CHAPTER FIFTY.

MR ROWLE BEGINS HIS TASK.

Poor Mrs Hallett was, no doubt, a great sufferer; and as I grow older and knew her better, the annoyance I used to feel at her unreasonable ways dropped aside to make room for pity.

One thing always struck me, and that was, that though she was constantly murmuring about Stephen's wasting time over his schemes, and the wretched way in which he was constantly plodding on, instead of ambitiously trying to rise to some profession, it was dangerous for anyone else to speak of such a thing.

At the appointed time I called upon Mr Jabez, and he accompanied me to Great Ormond Street, looking brighter and younger than I had ever seen him look before. His snuff-box was in constant use, and he on the way, after vainly trying to stand treat, as he called it, by stopping at the various grocers' windows, and wanting to buy me a box of candied fruits or French plums, went on tatting about Miss Carr.

"Antony Grace," he exclaimed; "that fellow will wake up some day."

"What fellow?"

"Lister. The fool! the idiot! the ass! Why, an earthly heaven was open to him, and he turned his back upon it. There's a life of repentance for him."

"I can't understand it," I said.

"Humph! No," he continued; and he kept glancing at me curiously, as if eager to say something--to ask me some question; but he refrained.

"I'm glad you liked Miss Carr," I said at last.

"Liked her, boy?" he exclaimed enthusiastically; and he stopped in the centre of the pavement. "There, I suppose I'm growing into an old fool, but that's no business of anybody. That young lady, sir, can command Jabez Rowle from this moment. Here, come along; the people are looking at you."

I thought they were looking at Mr Jabez, but I said nothing, only kept step with him, as he thrust his arm through mine and hurried me on.

"Of course, what I say to you is in confidence, Antony Grace," he continued.

"Of course," I replied warmly; "and let me beg of you, Mr Rowle, to be very careful. Pray don't let Hallett have any suspicion of how your interest has come about; and, above all, he must not think that I have talked to you about his model."

"Hold your tongue, tomtit," he exclaimed merrily, "trying to teach a croaking old raven, getting on towards a hundred. You leave it to me. But look here, boy, I'm not blind. This is all in confidence, of course. I can see as far into a mill-stone as most, people. Have Hallett and Miss--Bah, what am I saying?" he muttered, checking himself suddenly. "It's all in confidence, and I shall be as close as an oyster. I've got my part by heart, and you shall see what you shall see."

He gave my arm a tight nip, and soon after we reached the door, which I opened with my latchkey, and took him into my rooms, with which the old man seemed much pleased.

"Why, you reckless young hypocrite, this is the way you live, is it? Books, eh? And what are these wheels for?" he continued, picking up a couple from the chimney-piece.

"The model," I said quietly. "Now, what shall we do? Ask Hallett to come down here, or go up?"

"Send up word that you have an old friend with you, and ask if you may bring him up."

I took the hint, and Mary came back in a few minutes to say that Mr Hallett would be only too glad to see us.

We went up, and I saw at once that Hallett had come down from the attic. Mrs Hallett was asleep, and Linny, looking very pale and thin, but still restful and better, was in an easy-chair with a book.

"Ah, Hallett, how do?" said the old gentleman, in his abrupt way. "Your servant, ma'am," he added, with a profound bow.

Hallett looked stern and displeased, and his greeting was cold.

"My sister, Mr Rowle," he said. "She has been ill."

"So I see," he replied. "I hope you are getting better, my dear child. You must take plenty of fresh air. I came to see my young friend, Antony Grace here, and he suggested that as we were under the same roof, I should come and see you. Sorry you ever left us, Mr Hallett."

Hallett bowed.

"Ah," he continued, taking the chair coldly offered, "lots of changes since. I suppose you know the partnership's dissolved?"

"Yes, I had heard so," replied Hallett, glancing uneasily at Linny.

"I stick on with the senior branch," the old man continued, as his eyes wandered about the room, for he was evidently at a loss, and I did not know how to help him, so crossed over to sit down by and talk to Linny.

But fate favoured us, for in his hurried descent Hallett had brought with him a portion of the mechanism of the model.

"Hullo!" exclaimed Mr Jabez sharply; "what have you got there? Have you, too, turned engineer?"

"Oh, no," said Hallett, who was annoyed. "I--that is--it is a portion of a little contrivance of mine."

"Oho!" exclaimed Mr Jabez, "I've found you out, have I, Master Hallett! Why, you were always making sketches of machinery at the office."

"How do you know that?" said Hallett sharply, while my heart sank, for I felt that our attempt would be a failure.

"Old Grim told me. That young scoundrel, Jem Smith, used to carry him scraps of paper upon which you had been drawing."

Hallett's brow grew more cloudy, but he brightened up directly, saying frankly:

"Well, yes, Mr Rowle, I am engaged upon a little invention."

"That's right," said the old man warmly; "that's right; I wish I had begun something of the kind when I was young. It takes the mind away from the daily mill-horse work. But somehow, Hallett, I never could drag my mind away from it, but used to amuse myself reading proofs at home. Grace," he continued, turning to me, "why don't you take to something? You being an engineer, now, you ought to do something, say, in our line. There's plenty of chances there. I know one man," he said, taking up his thin leg and nursing it, "who has been trying for years to perfect a machine."

"Oh, Mr Jabez," I thought, "you have spoiled all!" for Hallett darted a quick glance at me.

"The idea occurred to him," continued Mr Jabez, tapping his snuff-box thoughtfully, as if it contained the machine, "that he could make a contrivance that would do away with the necessity for setting type."

"Indeed?" said Hallett, who drew a long breath of relief.

"Yes, sir," said Mr Jabez; "his idea was to get the type set up in long pipes above a keyboard, like a piano, and every time a key was touched with the finger, it pushed out a letter, which ran down an inclined plane to an opening, where a tiny hammer gave it a tap and drove it along a channel in which the letters formed one long line, which was afterwards made into pages and justified."

"And did it answer?" said Hallett eagerly.

"No," said the old man, taking a pinch of snuff, as Linny and I now listened to him attentively. "The idea was clever, but it was too crude. He set up his stick full, Antony Grace, and neglected to read it afterwards. He failed at first."

"But you said it was a good idea, Mr Jabez," I exclaimed.

"A capital idea," said the old man, "but it was full of faults."

"Faults?" said Hallett dreamily.

"Yes, sir," said the old man, growing animated. "For instance, he would only have been able to set one kind of type--one size. He couldn't use italic. He wanted a clever, sensible woman or man to work the keys, another to make the type up into lines. And he was obliged to have a boy to work the little hammer, or beater, to drive the letters along. Then the type would get stuck if the letters were not sent down exactly to the time; for two would meet in a lane, and then there was no end of confusion, and, after all, the type had to be distributed, and afterwards set up in sticks to fill the machine."

"Exactly," said Hallett, with animation, for the ice was broken. "I had thought of something similar."

"But you did not do it."

"No; oh no! Composition always seemed to me to require the mind of man--the brain to guide it. It seemed to me that invention should be applied to something of a more mechanical nature."

"Exactly," said Mr Jabez. "You couldn't make a machine to read and correct proofs, or revise a slip."

"Of course not," said Hallett.

"Of course not," said Mr Jabez. "But, mind you, I'm not one of those idiots who rise up in arms against machinery, and I don't say but what our friend might not have gone on and greatly improved his machine. For instance, he might have contrived another, to do away with the distribution and re-setting up of the type."

"Yes," said Hallett thoughtfully; "it might have been recast and replaced by mechanism."

"And always have new type," said Mr Jabez eagerly. "To be sure: a capital idea; but I don't know, Hallett, I don't know. They say you can buy gold too dearly. In the same way, you can make a time-saving process too expensive."

"Certainly," said Hallett thoughtfully; and I was glad to see now that he was pleased to meet the old man.

"It seems to me," said Mr Jabez, passing his snuff-box, which Hallett received, and, to humour his visitor, partook of a pinch, "that an inventor ought to devote his attention to making machinery for doing away with a great deal more of our labouring mechanical work, and not the careful processes that require thought."

"Printing, for instance?"

"Ye-es," said Mr Jabez; "but that ground has been pretty well taken up. We have some good machines now, that do a lot of work by steam. Why, when I was a boy we used to have the clumsiest old presses possible to conceive. I don't think they had been much improved since the days of Caxton."

"And yet there is great room for improvement," cried Hallett, with animation. "Mr Rowle, we saw very little of each other beyond business encounters, but I believe, sir, that I may place trust in your word?"

"Thank you, Mr Hallett, I hope so. I'm sure I always placed confidence in yours. I am proud to say, Miss Hallett, that if your brother promised me a slip by a certain time, my mind was always easy, for I knew it would be done."

"Oh, nonsense, nonsense," said Hallett, smiling. "Look here, Mr Rowle, I feel that you will not betray my confidence, and I ask you as a favour to keep private what you see here to-night."

"What I see here?" said Mr Jabez, looking around with an assumed look of puzzle, while I felt the colour coming in my face as I thought of the