THE SIX OF SPADES. 41 



cave," and evoked unjust suspicions of his sobriety in 

 the small servant, by informing her that "life was 

 ecstasy, and he should raise her wages; " and sub- 

 sequently proceeded to evoke the sparrows resident in 

 the creeping roses outside with " Love's Young Dream " 

 from the cornet. 



You ask, perhaps, at this crisis, with the fast 

 Oxonian in the song, "but what will the Old 

 Governor say ? " and I must tell you, in answer, that 

 the primary chilliness to which I alluded soon thawed 

 in the warm bosom of Mr. Oldacre that he made an 

 acquaintance, and then a friendship, with Mr. Chiswick 

 and that Borneo knew, when he astonished the 

 sparrows, that he had little to fear from Capulet. 

 And this was so because the younger man ever ten- 

 dered to his senior that due respect and deference 

 which is not quite so common in these days as it 

 certainly is just and seemly. Mr. Oldacre had 

 expected to meet a supercilious dandy, who would 

 sneer at his superannuated notions, and would 

 expatiate, in a language half Latin and half science, 

 upon the metaphysics of botany, or some pleasant 

 little theme of that sort, lie found, on the contrary, 

 a quiet, unassuming, well-informed man, clever, and 

 highly educated in his art, but more anxious to listen 

 than to speak, as one to whom knowledge was teaching 

 her noblest lesson to be aware hoiv little he knew. " Mr. 

 Oldacre," he thought, " had not the great advantages 

 which were given to me in those dear old gardens of 

 the Horticultural Society under the wise supervision 

 of ' the Doctor,' and yet how much have I to learn 

 from one who has spent a long life at work, at work 



