CHAPTER XXI.
RELATING AMONG OTHER THINGS HOW DOCTOR TOOLE WALKED UP TO THE TILED
HOUSE; AND OF HIS PLEASANT DISCOURSE WITH MR. MERVYN.
Dr. Sturk's spirits and temper had not become more pleasant lately. In
fact he brooded more, and was more savage at home than was at all
agreeable. He used to go into town oftener, and to stay there later; and
his language about Toole and Nutter, when there was none but submissive
little Mrs. Sturk by, was more fierce and coarse than ever. To hear him, then, one would have supposed that they were actually plotting to make away with him, and that in self-defence he must smite them hip and thigh. Then, beside their moral offensiveness, they were such 'idiots,' and: 'noodles,' and botching and blundering right and left, so palpably to the danger and ruin of their employers, that no man of conscience could sit easy and see it going on; and all this simply because he had fixed his affections upon the practice of the one, and the agency of the other. For Sturk had, in his own belief, a genius for business of every sort. Everybody on whom his insolent glance fell, who had any sort of business to do, did it wrong, and was a 'precious disciple,' or a 'goose,' or a 'born jackass,' and excited his scoffing chuckle. And little Mrs. Sturk, frightened and admiring, used to say, while he grinned and muttered, and tittered into the fire, with his great shoulders buried in his balloon-backed chair, his heels over the fender and his hands in his breeches' pockets—'But, Barney, you know, you're so clever—there's no one like you!' And he was fond of just nibbling at speculations in a small safe way, and used to pull out a roll of bank-notes, when he was lucky, and show his winnings to his wife, and chuckle and swear over them, and boast and rail, and tell her, if it was not for the cursed way his time was cut up with hospital, and field days, and such trumpery regimental duties, he could make a fortune while other men were thinking of it; and he very nearly believed it. And he was, doubtless, clear-headed, though wrong-headed, too, at times, and very energetic; but his genius was for pushing men out of their places to make way for himself.
But with all that he had the good brute instincts too, and catered
diligently for his brood, and their 'dam'—and took a gruff
unacknowledged pride in seeing his wife well dressed—and had a strong
liking for her—and thanked her in his soul for looking after things so
well; and thought often about his boys, and looked sharply after their
education; and was an efficient and decisive head of a household; and
had no vices nor expensive indulgences; and was a hard but tolerably
just man to deal with.
All this time his uneasiness and puzzle about Dangerfield continued, and, along with other things, kept him awake often to unseasonable hours at night. He did not tell Mrs. Sturk. In fact, he was a man, who, though on most occasions he gave the wife of his bosom what he called 'his mind' freely enough, yet did not see fit to give her a great deal of his confidence.
Dangerfield had his plans too. Who has not? Nothing could be more
compact and modest than his household. He had just a housekeeper and two
maids, who looked nearly as old, and a valet, and a groom, who slept at
the 'Phoenix,' and two very pretty horses at livery in the same place. All his appointments were natty and complete, and his servants, every one, stood in awe of him; for no lip or eye-service would go down with that severe, prompt, and lynx-eyed gentleman. And his groom, among the coachmen and other experts of the 'Salmon House,' used to brag of his hunters in England; and his man, of his riches, and his influence with Lord Castlemallard.