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Chapter XXXV
Mr Brass on returning home received the report of his clerk with
much complacency and satisfaction, and was particular in inquiring
after the ten-pound note, which, proving on examination to be a good
and lawful note of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England,
increased his good-humour considerably. Indeed he so overflowed
with liberality and condescension, that, in the fulness of his heart, he
invited Mr Swiveller to partake of a bowl of punch with him at that
remote and indefinite period which is currently denominated 'one of
these days,' and paid him many handsome compliments on the
uncommon aptitude for business which his conduct on the first day of
his devotion to it had so plainly evinced.
It was a maxim with Mr Brass that the habit of paying compliments
kept a man's tongue oiled without any expense; and, as that useful
member ought never to grow rusty or creak in turning on its hinges in
the case of a practitioner of the law, in whom it should be always glib
and easy, he lost few opportunities of improving himself by the
utterance of handsome speeches and eulogistic expressions. And this
had passed into such a habit with him, that, if he could not be
correctly said to have his tongue at his fingers' ends, he might
certainly be said to have it anywhere but in his face: which being, as
we have already seen, of a harsh and repulsive character, was not
oiled so easily, but frowned above all the smooth speeches - one of
nature's beacons, warning off those who navigated the shoals and
breakers of the World, or of that dangerous strait the Law, and
admonishing them to seek less treacherous harbours and try their
fortune elsewhere.
While Mr Brass by turns overwhelmed his clerk with compliments and
inspected the ten-pound note, Miss Sally showed little emotion and
that of no pleasurable kind, for as the tendency of her legal practice
had been to fix her thoughts on small gains and gripings, and to whet
and sharpen her natural wisdom, she was not a little disappointed
that the single gentleman had obtained the lodgings at such an easy
rate, arguing that when he was seen to have set his mind upon them,
he should have been at the least charged double or treble the usual
terms, and that, in exact proportion as he pressed forward, Mr
Swiveller should have hung back. But neither the good opinion of Mr
Brass, nor the dissatisfaction of Miss Sally, wrought any impression
upon that young gentleman, who, throwing the responsibility of this
and all other acts and deeds thereafter to be done by him, upon his
unlucky destiny, was quite resigned and comfortable: fully prepared
for the worst, and philosophically indifferent to the best.
'
Good morning, Mr Richard,' said Brass, on the second day of Mr
Swiveller's clerkship. 'Sally found you a second-hand stool, Sir,
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