And taking his friend’s arm he led him sternly towards the nearest public-house.  Nor was Pitman (I regret to say) wholly unwilling.  Now that peace was restored and the body gone, a certain innocent skittishness began to appear in the manners of the artist; and when he touched his steaming glass to Michael’s, he giggled aloud like a venturesome schoolgirl at a picnic.

CHAPTER IX.  Glorious Conclusion of Michael Finsbury’s Holiday

I know Michael Finsbury personally; my business—­I know the awkwardness of having such a man for a lawyer—­still it’s an old story now, and there is such a thing as gratitude, and, in short, my legal business, although now (I am thankful to say) of quite a placid character, remains entirely in Michael’s hands.  But the trouble is I have no natural talent for addresses; I learn one for every man—­that is friendship’s offering; and the friend who subsequently changes his residence is dead to me, memory refusing to pursue him.  Thus it comes about that, as I always write to Michael at his office, I cannot swear to his number in the King’s Road.  Of course (like my neighbours), I have been to dinner there.  Of late years, since his accession to wealth, neglect of business, and election to the club, these little festivals have become common.  He picks up a few fellows in the smoking-room—­all men of Attic wit—­myself, for instance, if he has the luck to find me disengaged; a string of hansoms may be observed (by Her Majesty) bowling gaily through St James’s Park; and in a quarter of an hour the party surrounds one of the best appointed boards in London.

But at the time of which we write the house in the King’s Road (let us still continue to call it No. 233) was kept very quiet; when Michael entertained guests it was at the halls of Nichol or Verrey that he would convene them, and the door of his private residence remained closed against his friends.  The upper storey, which was sunny, was set apart for his father; the drawing-room was never opened; the dining-room was the scene of Michael’s life.  It is in this pleasant apartment, sheltered from the curiosity of King’s Road by wire blinds, and entirely surrounded by the lawyer’s unrivalled library of poetry and criminal trials, that we find him sitting down to his dinner after his holiday with Pitman.  A spare old lady, with very bright eyes and a mouth humorously compressed, waited upon the lawyer’s needs; in every line of her countenance she betrayed the fact that she was an old retainer; in every word that fell from her lips she flaunted the glorious circumstance of a Scottish origin; and the fear with which this powerful combination fills the boldest was obviously no stranger to the bosom of our friend.  The hot Scotch having somewhat warmed up the embers of the Heidsieck, It was touching to observe the master’s eagerness to pull himself together under the servant’s eye; and when he remarked, ’I think, Teena, I’ll take a brandy and soda,’ he spoke like a man doubtful of his elocution, and not half certain of obedience.