een
other expenses of his youth: he had purchased threepenny and even
fourpenny cigars, the latter rarely, but the former frequently,
sometimes singly, and sometimes in bundles of twelve for half-a-crown.
Once a meerschaum pipe had haunted him for six weeks; the tobacconist
had drawn it out of a drawer with some air of secrecy as he was buying a
packet of 'Lone Star.' Here was another useless expense, these
American-manufactured tobaccos; his 'Lone Star,' 'Long Judge,' 'Old
Hank,' 'Sultry Clime,' and the rest of them cost from a shilling to one
and six the two-ounce packet; whereas now he got excellent loose
honeydew for threepence halfpenny an ounce. But the crafty tradesman,
who had marked him down as a buyer of expensive fancy goods, nodded with
his air of mystery, and, snapping open the case, displayed the
meerschaum before the dazzled eyes of Darnell. The bowl was carved in
the likeness of a female figure, showing the head and _torso_, and the
mouthpiece was of the very best amber--only twelve and six, the man
said, and the amber alone, he declared, was worth more than that. He
explained that he felt some delicacy about showing the pipe to any but a
regular customer, and was willing to take a little under cost price and
'cut the loss.' Darnell resisted for the time, but the pipe troubled
him, and at last he bought it. He was pleased to show it to the younger
men in the office for a while, but it never smoked very well, and he
gave it away just before his marriage, as from the nature of the carving
it would have been impossible to use it in his wife's presence. Once,
while he was taking his holidays at Hastings, he had purchased a malacca
cane--a useless thing that had cost seven shillings--and he reflected
with sorrow on the innumerable evenings on which he had rejected his
landlady's plain fried chop, and had gone out to _flaner_ among the
Italian restaurants in Upper Street, Islington (he lodged in Holloway),
pampering himself with expensive delicacies: cutlets and green peas,
braised beef with tomato sauce, fillet steak and chipped potatoes,
ending the banquet very often with a small wedge of Gruyere, which cost
twopence. One night, after receiving a rise in his salary, he had
actually drunk a quarter-flask of Chianti and had added the enormities
of Benedictine, coffee, and cigarettes to an expenditure already
disgraceful, and sixpence to the waiter made the bill amount to four
shillings instead of the shilling t