Page:Braddon--The Trail of the Serpent.djvu/183

Rh still at the asylum, and that there he must remain till such time as he should be able to leave without raising suspicion.

"And to think," said Kuppins, "that we should have seen the advertisement for a boy to wait upon poor Mr. Marwood; and to think that we should have thought of sending our Slosh to take the situation; and to think that he should have been so clever in helping you through with it! Oh my!" As Kuppins here evinced a desire for a second edition of the hysterics, Mr. Peters changed the conversation by looking inquiringly towards a couple of saucepans on the fire.

"Tripe," said Kuppins, answering the look, "and taters, floury ones;" whereon she began to lay the supper-table. Kuppins was almost mistress of the house now, for the elderly proprietress was a sufferer from rheumatism, and kept to her room, enlivened by the society of a large black cat, and such gossip as Kuppins collected about the neighbourhood in the course of the day and retailed to her mistress in the evening. So we leave Mr. Peters smoking his pipe and roasting his legs at his own hearth, while Kuppins dishes the tripe and onions, and strips the floury potatoes of their russet jackets.

Where all this time is the Emperor Napoleon?

There are two gentlemen pacing up and down the platform of the Birmingham station, waiting for the 10 p.m. London express. One of them is Mr. Augustus Darley; the other is a man wrapped in a greatcoat, who has red hair and whiskers, and wears a pair of spectacles; but behind these spectacles there are dark brown eyes, which scarcely match the red hair, any better than the pale dark complexion agrees with the very roseate hue of the whiskers. These two gentlemen have come across the country from a little station a few miles from Slopperton-on-the-Sloshy.

"Well, Dick," said Darley, "doesn't this bring back old times, my boy?"

The red-haired gentleman, who was smoking a cigar, took it from his mouth and clasped his companion by the hand, and said—

"It does, Gus, old fellow; and when I forget the share you've had in to-day's work, may Imay I go back to that place and eat out my own heart, as I have done for eight years!"

There was something so very like a mist behind his spectacles, and such an ominous thickness in his voice, as the red-haired gentleman said this, that Gus proposed a glass of brandy before the train started.

"Come, Dick, old fellow, you're quite womanish to-night, I declare. This won't do, you know. I shall have to knock up some of our old pals and make a jolly night of it, when we get