I was going to say—he has helped to keep MY memory green, I thank him; for going round the building every year, as I′m a doing now, and freshening up the bare rooms with these branches and berries, freshens up my bare old brain. One year brings back another, and that year another, and those others numbers! At last, it seems to me as if the birth-time of our Lord was the birth-time of all I have ever had affection for, or mourned for, or delighted in,—and they′re a pretty many, for I′m eighty-seven!"
"Merry and happy," murmured Redlaw to himself.
The room began to darken strangely.
"So you see, sir," pursued old Philip, whose hale wintry cheek had warmed into a ruddier glow, and whose blue eyes had brightened while he spoke, "I have plenty to keep, when I keep this present season. Now, where′s my quiet Mouse? Chattering′s the sin of my time of life, and there′s half the building to do yet, if the cold don′t freeze us first, or the wind don′t blow us away, or the darkness don′t swallow us up."
The quiet Mouse had brought her calm face to his side, and silently taken his arm, before he finished speaking.
"Come away, my dear," said the old man. "Mr. Redlaw won′t settle to his dinner, otherwise, till it′s cold as the winter. I hope you′ll excuse me rambling on, sir, and I wish you good night, and, once again, a merry—"
"Stay!" said Mr. Redlaw, resuming his place at the table, more, it would have seemed from his manner, to reassure the old keeper, than in any remembrance of his own appetite. "Spare me another moment, Philip. William, you were going to tell me something to your excellent wife′s honour. It will not be disagreeable to her to hear you praise her. What was it?"
"Why, that′s where it is, you see, sir," returned Mr. William Swidger, looking towards his wife in considerable embarrassment. "Mrs. William′s got her eye upon me."
"But you′re not afraid of Mrs. William′s eye?"
"Why, no, sir," returned Mr. Swidger, "that′s what I say myself. It wasn′t made to be afraid of. It wouldn′t have been made so mild, if that was the intention. But I wouldn′t like to—Milly!— him, you know. Down in the Buildings."
Mr. William, standing behind the table, and rummaging disconcertedly among the objects upon it, directed persuasive glances at Mrs. William, and secret jerks of his head and thumb at Mr. Redlaw, as alluring her towards him.
"Him, you know, my love," said Mr. William. "Down in the Buildings. Tell, my dear! You′re the works of Shakespeare in comparison with myself. Down in the Buildings, you know, my love.- -Student."
"Student?" repeated Mr. Redlaw, raising his head.
"That′s what I say, sir!" cried Mr. William, in the utmost animation of assent. "If it wasn′t the poor student down in the Buildings, why should you wish to hear it from Mrs. William′s lips? Mrs. William, my dear—Buildings."
"I didn′t know," said Milly, with a quiet frankness, free from any haste or confusion, "that William had said anything about it, or I wouldn′t have come. I asked him not to. It′s a sick young gentleman, sir—and very poor, I am afraid—who is too ill to go home this holiday-time, and lives, unknown to any one, in but a common kind of lodging for a gentleman, down in Jerusalem Buildings. That′s all, sir."
"Why have I never heard of him?" said the Chemist, rising hurriedly.
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