Page:Cuthbert Bede--Little Mr Bouncer and Tales of College Life.djvu/260

240 in the labyrinthine and memorable trial of "Bardell against Pickwick." "And you may rest heasy, Sir," continued the Canary, "that I 'll be as mum as a hoyster!" and the faithful and affable creature closed his fingers upon the two half-crowns delicately slipped into his hand.

"In these sort of cases," thought Percie, "and with these kind of people, a little palm-oil is most efficacious in lubricating the conscience, and enabling it to slip easily into the track we have marked out for it. And Fidelity will hold true at five shillings until it be tempted with ten."

But Mr. Percival Wylde had no further time to bestow on reflections of a philosophic nature, when it was the moment for prompt action. He waved an adieu to Miss Fanny, who was watching him from the drawing-room window—and jumping into the Hansom, ordered the driver to take him to the Great Western, as though his life depended on his speed.

This injunction, as it happened, was well nigh being fulfilled to the very letter; for, as the driver made a sharp turn round the corner of Hyde-park-street, the cab came into collision with the van of a West End laundress, which was proceeding on its homeward route laden with the heavy baggage it had collected in the Square. Now, although Hansoms are warranted to "keep this side uppermost," and to preserve their equilibrium under the most trying circumstances, yet they are not exempt from those ills which cabs are heir to, when brought into sudden and violent contact with vehicles of larger growth and heavier burden; and it therefore happened, that not only was a shaft of the cab broken, but that one of its little windows was