Trewinnot of Guy's. A novel

Front matter

By the Same Author THE HOUSE OF RIMMON Third Edition. " A really remarkable novel. . . . The scenes depicted are drawn with realistic skill. . . . Mrs Bettany's characters are thoroughly original, and all of them possess a distinct individuality of their own, which is one of the highest successes a writer of fiction can attain." — Acade?ny. "A striking tale." — Times. " Certainly a remarkable book. One is inclined to say tbat the author can have nothing left to acquire of all that can be learned by close and keen observation of life, and by study of realistic models." — Guardian. " A powerfully-written tale of domestic fiction, which will be read with deep interest. Each of the author's characters is life-like and full of individuality. English middle-class society has never been more graphic ally painted than in these sketches of the home life of the Rimmons and their friends.

The trio, composed of Joshua Rimmon, Hackbit, and his tool Rimpler, are carefully -studied portraits, deserving much praise. Keziah, the heroine, is a strange mixture of weakness and strength, but an essentially womanly nature. Tbe human interest of this tale, allied to tbe graphic realism of its style, render it a really remarkable novel." — Morning Post. " The writer has a keen and genuine sense of humour. The novel is clever, natural and amusing throughout, and many of the sketches of life and character in a South Staffordshire town are really admirable." — Graphic. " Has all the makings of a romance of the first rank." — Giobc. A LAGGARD IN LOVE Lippincotfs Magazine "Complete Novel," November 1S90. 1 ' Worked out with considerable skill, and touched with natural pathos. The devotion of John Ford is most impressively depicted, and the hap less fate of Ruthanna." — Daily Chronicle.

" Better worth tbe shilling which the magazine costs than many flights of romance at thirty-one and a half times the price.'" — Freeman's Journal. "In Lippincott there is a good, long, complete novel by Jeanie Gwynne Bettany, and I know one stern reviewer who cried over that far more than a truly God-fearing and earnest reviewer should do." — Vanity Fair. H IRovel Mrs COULSON KERNAHAN AUTHOR OF "THE HOUSE OF RIMMON," ETC. iLontion JOHN LONG 6 CHANDOS STREET, STRAND 3>ebication TO Sir SAMUEL WILKS, Eart., F.R.S. President of the Royal College of Physicians. Dear Sih Samuel, In asking you to honour me in allowing this story to be inscribed to yourself, I do not, of course, in any way whatever seek to associate you with the views herein put forward respecting what my experi ences of medical men and medical life have led me to look upon as the noblest of professions ; nor, I need scarcely say, are you to be held in the remotest sense responsible for the accuracy or inaccuracy of the pic tures I present.

Chapter I Adrift

"Lend me half acrown, Trewinnot, old man, will you ? I must get my ' Bryant ' out of pawn, and those cursed billiards have cleared me out." The speaker — a muscular young man, with a double chin, closely cropped dark hair, and scrupu lously neat tie — was standing in company with another medical student in the colonnade of Guy's Hospital one Saturday evening in February. They were both looking out upon the dreary, open space in front, with its dusky statue. " I'm sorry, old chap," answered the other in a gay tone quite at variance with his subsequent statement. " It's my fast-day to-morrow, and to day has been my ' Co ' day." " What the Dickens is ' Co ' ? " asked the would be borrower, with lively interest. "The man at the shop calls it cocoa. I call A it ' Co,' on account of its other components, not specified.

But I have all the qualifications for making a success," he rattled on brightly. " I am thrown on my beam -ends, and I am not cursed with a competency, so if I don't work I can't eat ; only," he added, a little ruefully, " unfortunately one is not paid for cramming for our 'exams/ and when you're cramming you don't get much time for earning your grub — at least I don't. But grind is a blessing after all," he went on, a mocking light in his face, and his eyes dancing with that careless mirth that be longs only to youth, and sanguine youth. " You see, if the stomach demands food, and you've none for it, feed another portion of your anatomy, namely, your brain. If you want to get up your ' medicine ' well — fast. It's astonishing how clear your faculties become. Try it, Harvey. It brought me off in my ' First College ' with flying colours.

You shouldn't have pawned your ' Bryant,' old man, but your shirt. A coat fastens up neatly over a front," and, with a laugh, he unbuttoned his own coat and showed the bare skin under it. " Hang it all ! " cried Harvey, " I didn't think it had come to that. There's my overcoat at the lodgings. I'll put it up the spout, and we'll have some dinner together, and you can rig up in one of my old shirts. They're all old, by the way." " Nothing of the sort," replied Trewinnot, gaily. I've heard of a good man who wore a hair- ADRIFT shirt. He was a student, too. What if I wear none ? It saves the laundress ; and I'm not really so hard up. Look here ! " and he pulled a gold watch from his pocket. " I need more mortifying yet. My pride wouldn't let the fellows miss this watch, though it lay near a body with no shirt upon it."

" Hang it all, Trewinnot," cried his companion, taking hold of his sleeve, " you're coming to dine with me, and I won't take any refusal." " But I have dined to - day," responded the blithe anchorite. " Take your overcoat, by all means, and get your ' Bryant ' out ; don't bother about me. I sha'n't hurt, especially while I have got the watch." Then, to change the subject and to show how lightly the extremity to which he was reduced weighed upon him, he turned his head in the direction of the colonnade where his friend was standing, and called out, "I say, Harvey, do you know what I always think when I come out here of an evening ? " " What a confounded good job it is the lectures are over ? " interrogated the other. " No," replied Trewinnot, merrily, tucking his books more tightly under his arm.

" I always think that this courtyard is perhaps the scene of a dance of death ; that perhaps the ghosts of the poor souls who die here disport themselves in the gloaming around this statue. Good-bye ! " " The Dickens ! " muttered Harvey, " what an idea to put into a fellow's head, when it's sure to come back after an extra bottle." At the corner of Maze Pond, where he lodged, Trewinnot stumbled against a pupil whom he had coached for matriculation the preceding January. " Well met, Palmerston," said the young man, clapping the other upon the shoulder. " Sorry you didn't get through, my boy. Not my fault, you'll allow. I'll be glad if you'll stump up though. I should feel myself wealthy with the guinea you owe me." The late pupil, who was of the type usually termed lanky, moved a little uneasily from one foot to the other and back again, took off his billycock hat to adjust it, exposing to view in the gaslight a brown head of hair with one perfectly white lock ; then replacing his hat and raising his arm tragically, he by slow degrees brought his eyes to rest upon his companion's gay face — gay though the cheeks were a little hollow — and exclaimed, with an air of ill-usage, — " I — I — agreed to pay you if I passed. . . .

My dad won't hear of paying, as nothing's to be got by it. He is not overpoweringly educated himself, and sticks to his tin in a beastly manner." " So you can't pay me," said Trewinnot, airily, but with a little twinge as he thought of the con dition of his cupboard. "All right. I like to know exactly what I may rely on. The circle narrows in that direction." " Don't talk as if you don't care," said Palmer ston, with a grand air habitual to him. " You know what ' don't care ' came to." ADRIFT " He came to see those who do care hanged," replied the other. "Good-night." Free of his pupil, Trewinnot could not help thinking that he had been hardly used. He had worked, as he said, "like a niggar" to cram a little knowledge into the brain of a youth, who left no room in it for Latin and algebra, so full was he of his own future in the poetic world, his own importance in his present sphere — a remote Black Country town where it was tolerably easy to be great.

" I wonder," thought Robert, " if embryo poets are always mean. Fancy his in venting that absurd agreement ! " At that moment the cry of " fire " was raised close by. Seeing several people running, Trewinnot followed them. Some were mounting the steps that led to London Bridge Station; some were taking the straight road through the tunnel. Bob went up the steps, being jostled a good deal in so doing, and at the top asked an apple woman, who was seated on an empty barrel, where the fire was. She didn't know, nor did the policeman outside the station. " That's queer," said Trewinnot to himself. " Someone's having a lark, I suppose." On putting his hand to his watch to compare it with the station time he quickly discovered, how ever, that somebody had been in sober earnest. " Good God ! " he exclaimed, " I'm a modern Job, and no mistake.

And I might have raised some thing on it ! " He slipped his hands into his trouser pockets and, with his handsome head held erect, walked between the advertisement hoardings till he got to a tea shop, where he looked for a moment or two in the window. The smell of the tea and coffee was delicious. " Not good for the nerves though," he meditated. "Would stand the damage, how ever, to have some. ' Co ' is not appetising, nor exhilarating." So saying, he turned on his heel and walked in the direction of St George's Church, looking into no more shops except a tobacconist's, and he quickly moved away from that, for though he longed for a " threepenny foreign " he had not the necessary threepence wherewith to purchase it. He had no object in walking now, save that the Borough High Street was lighted, whereas his little room in Maze Pond was in darkness, and must remain so until he could spare the cash for some oil.

His attention was, however, soon arrested by a group collected directly in front of a shop, which was half chemist's, half surgery. The doorway was partly blocked by a red-bearded, yellow-eyed individual, the pro prietor, who was glaring at a cart in front. On the side facing the chemist there was fixed a temporary counter, upon which were arranged in rows a number of boxes containing pills and ointment, flanked by certain mysterious bottles, rich in colour and neat as to labels. Other glass jars con tained objects more ghastly than edifying. There were also some elaborate coloured engravings put up in the form of flags, and calculated to puzzle anatomists. They were pathological, and depicted ADRIFT disorders which made the crowd shudder, inasmuch as every onlooker felt that the engravings might represent his own internal condition.

Behind the improvised counter was a tall, gaunt, spectacled man, who was holding forth in language verging more closely upon libel than was consistent with discretion. "Yes, go into the shop there," the orator was declaring as Bob presented himself ; " for there you'll get what they call medicine and medical attendance. You'll never get quassia put into it for quinine — certainly not " (this very ironically). " The boxes of ointment he will sell you will not suddenly subside when you get them home, and turn out to be only half full — certainly not. Why should they ? He has learnt no trick of filling boxes — certainly not." The quack doctor then exhibited one of his own boxes, which he opened, and scooped out upon a piece of paper with a spatula. " There's quantity, and quality. Price one penny, and pick your own box.

Not one shilling and threehalfpence," he said, looking menacingly at his enemy who was glaring at him with savage contempt. " Would anyone like the testimonials of the ointment ? " went on the quack, vociferously, plunging his hand deep into an extraordinary pocket, and dispersing a shower of fly-leaves among the crowd, after the example of Fleet Street worthies on Lord Mayor's Day. " Sore eyes, bad legs, wounds they can't heal over there at Guy's, but take you in just to give the students something to maul about ; whitlows and poisoned wounds, all heal like magic under its influence. Price one penny." Then followed several monetary transactions which con siderably reduced the pile of ointment boxes ; and as each box was thrown to and caught by the buyer, there came from the rigid chemist a laugh of pity ing derision.

" But now," cried the man, pushing the remaining ointment boxes on one side, " I have kept back the old wine till the end of the feast," and he majestically lifted a bottle of mixture, held it at arm's length, and pointed at it steadily with the forefinger of his left hand. He then held it in front of the naphtha light at the end of his counter, that the beauty of its colour might appear. " This discovery," he said with pride, " will die with me. No mortal shall ever know of it; so buy up a quantity now. We are all mortal ; to morrow it may be too late. This elixir is calculated to reduce all abnormalities, tumours, outgrowths, and cure rickets and gouty joints. A few bottles will remove curvature of the spine, if applied externally. Taken internally, its effect on the heart is to accelerate it if too weak, to subdue it if palpitating.

It purifies the blood and uncongests the liver, and removes stone from the bladder. It conveys a proper proportion of phos phorus to the lungs, stimulates their healthy action, and acts as a natural digestive. It is an invaluable brain tonic, and a great beautisier of the com plexion. Under its influence women's eyes orow ADRIFT 9 bright, their cheeks plump and rosy, and the weakly child grows fat and kicks." It was unfortunate that at this moment an opposition appeared in the form of a reciter, whose theme — possibly suggested by the vicinity of the old graveyard of St George's — was Pope's " Vital Spark." He gained attention at once by means of a singularly rich and ringing voice, and the quack doctor, soon discovering tbat this chant of death was entirely drawing away the attention that had been previously fixed upon his elixir of life, stopped orating.

The chemist grinned and rubbed his hands, de lighted to see his rival standing lonesomely between the naphtha lights without so much as a solitary customer for his ointments and elixirs. " One man's extremity is another man's opportunity," said Bob, mentally. He then boldly mounted the quack's cart, turned out his empty pockets significantly to its occupant, articulated the single word " Guy's," laid a finger upon his lips to enjoin silence, unceremoniously changed hats with his colleague, possessed himself of the latter's green spectacles, and then commenced a performance of his own. If the reciter had a good voice, so had Bob ; and his circumstances could hardly be more desperate. He knew the reciter's verses well, having frequently heard them sung at funerals in the Black Country, so he decided to parody the other's performance.

Placing his left hand on his hip, he stood forward and commenced, with the air of a schoolmaster to an undutiful child, — " Vital spark ! — of heavenly flame — quit ! " Here he waited a moment for emphasis, and looked sternly upon the crowd, which was beginning to come back, partly from curiosity partly in the hope of witnessing a " row " between the rival reciters. " Oh, quit this mortal frame ! " Here he pointed his forefinger at himself. " Doubting " — he appeared to hesitate — " linger ing " — and he put on the air of a Shakespearian schoolboy — " hoping " — he pricked up his ears like a dog — " flying." Here he placed both hands upon his hips, and flapped his elbows after the manner of a bantam, bringing forth rounds of applause, followed by even a louder burst as he embraced his body as if in mortal agony, pulled the wryest of wry faces, and, with a cry suggestive of the colic, exclaimed, — " Oo-o-h, the pain !

" Then suddenly compos ing himself and smiling insanely, he added, with an upward Pecksniffian turn of his eyes, eminently ludicrous, " The bliss of dying ! " Assuming once more his stern aspect, and raising his arm as if apostrophising an invisible personage, he exclaimed, " Cease, fond nature ! " — nodding his head — " cease thy strife ! " And then, smiling like a silly schoolgirl, he added insipidly, " Let me languish into life." Then, rousing himself with sudden energy, and gazing at the reassembled crowd, whose bursts of ADRIFT 11 laughter was controlled till each clause was con cluded, he gave a sudden lurch forward, bringing his coat tail in dangerous proximity to the naphtha lamp, and exclaimed in staccato, — " The world recedes ! It disappears ! Heaven opens on my eyes." He indicated the orbs in question, and went on, " My ears with sounds seraphic ring."

Here he pulled his own ears, which were speedily filled with the applause of his auditors, after which he solemnly proceeded, " Lend, lend your wings, Mr Poulterer" — addressing a shopkeeper close by. " I mount — " raising himself on the crazy counter at great risk to the elixir and to himself. " I fly," and once more the arm-flapping began. " Oh, grave " — here he pointed directly into the chemist's shop — " where is thy victory ? Oh, death," — and his hands indicated the elixir of life com prehensively — " where is thy sting ? " Then he immediately went on, in imitation of the quack, " Elixir of life, ninepence a bottle or fourteen pence for two. Now's the time, and now's the hour. Now's the golden opportunity, which may never occur again ! " The result of this appeal was that the elixir was sold off in no time.

The crowd, which had been hugely entertained by the recitation, then de manded an encore ; but the famished medical student, whose effort had, in his own phrase, " taken it out of him," and who thought he recognised a familiar face in the audience, was only too glad to accept the quack doctor's invitation to sup with him at a little eating-house past the church. " Misery brings us into strange company," Tre winnot thought, as he recollected the luxurious home he had elected to leave, and the social distinction that had been impressed upon him both at that home and at the public school where he had been educated. But, first of all, the " shop " had to be shut, which meant the transformation of what appeared to be a cart and stall of considerable size into something resembling a costermonger's barrow.

Its snug recesses had, however, convenient bottle baskets, similar to those used by some wine merchants, and soon all was packed and made tight by the aid of an extraordinary boy, of in definable age, who scudded about with the loose brim of his hat nodding above his rubicund nose. " Now, Joel," said the quack, " shoulder it off sharp, or else back to your grandmother you go." "I'll go and be a-run-over and be carried to Guy's 'Orspital first," replied the boy, placing across his shoulders a band of leather that was attached to the handles of the cart, and by means of which he dragged the load briskly along. " Isn't it rather heavy for him ? " asked Bob. " Oh, dear, no," replied the quack, winking in a very facetious manner. "I oiled the wheels with some of the elixir this morning. Cheaper than anything else.

Sometimes I use the ointment for the same. It's whichever is readiest to Joel's hand. That ointment's very useful, I ADRIFT warrant you. There's good lard in it, at least there's lard. Why, bless you, sir, the landlady where I lodge always pomatums her hair with it, at which I make no remark. I always miss the boxes, and smell them — that is, the ointment — when she gets hot over the fire a-cooking ; but you can't make complaints when your rent is not kept up reg'lar." They had by this time reached the little cook shop, and the party came to a halt. " We will now proceed to reconnoitre," said the host, and he and Bob stationed themselves in front of the window, whieh was sub-divided into small panes, and was partially dimmed by the steam that rose from sundry hissing sausages, kept in con stant agitation by a gas-jet under the tin containing them.

There were also certain round, dark-coloured puddings, with a raisin here and there attractively displayed on the leathery surface, and further dainties in the pudding and pie line, in addition to a joint of rather dry looking cold beef, and some extremely large pies labelled "veal and ham." Poor Bob was so hungry from his many fasts that this spread appeared to his eyes as inviting as to Joel, who, from the arm of the cart on which he was seated, was licking his lips at thought of the feast. " Well, which shall it be ? " said the quack doctor. " I recommend the sausages. They're well done, for they've been frizzling there to my knowledge ever since six ; so they won't disagree, TREWINNOT OF GUY'fi we'll hope." The two entered the shop together, and seated themselves in a species of pew, where they were at once waited upon.

Bob had become suddenly quiet. He was troubled at what he had done. It was so un professional. It was so — he could not think of epithets — but a lump rose in his throat at the sight of the food that was placed before him. " A man can't starve ! " he said aloud, as if arguing with himself. " No," said his companion, gaily, " we sha'n't starve on this. And now, young gent," he went on, "I take it you're stone broke in the ex chequer. Well, I'm hard up for a new professional attraction. The competition's awful nowadays. There's that Guy's taking the very food out of my mouth, and there are those open surgeries all over the Borough ; I always station by one of them if I can. It riles 'em up, and the public likes it. Now, you're from Guy's, and I don't know you're name, and don't want to. You must have picked up some tricks of the trade, and could do a bit of real doctoring, too.

What with that, and your acting, we might do a roaring business together. You could draw them up to the cart with some of your verses, and then we'd have consultations, and they'll pay extra for them. They like the idea of having two to brag about." Bob felt uncomfortable, yet wavering. He felt better for the food; but where was the next to come from ? They never need know ADRIFT at the hospital. He could get off in the evenings ; and as for friends, — there was a trace of bitterness on his face when he thought of this — whom had he in the wide world ? Why had his father quitted the country and left him to the tender mercies of the rich, but capricious and changeable, aunt, who had seen fit to stop his allowance suddenly in his second year ? He would never go back to Brindley Hill, never. She should never know into what humiliating courses she had forced him.

" I will do as you desire about the doctoring ; but I cannot recite again," he said. " I couldn't do that in cold blood ; and I shall leave you as soon as the smallest chance offers. But for the present I don't know where to turn for a meal." " Agreed ; and now, as to terms, I am willing to give you a third of the takings. Here's my address — I've got to get back there to-night — No. 3 Chalk Court, Jamaica Road, Bermondsey, second pair back. It's my Bermondsey day, Monday; so if you'll call at that address at seven o'clock or so, we'll make a beginning." He took out a leather bag and handed two half crowns to the young man, who accepted them with something approaching a blush, and was glad of the shelter afforded by the pew. This business over, the pair rose aud took their departure, Joel being sent in to purchase a " wealer and hammer," for which he expressed a preference.

" By the way," said the quack, as Bob was about to take his leave, " you ask for Dr Toms at Chalk Court. You'll have a cigar before you go, won't you?"' He spoke in a friendly way, for he was really very anxious to inspire confidence in this clever youth who had done him such good service. The High Street looked bright still, late though it was. As Bob passed an entry which led to a billiard-room, he noticed Harvey, his fellow-student, emerging, and would have avoided him, but that young gentleman, imagining himself discovered, and remembering what had taken place earlier in the evening, felt he must make out a case for himself somehow. So he ran after Trewinnot, and linking his arm in his, said, — " I say old man, I put my coat up the spout, and—" " And got out your ' Bryant ' ? " interpolated Bob.

" No ; I'll tell you the real truth about it," said Harvey, penitently. " I'm the most unlucky devil alive. There were other things beside mv ' Bryant ' ; my silver-mounted stethoscope that my uncle gave me, and my silver-mounted prayer-book which my mother gave me, and which I dare not appear without when I go home, and other books and instruments. So I thought I'd just look in at Harper's and multiply my coin a bit ; but I've lost it, and I've neither the coat nor the money now, nor the ' Bryant either.' Look here, old fellow, you're smoking a good cigar, and you needn't be afraid to lend me the half-crown I spoke about, for I always pay back my friends." ADRIFT 17 Bob drew up suddenly and faced his companion. " The cigar was given to me," he explained. " But I have got hold of a shilling or two to-night, and I will lend you the half-crown if you'll keep out of that trap.

I like billiards as well as anybody ; but it's a game for moneyed folk who can afford to lose, and it's not meant for such poor devils as we are." So saying, he produced half a crown from his pocket, and slipped it into his friend's hand. " You are a brick, Trewinnot, and that's the truth," cried Harvey, giving Bob's arm a friendly shake, after which they walked on till they came to St Thomas's Street, when they separated, Tre winnot entering that gloomiest of gloomy thorough fares. The lights were twinkling from the windows of the hospital when he passed into Maze Pond. As he was tumbling up his dark staircase he encountered a woman, who was only just visible in the glimmer of light that issued from a little oil lamp turned low. " Mr Trewinnot ? " said a very low voice, inter rogatively. " Yes, that is my name," answered Bob in great astonishment.

" Then here is a letter for you." It was pushed into his hand, and the figure glided through the open doorway. " Well, that's queer," thought Bob. " Some of the fellows having a lark, I suppose." So saying, he stuffed the letter unceremoniously into his pocket, having no thought just then except B for the engagement he had made and the adventures through which he had passed. Once within his dark room, he flung himself on the bed in an agony of despair. Why should he be reduced to such an extremity ? Why should he, of all the fellows, have no one person to whom he could confide his difficulties ? He felt an overpower ing longing for a sight of the father whom he had never seen, but who might be living, and must, Trewinnot believed, have loved and cared for him, in spite of his aunt's assertions to the contrary.