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Tom Dill in His Best
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
steel engraving
10.5 cm high by 9.5 cm wide (4 ⅛ by 3 ⅝ inches), vignetted
April 1862
Sixth serial illustration for Charles Lever's Barrington; Tales of the Trains, Chapter XII, "The Answer," facing p. 92.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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“Here I am,” said he, entering with a sort of easy swagger, but far more affected than real, notwithstanding the “dandy.”
“Well, and what then?” asked Conyers, haughtily, for the vulgar presumption of his manner was but a sorry advocate in his favor. “I don't remember, that I sent for you.”
“No; but my father told me what you said to him, and I was to come up and thank you, and say, 'Done!' to it all.”
Conyers turned a look — not a very pleased or very flattering look — at the loutish figure before him, and in his changing color might be seen the conflict it cost him to keep down his rising temper. He was, indeed, sorely tried, and his hand shook as he tossed over the books on his table, and endeavored to seem occupied in other matters.
“Maybe you forget all about it,” began Tom. “Perhaps you don't remember that you offered to fit me out for India, and send me over with a letter to your father —”
“No, no, I forget nothing of it; I remember it all.” He had almost said “only too well,” but he coughed down the cruel speech, and went on hurriedly: “You have come, however, when I am engaged, — when I have other things to attend to. These letters here — In fact, this is not a moment when I can attend to you. Do you understand me?”
“I believe I do,” said Tom, growing very pale. [Chapter XII, "The Answer," 92]Still at the Fisherman's Home, Fred Conyers has magnanimously agreed to intervene with his father, a British military governor in India, to find the youth a position as regimental surgeon — providing Tom can pass his medical examination in the coming weeks. However, his mind on the letters that George Barrington sent his father about his adventures with Ormsby Conyers in India, Fred has entirely forgotten that he has agreed to serve as Tom's advocate. He rebuffs the warm-hearted (if slightly tipsy) young Irishman coldly: "I don't remember that I sent for you" (p. 3).
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Lever, Charles. Barrington; Tales of the Trains. Illustrated by 'Phiz'. Twelve monthly parts. London: Chapman and Hall, 1863.
Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978.
Sutherland, John A. "Barrington." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, 48-49.
Created 9 November 2007 Last updated 28 September 2026