The Old Curiosity Shop

by Dickens, Charles

lodging, where, marvellous to relate, he consented to stop when Mr

  Abel checked him.

  'See! It's the room up there,' said the Marchioness, pointing to

  one where there was a faint light. 'Come!'

  Mr Abel, who was one of the simplest and most retiring creatures in

  existence, and naturally timid withal, hesitated; for he had heard

  of people being decoyed into strange places to be robbed and

  murdered, under circumstances very like the present, and, for

  anything he knew to the contrary, by guides very like the

  Marchioness. His regard for Kit, however, overcame every other

  consideration. So, entrusting Whisker to the charge of a man who

  was lingering hard by in expectation of the Job, he suffered his

  companion to take his hand, and to lead him up the dark and narrow

  stairs.

  He was not a little surprised to find himself conducted into a

  dimly-lighted sick chamber, where a man was sleeping tranquilly in

  bed.

  'An't it nice to see him lying there so quiet?' said his guide, in

  an earnest whisper. 'Oh! you'd say it was, if you had only seen

  Page 343

  Dickens, Charles - The Old Curiosity Shop

  him two or three days ago.'

  Mr Abel made no answer, and, to say the truth, kept a long way from

  the bed and very near the door. His guide, who appeared to

  understand his reluctance, trimmed the candle, and taking it in her

  hand, approached the bed. As she did so, the sleeper started up,

  and he recognised in the wasted face the features of Richard

  Swiveller.

  'Why, how is this?' said Mr Abel kindly, as he hurried towards him.

  'You have been ill?'

  'Very,' replied Dick. 'Nearly dead. You might have chanced to

  hear of your Richard on his bier, but for the friend I sent to

  fetch you. Another shake of the hand, Marchioness, if you please.

  Sit down, Sir.'

  Mr Abel seemed rather astonished to hear of the quality of his

  guide, and took a chair by the bedside.

  'I have sent for you, Sir,' said Dick--'but she told you on what

  account?'

  'She did. I am quite bewildered by all this. I really don't know

  what to say or think,' replied Mr Abel.

  'You'll say that presently,' retorted Dick. 'Marchioness, take a

  seat on the bed, will you? Now, tell this gentleman all that you

  told me; and be particular. Don't you speak another word, Sir.'

  The story was repeated; it was, in effect, exactly the same as

  before, without any deviation or omission. Richard Swiveller kept

  his eyes fixed on his visitor during its narration, and directly it

  was concluded, took the word again.

  'You have heard it all, and you'll not forget it. I'm too giddy

  and too queer to suggest anything; but you and your friends will

  know what to do. After this long delay, every minute is an age.

  If ever you went home fast in your life, go home fast to-night.

  Don't stop to say one word to me, but go. She will be found here,

  whenever she's wanted; and as to me, you're pretty sure to find me

  at home, for a week or two. There are more reasons than one for

  that. Marchioness, a light! If you lose another minute in looking

  at me, sir, I'll never forgive you!'

  Mr Abel needed no more remonstrance or persuasion. He was gone in

  an instant; and the Marchioness, returning from lighting him

  down-stairs, reported that the pony, without any preliminary

  objection whatever, had dashed away at full gallop.

  'That's right!' said Dick; 'and hearty of him; and I honour him

  from this time. But get some supper and a mug of beer, for I am

  sure you must be tired. Do have a mug of beer. It will do me as

  much good to see you take it as if I might drink it myself.'

  Nothing but this assurance could have prevailed upon the small

  nurse to indulge in such a luxury. Having eaten and drunk to Mr

  Swiveller's extreme contentment, given him his drink, and put

  everything in neat order, she wrapped herself in an old coverlet

  and lay down upon the rug before the fire.

  Mr Swiveller was by that time murmuring in his sleep, 'Strew then,

  oh strew, a bed of rushes. Here will we stay, till morning

  blushes. Good night, Marchioness!'

  Page 344

  Dickens, Charles - The Old Curiosity Shop

  CHAPTER 66

  On awaking in the morning, Richard Swiveller became conscious, by

  slow degrees, of whispering voices in his room. Looking out

  between the curtains, he espied Mr Garland, Mr Abel, the notary,

  and the single gentleman, gathered round the Marchioness, and

  talking to her with great earnestness but in very subdued tones--

  fearing, no doubt, to disturb him. He lost no time in letting them

  know that this precaution was unnecessary, and all four gentlemen

  directly approached his bedside. Old Mr Garland was the first to

  stretch out his hand, and inquire how he felt.

  Dick was about to answer that he felt much better, though still as

  weak as need be, when his little nurse, pushing the visitors aside

  and pressing up to his pillow as if in jealousy of their

  interference, set his breakfast before him, and insisted on his

  taking it before he underwent the fatigue of speaking or of being

  spoken to. Mr Swiveller, who was perfectly ravenous, and had had,

  all night, amazingly distinct and consistent dreams of mutton

  chops, double stout, and similar delicacies, felt even the weak tea

  and dry toast such irresistible temptations, that he consented to

  eat and drink on one condition.

  'And that is,' said Dick, returning the pressure of Mr Garland's

  hand, 'that you answer me this question truly, before I take a bit

  or drop. Is it too late?'

  'For completing the work you began so well last night?' returned

  the old gentleman. 'No. Set your mind at rest on that point. It

  is not, I assure you.'

  Comforted by this intelligence, the patient applied himself to his

  food with a keen appetite, though evidently not with a greater zest

  in the eating than his nurse appeared to have in seeing him eat.

  The manner of this meal was this:--Mr Swiveller, holding the slice

  of toast or cup of tea in his left hand, and taking a bite or

  drink, as the case might be, constantly kept, in his right, one

  palm of the Marchioness tight locked; and to shake, or even to kiss

  this imprisoned hand, he would stop every now and then, in the very

  act of swallowing, with perfect seriousness of intention, and the

  utmost gravity. As often as he put anything into his mouth,

  whether for eating or drinking, the face of the Marchioness lighted

  up beyond all description; but whenever he gave her one or other of

  these tokens of recognition, her countenance became overshadowed,

  and she began to sob. Now, whether she was in her laughing joy, or

  in her crying one, the Marchioness could not help turning to the

  visitors with an appealing look, which seemed to say, 'You see this

  fellow--can I help this?'--and they, being thus made, as it were,

  parties to the scene, as regularly answered by another look, 'No.

  Certainly not.' This dumb-show, taking place durin
g the whole time

  of the invalid's breakfast, and the invalid himself, pale and

  emaciated, performing no small part in the same, it may be fairly

  questioned whether at any meal, where no word, good or bad, was

  spoken from beginning to end, so much was expressed by gestures in

  themselves so slight and unimportant.

  At length--and to say the truth before very long--Mr Swiveller

  had despatched as much toast and tea as in that stage of his

  recovery it was discreet to let him have. But the cares of the

  Page 345

  Dickens, Charles - The Old Curiosity Shop

  Marchioness did not stop here; for, disappearing for an instant and

  presently returning with a basin of fair water, she laved his face

  and hands, brushed his hair, and in short made him as spruce and

  smart as anybody under such circumstances could be made; and all

  this, in as brisk and business-like a manner, as if he were a very

  little boy, and she his grown-up nurse. To these various

  attentions, Mr Swiveller submitted in a kind of grateful

  astonishment beyond the reach of language. When they were at last

  brought to an end, and the Marchioness had withdrawn into a distant

  corner to take her own poor breakfast (cold enough by that time),

  he turned his face away for some few moments, and shook hands

  heartily with the air.

  'Gentlemen,' said Dick, rousing himself from this pause, and

  turning round again, 'you'll excuse me. Men who have been brought

  so low as I have been, are easily fatigued. I am fresh again now,

  and fit for talking. We're short of chairs here, among other

  trifles, but if you'll do me the favour to sit upon the bed--'

  'What can we do for you?' said Mr Garland, kindly.

  'if you could make the Marchioness yonder, a Marchioness, in real,

  sober earnest,' returned Dick, 'I'd thank you to get it done

  off-hand. But as you can't, and as the question is not what you

  will do for me, but what you will do for somebody else who has a

  better claim upon you, pray sir let me know what you intend doing.'

  'It's chiefly on that account that we have come just now,' said the

  single gentleman, 'for you will have another visitor presently. We

  feared you would be anxious unless you knew from ourselves what

  steps we intended to take, and therefore came to you before we

  stirred in the matter.'

  'Gentlemen,' returned Dick, 'I thank you. Anybody in the helpless

  state that you see me in, is naturally anxious. Don't let me

  interrupt you, sir.'

  'Then, you see, my good fellow,' said the single gentleman, 'that

  while we have no doubt whatever of the truth of this disclosure,

  which has so providentially come to light--'

  'Meaning hers?' said Dick, pointing towards the Marchioness.

  '--Meaning hers, of course. While we have no doubt of that, or

  that a proper use of it would procure the poor lad's immediate

  pardon and liberation, we have a great doubt whether it would, by

  itself, enable us to reach Quilp, the chief agent in this villany.

  I should tell you that this doubt has been confirmed into something

  very nearly approaching certainty by the best opinions we have been

  enabled, in this short space of time, to take upon the subject.

  You'll agree with us, that to give him even the most distant chance

  of escape, if we could help it, would be monstrous. You say with

  us, no doubt, if somebody must escape, let it be any one but he.'

  'Yes,' returned Dick, 'certainly. That is if somebody must--but

  upon my word, I'm unwilling that Anybody should. Since laws were

  made for every degree, to curb vice in others as well as in me--

  and so forth you know--doesn't it strike you in that light?'

  The single gentleman smiled as if the light in which Mr Swiveller

  had put the question were not the clearest in the world, and

  proceeded to explain that they contemplated proceeding by stratagem

  in the first instance; and that their design was to endeavour to

  extort a confession from the gentle Sarah.

  Page 346

  Dickens, Charles - The Old Curiosity Shop

  'When she finds how much we know, and how we know it,' he said,

  'and that she is clearly compromised already, we are not without

  strong hopes that we may be enabled through her means to punish the

  other two effectually. If we could do that, she might go scot-free

  for aught I cared.'

  Dick received this project in anything but a gracious manner,

  representing with as much warmth as he was then capable of showing,

  that they would find the old buck (meaning Sarah) more difficult to

  manage than Quilp himself--that, for any tampering, terrifying, or

  cajolery, she was a very unpromising and unyielding subject--that

  she was of a kind of brass not easily melted or moulded into shape--

  in short, that they were no match for her, and would be signally

  defeated. But it was in vain to urge them to adopt some other

  course. The single gentleman has been described as explaining

  their joint intentions, but it should have been written that they

  all spoke together; that if any one of them by chance held his

  peace for a moment, he stood gasping and panting for an opportunity

  to strike in again: in a word, that they had reached that pitch of

  impatience and anxiety where men can neither be persuaded nor

  reasoned with; and that it would have been as easy to turn the most

  impetuous wind that ever blew, as to prevail on them to reconsider

  their determination. So, after telling Mr Swiveller how they had

  not lost sight of Kit's mother and the children; how they had never

  once even lost sight of Kit himself, but had been unremitting in

  their endeavours to procure a mitigation of his sentence; how they

  had been perfectly distracted between the strong proofs of his

  guilt, and their own fading hopes of his innocence; and how he,

  Richard Swiveller, might keep his mind at rest, for everything

  should be happily adjusted between that time and night;--after

  telling him all this, and adding a great many kind and cordial

  expressions, personal to himself, which it is unnecessary to

  recite, Mr Garland, the notary, and the single gentleman, took

  their leaves at a very critical time, or Richard Swiveller must

  assuredly have been driven into another fever, whereof the results

  might have been fatal.

  Mr Abel remained behind, very often looking at his watch and at the

  room door, until Mr Swiveller was roused from a short nap, by the

  setting-down on the landing-place outside, as from the shoulders of

  a porter, of some giant load, which seemed to shake the house, and

  made the little physic bottles on the mantel-shelf ring again.

  Directly this sound reached his ears, Mr Abel started up, and

  hobbled to the door, and opened it; and behold! there stood a

  strong man, with a mighty hamper, which, being hauled into the room

  and presently unpacked, disgorged such treasures as tea, and

  coffee, and wine, and rusks, and oranges, and grapes, and fowls

  ready trussed for boiling, and calves'-foot jelly, and arrow-root,

  and sago, and other delicate r
estoratives, that the small servant,

  who had never thought it possible that such things could be, except

  in shops, stood rooted to the spot in her one shoe, with her mouth

  and eyes watering in unison, and her power of speech quite gone.

  But, not so Mr Abel; or the strong man who emptied the hamper, big

  as it was, in a twinkling; and not so the nice old lady, who

  appeared so suddenly that she might have come out of the hamper too

  (it was quite large enough), and who, bustling about on tiptoe and

  without noise--now here, now there, now everywhere at once--began

  to fill out the jelly in tea-cups, and to make chicken broth in

  small saucepans, and to peel oranges for the sick man and to cut

  them up in little pieces, and to ply the small servant with glasses

  of wine and choice bits of everything until more substantial meat

  could be prepared for her refreshment. The whole of which

  appearances were so unexpected and bewildering, that Mr Swiveller,

  Page 347

  Dickens, Charles - The Old Curiosity Shop

  when he had taken two oranges and a little jelly, and had seen the

  strong man walk off with the empty basket, plainly leaving all that

  abundance for his use and benefit, was fain to lie down and fall

  asleep again, from sheer inability to entertain such wonders in his

  mind.

  Meanwhile, the single gentleman, the Notary, and Mr Garland,

  repaired to a certain coffee-house, and from that place indited and

  sent a letter to Miss Sally Brass, requesting her, in terms

  mysterious and brief, to favour an unknown friend who wished to

  consult her, with her company there, as speedily as possible. The

  communication performed its errand so well, that within ten minutes

  of the messenger's return and report of its delivery, Miss Brass

  herself was announced.

  'Pray ma'am,' said the single gentleman, whom she found alone in

  the room, 'take a chair.'

  Miss Brass sat herself down, in a very stiff and frigid state, and

  seemed--as indeed she was--not a little astonished to find that

  the lodger and her mysterious correspondent were one and the same

  person.

  'You did not expect to see me?' said the single gentleman.

  'I didn't think much about it,' returned the beauty. 'I supposed

  it was business of some kind or other. If it's about the

  apartments, of course you'll give my brother regular notice, you

  know--or money. That's very easily settled. You're a responsible