Those who have much frequented the society of gentlemen of his profession (and what more delightful?) must be aware, that, when all the rest of mankind look hideous, dirty, peevish, wretched, after a forty hours' coach-journey, a bagman appears as gay and spruce as when he started; having within himself a thousand little conveniences for the voyage, which common travellers neglect.
Pogson had a little portable toilet, of which he had not failed to take advantage, and with his long, curling, flaxen hair, flowing under a seal-skin cap, with a gold tassel, with a blue and gold satin handkerchief, a crimson velvet waistcoat, a light green cut-away coat, a pair of barred brickdust-colored pantaloons, and a neat mackintosh, presented, altogether, as elegant and distingue an appearance as any one could desire.He had put on a clean collar at breakfast, and a pair of white kids as he entered the barrier, and looked, as he rushed into my arms, more like a man stepping out of a band-box, than one descending from a vehicle that has just performed one of the laziest, dullest, flattest, stalest, dirtiest journeys in Europe.
To my surprise, there were TWO ladies in the coach with my friend, and not ONE, as I had expected.One of these, a stout female, carrying sundry baskets, bags, umbrellas, and woman's wraps, was evidently a maid-servant: the other, in black, was Pogson's fair one, evidently.I could see a gleam of curl-papers over a sallow face,--of a dusky nightcap flapping over the curl-papers,--but these were hidden by a lace veil and a huge velvet bonnet, of which the crowning birds-of-paradise were evidently in a moulting state.
She was encased in many shawls and wrappers; she put, hesitatingly, a pretty little foot out of the carriage--Pogson was by her side in an instant, and, gallantly putting one of his white kids round her waist, aided this interesting creature to descend.I saw, by her walk, that she was five-and-forty, and that my little Pogson was a lost man.
After some brief parley between them--in which it was charming to hear how my friend Samuel WOULD speak, what he called French, to a lady who could not understand one syllable of his jargon--the mutual hackney-coaches drew up; Madame la Baronne waved to the Captain a graceful French curtsy."Adyou!" said Samuel, and waved his lily hand."Adyou-addimang."A brisk little gentleman, who had made the journey in the same coach with Pogson, but had more modestly taken a seat in the Imperial, here passed us, and greeted me with a "How d'ye do?" He had shouldered his own little valise, and was trudging off, scattering a cloud of commissionaires, who would fain have spared him the trouble.
"Do you know that chap?" says Pogson; "surly fellow, ain't he?""The kindest man in existence," answered I; "all the world knows little Major British.""He's a Major, is he?--why, that's the fellow that dined with us at Killyax's; it's lucky I did not call myself Captain before him, he mightn't have liked it, you know:" and then Sam fell into a reverie;--what was the subject of his thoughts soon appeared.
"Did you ever SEE such a foot and ankle?" said Sam, after sitting for some time, regardless of the novelty of the scene, his hands in his pockets, plunged in the deepest thought.
"ISN'T she a slap-up woman, eh, now?" pursued he; and began enumerating her attractions, as a horse-jockey would the points of a favorite animal.
"You seem to have gone a pretty length already," said I, "by promising to visit her to-morrow.""A good length?--I believe you.Leave ME alone for that.""But I thought you were only to be two in the coupe, you wicked rogue.""Two in the coopy? Oh! ah! yes, you know--why, that is, I didn't know she had her maid with her (what an ass I was to think of a noblewoman travelling without one!) and couldn't, in course, refuse, when she asked me to let the maid in.""Of course not."
"Couldn't, you know, as a man of honor; but I made up for all that," said Pogson, winking slyly, and putting his hand to his little bunch of a nose, in a very knowing way.
"You did, and how?"
"Why, you dog, I sat next to her; sat in the middle the whole way, and my back's half broke, I can tell you:" and thus, having depicted his happiness, we soon reached the inn where this back-broken young man was to lodge during his stay in Paris.
The next day at five we met; Mr.Pogson had seen his Baroness, and described her lodgings, in his own expressive way, as "slap-up."She had received him quite like an old friend; treated him to eau sucree, of which beverage he expressed himself a great admirer; and actually asked him to dine the next day.But there was a cloud over the ingenuous youth's brow, and I inquired still farther.
"Why," said he, with a sigh, "I thought she was a widow; and, hang it! who should come in but her husband the Baron: a big fellow, sir, with a blue coat, a red ribbing, and SUCH a pair of mustachios!""Well," said I, "he didn't turn you out, I suppose?""Oh, no! on the contrary, as kind as possible; his lordship said that he respected the English army; asked me what corps I was in,--said he had fought in Spain against us,--and made me welcome.""What could you want more?"
Mr.Pogson at this only whistled; and if some very profound observer of human nature had been there to read into this little bagman's heart, it would, perhaps, have been manifest, that the appearance of a whiskered soldier of a husband had counteracted some plans that the young scoundrel was concocting.
I live up a hundred and thirty-seven steps in the remote quarter of the Luxembourg, and it is not to be expected that such a fashionable fellow as Sam Pogson, with his pockets full of money, and a new city to see, should be always wandering to my dull quarters; so that, although he did not make his appearance for some time, he must not be accused of any luke-warmness of friendship on that score.