"How long, mum; we want half a dozen of the muttons to-day." "In about ten minutes." "Thank you, I'll look in again." "Flukes--a tailor? Indeed!--Flukes--a tailor? Well I ought to have
expected something like this. What a glorious thing it is really to care
for no one but oneself after all. I shall lose my faith in--in--fine
men." CHAPTER XXXVI. TOBIAS'S MOTHER AWAKENS OLD RECOLLECTIONS. Poor Tobias still remains upon his bed of sickness. The number of hours
at the expiration of which the medical man had expected him to recover
were nearly gone. In Colonel Jeffery's parlour three persons, besides
himself, were assembled. These three were his friend the captain, Sir
Richard Blunt, and Mrs. Ragg. The lady was sitting with a not over clean
handkerchief at her eyes, and keeping up a perpetual motion with her
knee, as though she were nursing some fractious baby, and Mrs. Ragg had
been used of late to go out as a monthly nurse occasionally, which,
perhaps, accounted for this little peculiarity. "Now, madam," said the colonel, "you quite understand, I hope, that you
are not to mention to any living soul the fact of your son Tobias being
with me." "Oh, dear me, no, sir. Who should I mention it to?" "That we can't tell," interrupted the captain, "you are simply desired
not to tell it." "I'm sure I don't see anybody once in a week, sir." "Good God! woman," cried the colonel, "does that mean that when you do
see any one you will tell it?" "Lord love you, sir, it's few people as comes to see you when you are
down in the world. I'm sure it's seldom enough a soul taps at my door
with a 'Mrs. Ragg, how are you?'" "Now was there ever such an incorrigible woman as this?" "If you were to talk to her for a month," said Sir Robert Blunt, "you
would not get a direct answer from her. Allow me to try something
else--Mrs. Ragg." "Yes, sir--humbly at your service, sir." "If you tell any one that Tobias is here, or indeed anywhere within your
knowledge, I will apprehend you about a certain candlestick." "Goodness gracious, deliver us." "Do you understand that, Mrs. Ragg? You keep silence about Tobias, and I
keep silence about the candlestick. You speak about Tobias, and I speak
about the candlestick." Mrs. Ragg shook her head and let fall a torrent of tears, which the
magistrate took as sufficient evidence that she did understand him and
would act accordingly, so he added--

"Shall we all proceed up stairs? for a great deal will depend upon the
boy's first impression when he awakens--and in this case we should not
lose a chance." In pursuance of this sound advice they all proceeded to poor Tobias's
bed-room, and there he lay in that profound repose which the powerful
opiate administered to him had had the effect of producing. It did not
seem as though he had moved head or foot since they had left him. His
face was very pale, and when Mrs. Ragg saw him she burst into tears,
exclaiming--

"He is dead--he is dead!" "No such thing, madam," said Colonel Jeffery. "He only sleeps." "But, oh deary me, what makes him look so old and so strange now? He was
bad enough when I saw him last, poor fellow, but not like this." "He has received ill-usage from someone, and that is precisely what we
want to find out. If you can get from him the particulars of what he has
suffered, we will take care those who have made him suffer shall not
escape." "Bless you, gentlemen, what's the use of that if my poor boy is killed?" There was a good home truth in these words from Mrs. Ragg, although,
upon the score of general social policy, they might well be answered. An
argument with Mrs. Ragg, however, upon such a subject was not very
a-propos. The colonel made her sit down by Tobias's bed-side, and he was
then upon the point of remarking to his friend, the captain, that it
would be as well, since so many hours had passed, to send for the
medical man, when that personage made his appearance. "Has he awakened?" he asked. "No--not yet." "Oh, I see you have a nurse." "It is his mother. We hope that she, by talking to him familiarly, may
produce a good effect, and possibly rid him of that bewilderment of
intellect under which he now labours. What think you, sir?" "That it is a good thought. Let us darken the room as much as possible,
as twilight will be most grateful to him upon awakening, which he must
do shortly." The curtains of the window were so arranged that the room was in a state
of semi-darkness, and then they all waited with no small anxiety for
Tobias to recover from the deep and death-like sleep that had come over
him. After about five minutes he moved uneasily and uttered a low moan. "Speak to him, Mrs. a--a--what's your name?" "Ragg, sir." "Aye, Ragg, just speak to him; of course he is well acquainted with your
voice, and it may have the effect of greatly rousing him from his
lethargic condition." Poor Mrs. Ragg considered that she had some very extraordinary post to
perform, and accordingly she collected to her aid all her learning,
which, interrupted by her tears, and now and then by a sob, which she
had to gulp down like a large globule of castor oil, had certainly
rather a droll effect. "My dear Tobias--my dear--lie a bed, sluggard, you know--well, I
never--Put the kettle on, Polly, and let's all have tea. Tobias, my
dear--bless us and save us, are you going to stay in bed all day?" Another groan from Tobias. "Well, my dear, perhaps you won't mind getting up and just running
towards the corner for a bunch of water cresses? Dear heart alive, there
goes the muffin-man like a lamplighter!" It was by such domestic themes that Mrs. Ragg sought to recall the
wandering senses of poor Tobias to a cognizance of the present. But
alas! his thoughts were still in the dim and misty land of visions. Suddenly he spoke--

[Illustration: Tobias's Delirium.] "Hush--hush! There they come!--elephants!--elephants!--on--on--on. Now
for the soldiers, and all mad--mad--mad! Hide me in the straw--deep in a
world of straw. Hush! He comes. Sing, oh sing again!--and he--he will
not suspect." The surgeon made a sign to Mrs. Ragg to speak again. "Why, Tobias, my dear, what are you talking about? Do you mean the
Elephant and Castle?" "Call to his remembrance," said the surgeon, "some old scenes." "Yes, sir, but when one's heart and all that sort of thing is in one's
mouth it's very difficult to recollect things oneself. Tobias!" "Yes--yes. Ha-ha!" It was a low, plaintive, strange laugh that, that came from the poor boy
whose mind had been so overthrown, and it jarred upon the feelings of
all who heard it. "Tobias, do you recollect the little cottage down the lane at Holloway,
where we lived, and the cock roaches, and the strange cat, you know,
Tobias, that would not go away? Don't you recollect, Tobias, how the
coals there were all slates, and how your poor father, as is dead and
gone--"

"Yes, I see him now." Mrs. Ragg gave a faint scream. "Father!--father!" said Tobias, as he held out his arms, and the big
tears rolled down his cheeks.