The Professor by Charlotte Brontë Read Free Book Online Page A

unequal, and were they on the same level your minds
could not; assimilate; never hope, then, to gather the honey of
friendship out of that thorn-guarded plant. Hello, Crimsworth!
where are your thoughts tending? You leave the recollection of
Hunsden as a bee would a rock, as a bird a desert; and your
aspirations spread eager wings towards a land of visions where,
now in advancing daylight—in X— daylight—you dare to dream
of congeniality, repose, union. Those three you will never meet
in this world; they are angels. The souls of just men made
perfect may encounter them in heaven, but your soul will never be
made perfect. Eight o'clock strikes! your hands are thawed, get
to work!"
    "Work? why should I work?" said I sullenly: "I cannot please
though I toil like a slave." "Work, work!" reiterated the inward
voice. "I may work, it will do no good," I growled; but
nevertheless I drew out a packet of letters and commenced my
task—task thankless and bitter as that of the Israelite crawling
over the sun-baked fields of Egypt in search of straw and stubble
wherewith to accomplish his tale of bricks.
    About ten o'clock I heard Mr. Crimsworth's gig turn into the
yard, and in a minute or two he entered the counting-house. It
was his custom to glance his eye at Steighton and myself, to hang
up his mackintosh, stand a minute with his back to the fire, and
then walk out. Today he did not deviate from his usual habits;
the only difference was that when he looked at me, his brow,
instead of being merely hard, was surly; his eye, instead of
being cold, was fierce. He studied me a minute or two longer
than usual, but went out in silence.
    Twelve o'clock arrived; the bell rang for a suspension of labour;
the workpeople went off to their dinners; Steighton, too,
departed, desiring me to lock the counting-house door, and take
the key with me. I was tying up a bundle of papers, and putting
them in their place, preparatory to closing my desk, when
Crimsworth reappeared at the door, and entering closed it behind
him.
    "You'll stay here a minute," said he, in a deep, brutal voice,
while his nostrils distended and his eye shot a spark of sinister
fire.
    Alone with Edward I remembered our relationship, and remembering
that forgot the difference of position; I put away deference and
careful forms of speech; I answered with simple brevity.
    "It is time to go home," I said, turning the key in my desk.
    "You'll stay here!" he reiterated. "And take your hand off that
key! leave it in the lock!"
    "Why?" asked I. "What cause is there for changing my usual
plans?"
    "Do as I order," was the answer, "and no questions! You are my
servant, obey me! What have you been about—?" He was going on
in the same breath, when an abrupt pause announced that rage had
for the moment got the better of articulation.
    "You may look, if you wish to know," I replied. "There is the
open desk, there are the papers."
    "Confound your insolence! What have you been about?"
    "Your work, and have done it well."
    "Hypocrite and twaddler! Smooth-faced, snivelling greasehorn!"
(this last term is, I believe, purely —shire, and alludes to
the horn of black, rancid whale-oil, usually to be seen suspended
to cart-wheels, and employed for greasing the same.)
    "Come, Edward Crimsworth, enough of this. It is time you and I
wound up accounts. I have now given your service three months'
trial, and I find it the most nauseous slavery under the sun.
Seek another clerk. I stay no longer."
    "What I do you dare to give me notice? Stop at least for your
wages." He took down the heavy gig whip hanging beside his
mackintosh.
    I permitted myself to laugh with a degree of scorn I took no
pains to temper or hide. His fury boiled up, and when he had
sworn half-a-dozen vulgar, impious oaths, without, however,
venturing to lift the whip, he continued: -
    "I've found you out and know you thoroughly, you mean, whining
lickspittle! What have you been saying all over X— about me?
answer me that!"
    "You? I