year and many of them!"
"Thanks! Same to you! Don't get lost."
"Straight