 75 A month has elapsed, and we stand in the bed-chamber of Sir John Chester. Through the half-opened window, the temple garden looks green and pleasant, the placid river, gay with boat and barge, and dimpled with the plash of many and oar, sparkles in the distance. The sky is blue and clear, and the summer air steals gently in, filling the room with perfume. The very town, the smoky town, is radiant. High roofs and steeple tops, want to look black and sullen, smile a cheerful grey. Every old gilded vein and ball and cross glitters anew in the bright morning sun, and high among them all, St. Paul's towers up, showing its lofty crest in burnished gold. Sir John was breakfasting in bed. His chocolate and toast stood upon a little table at his elbow. Books and newspapers lay ready to his hand upon the coverlet, and sometimes, pausing to glance with an air of tranquil satisfaction round the well-ordered room, and sometimes to gaze indolently at the summer sky, he ate and drank and read the news luxuriously. The cheerful influence of the morning seemed to have some effect, even upon his equitable temper. His manner was unusually gay, his smile more placid and agreeable than usual, his voice more clear and pleasant. He laid down the newspaper he had been reading, leaned back upon his pillow with the air of one who resigned himself to a train of charming recollections, and after a pause, soliloquized as follows. And my friend the centaur goes the way of his mamma, I am not surprised, and his mysterious friend Mr. Dennis likewise, I am not surprised, and my old postman, the exceedingly free and easy young madman of Chigwell, I am quite rejoiced, it's the very best thing that could possibly happen to him. After delivering himself of these remarks, he fell again into his smiling train of reflection, from which he roused himself at length to finish his chocolate, which was getting cold and ringing the bell for more. The new supply arriving, he took the cup from his servant's hand, and saying with a charming affability, I am obliged to you, Peake, dismissed him. It is a remarkable circumstance, he mused, dallying lazily with a teaspoon, that my friend the madman should have been within an ace of escaping on his trial, and it was a good stroke of chance, or as the world would say a providential occurrence, that the brother of my Lord Mayor should have been in court with other country justices into whose very dense heads curiosity had penetrated. For though the brother of my Lord Mayor was decidedly wrong, and established his near relationship to that amusing person beyond all doubt, in stating that my friend was sane, and had to his knowledge wandered about the country with a vagabond parent avowing revolutionary and rebellious sentiments, I am now the less obliged to him for volunteering that evidence. These insane creatures make such very odd and embarrassing remarks that they really ought to be hanged for the comfort of society. The country justice had indeed turned the wavering scale against poor Barnaby, and solved the doubt that trembled in his favor. Grip little thought how much he had to answer for. They will be a singular party, said Sir John, leaning his head upon his hand and sipping his chocolate. A very curious party. The hangman himself, the centaur and the madman. The centaur would make a very handsome preparation in Surgeon's Hall, and would benefit science extremely. I hope they have taken care to bespeak him. Peek I am not at home, of course, to anybody but the hairdresser. This reminder to his servant was called forth by a knock at the door, which the man hastened to open. After a prolonged murmur of question and answer he returned, and as he cautiously closed the room door behind him a man was heard to cough in the passage. Now it is of no use, Peek, said Sir John, raising his hand in deprecation of his delivering any message. I am not at home. I cannot possibly hear you. I told you I was not at home, and my word is sacred. Will you never do as you are desired? Having nothing to oppose to this reproof, the man was about to withdraw when the visitor who had given occasion to it, probably rendered impatient by delay, knocked with his knuckles at the chamber door, and called out that he had urgent business with Sir John Chester, which admitted of no delay. Let him in, said Sir John. My good fellow, he added, when the door was opened. I'll come you to intrude yourself in this extraordinary manner upon the privacy of a gentleman. How can you be so wholly destitute of self-respect as to be guilty of such remarkable ill-breeding? My business, Sir John, is not of a common kind, I do assure you, returned the person he addressed. If I have taken any uncommon course to get admission to you, I hope I shall be pardoned on that account. Well, we shall see, we shall see, returned Sir John, whose face cleared up when he saw who it was, and whose prepossessing smile was now restored. I am sure we have met before, he added, in his winning tone, but really, I forget your name. My name is Gabriel Varden, Sir. Varden, of course, Varden, returned Sir John, tapping his forehead. Dear me, how very defective my memory becomes, Varden, to be sure, Mr. Varden the locksmith, who have a charming wife, Mr. Varden, and a most beautiful daughter. They are well. Gabriel thanked him and said they were. I rejoiced to hear it, said Sir John, commend me to them when you return, and say that I wished I were fortunate enough to convey myself the salute which I entrust you to deliver. And what, he asked very sweetly, after a moment's pause, can I do for you? You may command me freely. I thank you, Sir John, said Gabriel, with some pride in his manner, but I have come to ask no favor of you, though I come on business, private, he added, with a glance at the man who stood looking on, and very pressing business. I cannot say you are the more welcome for being independent and having nothing to ask of me, returned Sir John graciously, for I should have been happy to render you a service. Still, you are welcome on any terms. Oblige me with some more chocolate, peak, and don't wait. The man retired and left them alone. Sir John, said Gabriel, I am a working man and have been so all my life. If I don't prepare you enough for what I have to tell, if I come to the point too abruptly and give you a shock which a gentleman could have spared you, or at all events lessened very much, I hope you will give me credit for meaning well. I wish to be careful and considerate, and I trust that in a straightforward person like me you'll take the will for the deed. Mr. Varden returned the other, perfectly composed, under this exhortium. I beg you'll take a chair. Chocolate, perhaps you don't relish? Well, it is an acquired taste, no doubt. Sir John, said Gabriel, who had acknowledged with the bow the invitation to be seated, but had not availed himself of it. Sir John, he dropped his voice and drew nearer to the bed. I am just now come from Newgate. Good gad, cried Sir John hastily sitting up in bed. From Newgate, Mr. Varden, how could you be so very imprudent as to come from Newgate? Newgate, where there were jail-fevers and ragged people and barefooted men and women and a thousand horrors, peak, bring the camp for quick heaven and earth, Mr. Varden, my dear good soul, how could you come from Newgate? Gabriel returned to no answer, but looked on in silence while peak, who had entered with the hot chocolate, ran to a drawer and, returning with a bottle, sprinkled his master's dressing gown and the bedding, and besides moistening the locksmith himself plentifully, described a circle round about him on the carpet. When he had done this, he again retired, and Sir John, reclining in an easy attitude upon his pillow, once more turned a smiling face towards his visitor. You will forgive me, Mr. Varden, I am sure, for being at first a little sensitive, both on your account and my own. I confess I was startled, not withstanding your delicate exhortium. Might I ask you to do me the favor not to approach any nearer? You have really come from Newgate? The locksmith inclined his head. Indeed. And now, Mr. Varden, all exaggeration and embellishment apart, said Sir John Chester confidentially, as he sipped his chocolate, what kind of place is Newgate? A strange place, Sir John, returned the locksmith, of a sad and doleful kind, a strange place where many strange things are heard and seen, but few more strange than that I come to tell you of. The case is urgent. I am sent here. Ha! No. No. Not from the jail. Yes, Sir John, from the jail. Then my good credulous open-hearted friend said Sir John, setting down his cup and laughing, by whom? By a man called Dennis, for many years the hangman, and tomorrow morning the hanged, returned the locksmith. Sir John had expected, had been quite certain from the first, that he would say he had come from Hugh, and was prepared to meet him on that point. But this answer occasioned him a degree of astonishment, which, for the moment, he could not, with all his command of feature, prevent his face from expressing. He quickly subdued it, however, and said in the same like tone, And what does the gentleman require of me? My memory may be at faulting him, but I don't recollect that I ever had the pleasure of an introduction to him, or that I ever numbered him among my personal friends. I do assure you, Mr. Varden. Sir John, returned the locksmith gravely, I will tell you, as nearly as I can, in the words he used to me, what he desires that you should know, and what you ought to know, without a moment's loss of time. Sir John Chester settled himself in a position of greater repose, and looked at his visitor with an expression of face, which seemed to say, This is an amusing fellow, I'll hear him out. You may have seen in the newspaper, sir, said Gabriel, pointing to the one which lay by his side, that I was a witness against this man upon his trial some days since, and that it was not his fault I was alive and able to speak to what I knew. May have seen, cried Sir John, my dear Mr. Varden, you are quite a public character, and live in all man's thoughts most deservedly. Nothing can exceed the interest with which I read your testimony, and remembered that I had the pleasure of a slight acquaintance with you. I hope we shall have your portrait published. This morning, sir, said the locksmith, taking no notice of these compliments. Early this morning a message was brought to me from Newgate at this man's request, desiring that I would go and see him, for he had something particular to communicate. I needn't tell you that he is no friend of mine, and that I had never seen him until the rioters beset my house. Sir John fanned himself gently with the newspaper and nodded. I knew, however, from the general report, resumed Gabriel, that the order for his execution to-morrow went down to the prison last night, and looking upon him as a dying man I complied with his request. You are quite a Christian, Mr. Varden, said Sir John, and in that amiable capacity you increased my desire that you should take a chair. He said, continued Gabriel, looking steadily at the night, that he had sent to me because he had no friend or companion in the whole world, being the common hangman, and because he believed from the way in which I had given my evidence that I was an honest man and would act truly by him. He said that being shunned by everyone who knew his calling, even by people of the lowest and most wretched grade, and finding when he joined the rioters that the men he acted with had no suspicion of it, which I believe is true enough for a poor fool of an old prentice of mine was one of them, he had kept his own counsel up to the time of his being taken and put in jail. Very discreet of Mr. Dennis observed Sir John with a slight yawn, though still with the utmost affability, but, except for your admirable and lucid manner of telling it, which is perfect, not very interesting to me. Then pursued the locksmith, quite unabashed and wholly regardless of these interruptions, when he was taken to the jail, he found that his fellow prisoner in the same room was a young man, Hugh by name, a leader in the riots, who had been betrayed and given up by himself. From something which fell from this unhappy creature in the course of the angry words they had at meeting, he discovered that his mother had suffered the death to which they both are now condemned. The time is very short, Sir John. The night laid down his paper fan, replaced his cup upon the table at his side, and a saving for the smile that lurked about his mouth looked at the locksmith with as much steadiness as the locksmith looked at him. They have been in prison now a month. One conversation led to many more, and the hangman soon found, from a comparison of time and place and dates, that he had executed the sentence of the law upon this woman himself. She had been tempted by want, as so many people are, into the easy crime of passing forged notes. She was young and handsome, and the traitors who employ men, women, and children in this traffic looked upon her as one who was well adapted for their business, and who would probably go on without suspicion for a long time. But they were mistaken, for she was stopped in the commission of her very first offense and died for it. She was of gypsy blood, Sir John. It might have been the effect of a passing cloud which obscured the sun and cast a shadow on his face, but the night turned deadly pale. Still he met the locksmith's eye as before. She was of gypsy blood, Sir John, repeated Gabriel, and had a high free spirit. This and her good looks and her lofty manner interested some gentlemen who were easily moved by dark eyes, and efforts were made to save her. They might have been successful if she would have given them any clue to her history, but she never would or did. There was reason to suspect that she would make an attempt upon her life. A watch was set upon her night and day, and from that time she never spoke again. Sir John stretched out his hand towards his cup. The locksmith going on arrested it half way. Until she had but a minute to live. Then she broke silence and said in a low firm voice which no one heard but this executioner, for all other living creatures had retired and left her to her fate. If I had a dagger within these fingers and he was within my reach, I would strike him dead before me even now. The man asked who. She said, the father of her boy. Sir John drew back his outstretched hand, and seeing that the locksmith paused, signed to him with easy politeness and without any new appearance of emotion to proceed. It was the first word she had ever spoken from which it could be understood that she had any relative on earth. Was the child alive? He asked. Yes. He asked her where it was, its name, and whether she had any wish respecting it. She had but one, she said. It was that the boy might live and grow in utter ignorance of his father so that no arts might teach him to be gentle and forgiving. When he became a man, she trusted to the God of their tribe to bring the father and the son together and revenge her through her child. He asked her other questions, but she spoke no more. Indeed, he says, she scarcely said this much to him, but stood with her face turned upwards to the sky and never looked towards him once. Sir John took a pinch of snuff, glanced approvingly at an elegant little sketch entitled Nature on the Wall, and raising his eyes to the locksmith's face again, sad with an air of courtesy and patronage. You were observing, Mr. Arden? That she never returned the locksmith, who was not to be diverted by any artifice from his firm manner and his steady gaze, that she never looked towards him once, Sir John, and so she died, and he forgot her. But some years afterwards a man was sentenced to die the same death who was a gypsy, too, a sunburnt, swarthy fellow, almost a wild man. And while he lay in prison under sentence, he who had seen the hangman more than once while he was free cut an image of him on his stick by way of braving death, and showing those who attended on him how little he cared or thought about it. He gave this stick into his hands at Tibern, and told him then that the woman I have spoken of had left her own people to join a fine gentleman, and that being deserted by him and cast off by her old friends she had sworn with in her own proud breast that whatever her misery might be she would ask no help of any human being. He told him that she had kept her word to the last, and that meeting even him in the streets he had been fond of her once it seems. She had slipped from him by a trick, and he never saw her again until, being in one of the frequent crowds at Tibern with some of his rough companions, he had been driven almost mad by seeing in the criminal under another name whose death he had come to witness herself. Standing in the same place in which she had stood, he told the hangman this, and told him, too, her real name, which only her own people and the gentleman for whose sake she had left them knew. That name he will tell again, Sir John, to none but you. To none but me exclaimed the night, pausing in the act of raising his cup to his lips with a perfectly steady hand, and curling up his little finger for the better display of a brilliant ring with which it was ornamented. But me, my dear Mr. Varden, how very preposterous, just like me for his confidence, with you and his elbow, too, who are so perfectly trustworthy. Sir John, Sir John, return the locksmith, at twelve tomorrow these men die. Hear the few words I have to add and do not hope to deceive me, for though I am a plain man of humble station, and you are a gentleman of rank and learning, the truth raises me to your level, and I know that you anticipate the disclosure with which I am about to end, and that you believe this doomed man Hugh to be your son. Nay, said Sir John, bantering him with a gay air, the wild gentleman who died so suddenly scarcely went as far as that, I think. He did not, returned the locksmith, for she had bound him by some pledge known only to these people, and which the worst among them respect, not to tell your name. But in a fantastic pattern on the stick he had carved some letters, and when the hangman asked that he bade him, especially if he should ever meet with her son in afterlife, remember that place well. What place? Chester. The knight finished his cup of chocolate with an appearance of infinite relish, and carefully wiped his lips upon his handkerchief. Sir John, said the locksmith, this is all that has been told to me, but since these two men have been left for death they have conferred together closely. See them, and hear what they can add. See this Dennis, and learn from him what he has not trusted to me. If you, who hold the clue to all, want corroboration, which you do not, the means are easy. And to what, said Sir John Chester, rising on his elbow after smoothing the pillow for its reception, my dear good-natured estimable Mr. Varden, with whom I cannot be angry if I would, to what does all this tend? I take you for a man, Sir John, and I suppose it tends to some pleading of natural affection in your breast, returned the locksmith. I suppose to the straining of every nerve and the exertion of all the influence you have or can make in behalf of your miserable son, and the man who has disclosed his existence to you. At the worst I suppose to your seeing your son and awakening him to a sense of his crime and danger. He has no such sense now. Think what his life must have been when he said in my hearing that if I moved you to anything it would be to hastening his death and ensuring his silence if you had it in your power. And have you, my good Mr. Varden, said Sir John in a tone of mild reproof, have you really lived to your present age and remained so very simple and credulous as to approach a gentleman of established character with such credentials as these from desperate men in their last extremity catching it any straw? Oh, dear, oh, five-five. The locksmith was going to interpose, but he stopped him. On any other subject, Mr. Varden, I shall be delighted. I shall be charmed to converse with you. But I owe it to my own character not to pursue this topic for another moment. Think better of it, Sir, when I am gone, returned the locksmith. Think better of it, Sir. Although you have thrice within as many weeks turned your lawful son, Mr. Edward, from your door, you may have time. You may have years to make your peace with him, Sir John. But the twelve o'clock will soon be here and soon be passed forever. I thank you very much, returned the night, kissing his delicate hand to the locksmith, for your guileless advice. And I only wish, my good soul, although your simplicity is quite captivating, that you had a little more worldly wisdom. I never so much regretted the arrival of my hairdresser as I do at this moment. God bless you. Good morning. You'll not forget my message to the ladies, Mr. Varden. Peake, show Mr. Varden to the door. Gabriel said no more, but gave the night a parting look and left him. As he quitted the room, Sir John's face changed, and the smile gave place to a haggard and anxious expression like that of a weary actor jaded by the performance of a difficult part. He rose from his bed with a heavy sigh and wrapped himself in his morning gown. So she kept her word, he said, and was constant to her threat. I would have had never seen that dark face of hers. I might have read these consequences in it from the first. This affair would make a noise abroad if it rested on better evidence. But as it is, and by not joining the scattered links of the chain, I can afford to slight it. Extremely distressing to be the parent of such an uncouthed creature. Still, I gave him very good advice. I told him he would certainly be hanged. I could have done no more if I had known of our relationship. And there are great many fathers who have never done as much for their natural children. The hairdresser may come in, Peake. The hairdresser came in and saw in Sir John Chester, whose accommodating conscience was soon quieted by the numerous precedents that occurred to him in support of his last observation, the same imperturbable, fascinating, elegant gentleman he had seen yesterday and many yesterdays before. End of Chapter 75 Chapter 76 of Barnaby Rudge. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens, Chapter 76. As the locksmith walked slowly away from Sir John Chester's chambers, he lingered under the trees which shaded the path, almost hoping that he might be summoned to return. He had turned back thrice and still loitered at the corner when the clock struck twelve. It was a solemn sound and not merely for its reference to tomorrow, for he knew that in that chime the murderer's knell was wrong. He had seen him pass along the crowded street amidst the execration of the throng and marked his quivering lip and trembling limbs, the ashy hue upon his face, his clammy brow, the wild distraction of his eye, the fear of death that swallowed up all other thoughts and gnawed without cessation at his hardened brain. He had marked the wandering look, seeking for hope, and finding turn where it would despair. He had seen the remorseful, pitiful, desolate creature riding with his coffin by his side to the jibbit. He knew that to the last he had been an unyielding objuret man, that in the savage terror of his condition he had hardened rather than relented to his wife and child, and that the last words which had passed his white lips were curses on them as his enemies. Mr. Herodale had determined to be there and see it done. Nothing but the evidence of his own senses could satisfy that gloomy thirst for retribution which had been gathering upon him for so many years. The locksmith knew this, and when the chimes had ceased to vibrate hurried away to meet him. "'For these two men,' he said, as he went, "'I can do no more. Heaven have mercy on them. Alas, I say I can do no more for them, but whom can I help? Every rudge will have a home and a firm friend when she most wants one. But Barnaby, poor Barnaby, willing Barnaby, what aid can I render him? There are many, many men of sense, God forgive me,' cried the honest locksmith, stopping in a narrow court to pass his hand across his eyes. I could better afford to lose than Barnaby. We have always been good friends, but I never knew till now how much I loved the lad. There were not many in the great city who thought of Barnaby that day, otherwise than as an actor in a show which was to take place tomorrow. But if the whole population had had him in their minds and had wished his life to be spared, not one among them could have done so with a pure zeal or greater singleness of heart than the good locksmith. Barnaby was to die. There was no hope. It is not the least evil attendant upon the frequent exhibition of this last dread punishment of death that it hardens the minds of those who deal it out and makes them, though they be amiable men in other respects, indifferent to or unconscious of their great responsibility. The word had gone forth that Barnaby was to die. It went forth every month for lighter crimes. It was a thing so common that very few were startled by the awful sentence or cared to question its propriety. Just then, too, when the law had been so flagrantly outraged, its dignity must be asserted. The symbol of its dignity, stamped upon every page of the criminal statute book, was the gallows. And Barnaby was to die. They had tried to save him. The locksmith had carried petitions and memorials to the fountainhead with his own hands, but the well was not one of mercy, and Barnaby was to die. From the first, his mother had never left him save at night, and with her beside him, he was as usual contented. On this last day, he was more elated and more proud than he had been yet, and when she dropped the book she had been reading to him aloud and fell upon his neck, he stopped in his busy task of folding a piece of crepe about his hat and wandered at her anguish. Crip uttered a feeble croak, half in encouragement, it seemed, and half in remonstrance, but he wanted heart to sustain it and lapsed abruptly into silence. With them who stood upon the brink of the great gulf which none can see beyond, time, so soon to lose itself in vast eternity, rolled on like a mighty river, swollen and rapid as it nears the sea. It was morning, but now. They had sat and talked together in a dream, and here was evening. The dread flower of separation, which even yesterday had seemed so distant, was at hand. They walked out into the courtyard, clinging to each other, but not speaking. Barnaby knew that the jail was a dull, sad, miserable place, and looked forward to tomorrow as to a passage from it to something bright and beautiful. He had a vague impression, too, that he was expected to be brave, that he was a man of great consequence and that the prison people would be glad to make him weep. He trod the ground more firmly as he thought of this and bade her take heart and cry no more and feel how steady his hand was. They called me silly, mother. They shall see tomorrow. Dennis and Hugh were in the courtyard. Hugh came forth from his cell as they did, stretching himself as though he had been sleeping. Dennis sat upon a bench in a corner with his knees and chin huddled together and rocked himself to and fro like a person in severe pain. The mother and son remained on one side of the court and these two men upon the other. Hugh strode up and down, glancing fiercely every now and then at the bright summer sky and looking round when he had done so at the walls. No reprieve, no reprieve. Nobody comes near us. There's only the night left now, moaned Dennis faintly as he rung his hands. Do you think they'll reprieve me in the night, brother? I've known reprieves come in the night before now. I've known them come as late as five, six, and seven o'clock in the morning. Don't you think there's a good chance yet, don't you? Say you do, say you do, young man. Wind the miserable creature with an imploring gesture towards Barnaby, or I shall go mad. Better be mad than sane here, said Hugh, go mad. But tell me what you think. Somebody tell me what he thinks, cried the wretched object. So mean and wretched and despicable that even pity's self might have turned away at sight of such a being and the likeness of a man. Isn't there a chance for me? Isn't there a good chance for me? Isn't it likely they may be doing this to frighten me? Don't you think it is? Oh, he almost shrieked as he rung his hands. Won't anybody give me comfort? You ought to be the best instead of the worst, said Hugh, stopping before him. Ha ha ha, see the hangman when it comes home to him. You don't know what it is, cried Dennis, actually writhing as he spoke. I do, that I should come to be worked off. I, I, that I should come. And why not, said Hugh, as he thrust back his matted hair to get a better view of his late associate. How often, before I knew your trade, did I hear you talking of this as if it was a treat? I ain't inconsistent, screamed the miserable creature. I'd talk so again if I was hangman. Some other man has got my old opinions at this minute. That makes it worse. Somebody's longing to work me off. I know by myself that somebody must be. He'll soon have his longing, said Hugh, resuming his walk. Think of that and be quiet. Although one of these men displayed in his speech and bearing the most reckless hearty hood, and the other, in his every word and action, testified such an extreme of abject cowardice that it was humiliating to see him, it would be difficult to say which of them would most have repelled and shocked an observer. Hugh's was the dogged desperation of a savage at the stake. The hangman was reduced to a conditioned little better, if any, than that of a hound with the halt around his neck. Yet, as Mr. Dennis knew and could have told them, these were the two commonest states of mind in persons brought to their past. Such was the wholesome growth of the seeds sown by the law that this kind of harvest was usually looked for as a matter of course. In one respect, they all agreed, the wandering and uncontrollable train of thought, suggesting sudden recollections of things distant and long forgotten and remote from each other, the vague restless craving for something undefined which nothing could satisfy, the swift flight of the minutes fusing themselves into hours as if by enchantment, the rapid coming of the solemn night, the shadow of death always upon them, and yet so dim and faint that objects the meanest and most trivial started from the gloom beyond and forced themselves upon the view, the impossibility of holding the mind even if they had been so disposed to penitence and preparation or of keeping it to any point while one hideous fascination tempted it away, these things were common to them all and varied only in their outward tokens. That's me the book I left within upon your bed, she said to Barnaby as the clock struck, kiss me first. He looked in her face and saw there that the time was come. After a long embrace he tore himself away and ran to bring it to her, bidding her not stir till he came back. He soon returned for a shriek we called him but she was gone. He ran to the yard gage and looked through, they were carrying her away. She had said her heart would break, it was better so. Don't you think, whimpered Dennis, creeping up to him as he stood with his feet rooted to the ground gazing at the blank walls? Don't you think there's still a chance? It's a dreadful end, it's a terrible end for a man like me. Don't you think there's a chance? I don't mean for you, I mean for me. Don't let him hear us, meaning you. He's so desperate. Now then said the officer who had been lounging in and out with his hands in his pockets and yawning as if he were in the last extremity for some subject of interest. It's time to turn in, boys. Not yet, cried Dennis. Not yet, not for an hour yet. I say, your watch goes different from what it used to return to the man. Once upon a time it was always too fast. Let's cut the other fault now. My friend, cried the wretched creature falling on his knees. My dear friend, you always were, my dear friend. There's some mistake. Some letter has been mislaid or some messenger has been stopped upon the way. He may have fallen dead. I saw a man once fall down dead in the street myself and he had papers in his pocket. Send to inquire. Let somebody go to inquire. They never will hang you, they never can. Yes they will, he cried, starting to his feet with a terrible scream. They'll hang me by a trick and keep the pardon back. It's a plot against me. I shall lose my life. And uttering another yell, he fell in a fit upon the ground. See the hangman when it comes home to him, cried you again as they bore him away. Courage, bold Barnaby, what care we? Your hand. They do well to put us out of the world. For if we got loose a second time, we wouldn't let them off so easy, eh? Another shake. A man can dive at once. If you awaken the night, sing that out lustily and fall asleep again. Barnaby glanced once more through the grate into the empty yard, and then watched Hugh as he strode to the steps leading to his sleeping cell. He heard him shout and burst into a roar of laughter and saw him flourish his hat. Then he turned away himself, like one who walked in his sleep, and without any sense of fear or sorrow, lay down on his pallet, listening for the clock to strike again. End of chapter 76, recording by Debra Lynn. Chapter 77 of Barnaby-Rudge. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Barnaby-Rudge by Charles Dickens, chapter 77. The time wore on. The noises in the streets became less frequent by degrees until silence was scarcely broken, saved by the bells in church towers, marking the progress, softer and more stealthy while the city slumbered, of that great watcher with the hoary head who never sleeps or rests. In the brief interval of darkness and repose, which feverish towns enjoy, all busy sounds were hushed, and those who awoke from dreams lay listening in their beds and longing for dawn and wished the dead of the night were passed. Into the street, outside the jail's main wall, workmen came straggling at this solemn hour in groups of two or three, and meeting in the center cast their tools upon the ground and spoken whispers. Others soon issued from the jail itself, bearing on their shoulders planks and beams. These materials being all brought forth, the rest bestirred themselves, and the dull sound of hammers began to echo through the stillness. Here and there among this knot of laborers, one with a lantern or a smoky link stood by to light his fellows at their work, and by its doubtful age some might be dimly seen taking up the pavement of the road, while others held great upright posts or fixed them in the holes thus made for their reception. Some dragged slowly on towards the rest an empty cart which they brought rumbling from the prison yard, while others erected strong barriers across the street. All were busily engaged, their dusky figures moving to and fro at that unusual hour so active and so silent might have been taken for those of shadowy creatures toiling at midnight on some ghostly unsubstantial work which like themselves would vanish with the first gleam of day and leave but mourning mist and vapor. While it was yet dark, a few lookers on collected who had plainly come there for their purpose and intended to remain. Even those who had to pass the spot on their way to some other place lingered and lingered yet as though the attraction of that were irresistible. Meanwhile, the noise of saw and mallet went on briskly, mingled with the clattering of boards on the stone pavement of the road and sometimes with the workman's voices as they called to one another. Whenever the chimes of the neighboring church were heard and that was every quarter of an hour, a strange sensation, instantaneous and indescribable but perfectly obvious seemed to pervade them all. Gradually a faint brightness appeared in the east and the air which had been very warm all through the night felt cool and chilly. Though there was no daylight yet, the darkness was diminished and the stars looked pale. The prison which had been a mere black mass with little shape or form put on its usual aspect and ever and anon a solitary watchman could be seen upon its roof stopping to look down upon the preparations in the street. This man, from forming as it were a part of the jail and knowing or being supposed to know all that was passing within became an object of as much interest and was as eagerly looked for and as awfully pointed out as if he had been a spirit. By and by the feeble light grew stronger and the houses with their signboards and inscriptions stood plainly out in the dull gray morning. Heavy stage wagons crawled from the in-yard opposite and travelers peeped out and as they rolled sluggishly away cast many a backward look towards the jail. And now the sun's first beams came glancing into the street and the night's work which in its various stages and in the varied fancies of the lookers on had taken a hundred shapes or its own proper form, a scaffold and a gibbet. As the warmth of the cheerful day began to shed itself upon the scanty crowd the murmur of tongues was heard, shutters were thrown open and blinds drawn up and those who had slept in rooms over against the prison were places to see the execution were let at high prices rose hastily from their beds. In some of the houses people were busy taking out the window sashes for the better accommodation of spectators. In others the spectators were already seated and beguiling the time with cards or drink or jokes among themselves. Some had purchased seats upon the housetops and were already crawling to their stations from parapet and garret window. Some were yet bargaining for good places and stood in them in a state of indecision gazing at the slowly swelling crowd and at the workmen as they rested listlessly against the scaffold affecting to listen with indifference to the proprietor's eulogy of the commanding view his house afforded and the surpassing cheapness of his terms. A fairer morning never shone from the roofs and upper stories of these buildings the spires of city churches and the great cathedral dome were visible rising up beyond the prison into the blue sky and clad in the color of light summer clouds and showing in the clear atmosphere there every scrap of tracery and fret work and every niche and loophole all was brightness and promise accepting in the street below into which for it yet lay in shadow the eye looked down as into a dark trench where in the midst of so much life and hope and renewal of existence stood the terrible instrument of death it seemed as if the very sun for board a look upon it but it was better grim and somber in the shade than when the day being more advanced it stood confessed in the full glare and glory of the sun with its black paint blistering and its nooses dangling in the light like glows some garlands it was better in the solitude and gloom of midnight with a few forms clustering about it than in the freshness and the stir of mourning the center of an eager crowd it was better haunting the street like a specter when men were in their beds and influencing perchance the city's dreams then braving the broad day and thrusting its obscene presence upon their waking senses five o'clock had struck six seven and eight along the two main streets at either end of the crossway a living stream had now set in rolling towards the marks of gain and business carts, coaches, wagons, trucks, and barrows forced the passage through the outskirts of the throng and clattered onward in the same direction some of these which were public conveyances and had come from a short distance in the country stopped and the driver pointed to the jibbit with his whip though he might have spared himself the pains for the heads of all the passengers were turned that way without his help and the coach windows were stuck full of staring eyes in some of the carts and wagons women might be seen glancing fearfully at the same unsightly thing and even little children were held up above the people's heads to see what kind of a toy a gallows was and learn how men were hanged two rioters were to die before the prison who had been concerned in the attack upon it and one directly afterwards in Bloomsbury Square at nine o'clock a strong body of military marched into the street and formed in line to narrow passage into Holborn which had been indifferently kept all night by constables through this another cart was brought the one already mentioned had been employed in the construction of the scaffold and wheeled up to the prison gate these preparations made the soldiers stood at ease the officers lounged to and fro in the alley they had made or talked together at the scaffold's foot and the concourse which had been rapidly augmenting for some hours and still received additions every minute waded with an impatience which increased with every chime of St. Sepeker's Clock for twelve at noon up to this time they had been very quiet comparatively silent save when the arrival of some new party at a window hitherto unoccupied gave them something new to look at or to talk of but as the hour approached a buzz and hummer rose which deepening every moment soon swelled into a roar and seemed to fill the air no words or even voices could be distinguished in this clamor nor did they speak much to each other though such as were better informed upon the topic than the rest would tell their neighbors perhaps that they might know the hangman when he came out by his being the shorter one and that the man who was to suffer with him was named Hugh and that it was Barnaby Rudge who would be hanged in Bloomsbury Square the hum grew as the time drew near so loud that those who were at the windows could not hear the church clock strike though it was close at hand nor had they any need to hear it either for they could see it in the people's faces so surely as another quarter chimed there was a movement in the crowd as if something had passed over it as if the light upon them had been changed in which the fact was readable as on a brazen dial figured by a giant's hand three quarters past eleven the murmur now was deafening yet every man seemed mute look where you would among the crowd you saw strained eyes and lips compressed it would have been difficult for the most vigilant observer to point this way or that and say that yonder man had cried out it was easy to detect the motion of lips in a seashell three quarters past eleven many spectators who had retired from the windows came back refreshed as though their watch had just begun those who had fallen asleep roused themselves and every person in the crowd made one last effort to better his position which caused the press against the sturdy barriers that made them bend and yield like twigs the officers who until now had kept together fell into their several positions and gave the words of command swords were drawn muskets shouldered in the bright steel winding its way among the crowd gleamed and glittered in the sun like a river along this shining path two men came hurrying on leading a horse which was speedily harness to the cart at the prison door then a profound silence replaced the tumult that had so long been gathering and a breathless pause ensued every window was now choked up with heads the housetops teamed with people clinging to chimneys peering over gavel ends and holding on where the sudden loosening of any brick or stone would dash them down into the street the church tower the church roof the church yard the prison leads the very waterspouts and lamp posts every inch of room swarmed with human life at the first stroke of twelve the prison bell began to toll then the roar mingled now with cries of hats off and poor fellows and from some specs in the great concourse with a shriek or groan burst forth again it was terrible to see if anyone in that distraction of excitement could have seen the world of eager eyes all strained upon the scaffold and the beam the hollow murmuring was heard within the jail as plainly as without the three were brought forth into the yard together as it resounded through the air they knew it's import well do you hear? cried Hugh, undaunted by the sound they expect us I heard them gathering when I woke in the night and turned over on Tother's side and fell asleep again we shall see how they welcome the hangman now that it comes home to him the ordinary coming up at this moment reproved him for his indecent mirth and advised him to alter his demeanor and why, master, said Hugh can I do better than bear it easily? you bear it easily enough oh, never tell me he cried as the other would have spoken for all your sad look and your solemn air you think little enough of it they say you're the best maker of lobster salads in london I've heard that you see before now is it a good one this morning? is your hand in? how does the breakfast look? I hope there's enough in despair for all this hungry company that'll sit down to it when the sight's over I fear, observed the clergyman shaking his head, that you are incorrigible you're right I am, rejoined Hugh sternly be no hypocrite, master you make a merry-making of this every month, let me be merry too if you want to frighten fellow there's one that'll suit you, try your hand upon him he pointed as he spoke to Dennis who, with his legs trailing on the ground, was held between two men and who trembled so that all his joints and limbs seemed wracked by spasms turning from this wretched spectacle he called to Barnaby, who stood apart what cheer, Barnaby, don't be downcast lad leave that to him bless you, cried Barnaby, stepping lightly towards him I'm not frighten, Hugh, I'm quite happy I wouldn't desire to live now if they'd let me look at me, am I afraid to die? will they see me tremble? Hugh gazed for a moment at his face on which there was a strange unearthly smile and at his eye which sparkled brightly and interposing between him and the ordinary, gruffly whispered to the latter I wouldn't say much to him, master, if I was you he may spoil your appetite for breakfast, though you are used to it he was the only one of the three who had washed or trimmed himself that morning neither of the others had done so, since their doom was pronounced he still wore the broken peacock's feathers in his hat and all his usual scraps of fineery were carefully disposed about his person his kindling eye, his firm step his proud and resolute bearing might have graced some lofty act of heroism some voluntary sacrifice born of a noble cause and pure enthusiasm rather than that felon's death but all these things increased his guilt there were mere assumptions the law had declared it so and so it must be the good minister had been greatly shocked, not a quarter of an hour before at his parting with Grip for one in his condition to fondle a bird the yard was filled with people, bluffs, civic functionaries, officers of justice, soldiers, the curious in such matters and guests who had been bidden as to a wedding Hugh looked about him, nodded gloomily to some person in authority who indicated with his hand in what direction he was to proceed and clapping Barnaby on the shoulder passed out with the gate of a lion they entered a large room so near to the scaffold that the voices of those who stood about it could be plainly heard some beseeching the javelin men to take them out of the crowd others crying to those behind to stand back for they were pressed to death and suffocating for want of air in the middle of this chamber two smiths with hammers stood beside an anvil Hugh walked straight up to them and set his foot upon it with a sound as though it had been struck by a heavy weapon then with folded arms he stood to have his irons knocked off scowling haughtily round as those who were present eyed him narrowly and whispered to each other it took so much time to drag Dennis in that this ceremony was over with Hugh and nearly over with Barnaby before he appeared he no sooner came into the place he knew so well however and among faces with which he was so familiar then he recovered strength and sense enough to clasp his hands and make a last appeal gentlemen good gentlemen cried the abject creature groveling down upon his knees and actually prostrating himself upon the stone floor governor dear governor honorable sheriffs worthy gentlemen have mercy upon a wretched man that has served his majesty in the law and parliament for so many years and don't don't let me die because of a mistake Dennis said the governor of the jail you know what the course is and that the order came with the rest you know that we could do nothing even if we would all I ask sir all I want and beg is time to make it sure cried the trembling wretch looking wildly round for sympathy the king and government can't know it's me I'm sure they can't know it's me or they never would bring me to this dreadful slaughterhouse they know my name but they don't know it's the same man stop my execution for charity's sake stop my execution gentlemen so they can be told that I've been hangman here night thirty year will no one go and tell them he implored clenching his hands and glaring round and round and round again will no charitable person go and tell them Mr. Ackerman said a gentleman who stood by after a moment's pause since it may possibly produce in this unhappy man a better frame of mind even at this last minute let me assure him that he was well known to have been the hangman when his sentence was considered but perhaps they think on that account that the punishment's not so great cried the criminal shuffling towards the speaker on his knees and holding up his folded hands whereas it's worse it's worse a hundred times to me than any man let them know that sir let them know that they've made it worse to me by giving me so much to do stop my execution till they know that the governor beckoned with his hand and the two men who had supported him before approached he uttered a piercing cry wait wait only a moment only one moment more give me a last chance of reprieve one of us three is to go to Bloomsbury Square let me be the one it may come in that time it's sure to come in the Lord's name let me be sent to Bloomsbury Square don't hang me here it's murder they took him to the anvil but even then he could be heard above the clinking of the smith's hammers and the horse raging of the crowd crying that he knew of Hugh's birth that his father was living and was a gentleman of influence and rank that he had family secrets in his possession that he could tell nothing unless they gave him time but must die with them on his mind and he continued to rave in this sort until his voice failed him and he sank down a mere heap of clothes between the two attendants it was at this moment that the clock struck the first stroke of twelve and the bell began to toll the various officers with the two sheriffs at their head moved towards the door all was ready when the last chime came upon the ear they told Hugh this and asked if he had anything to say to say he cried not I I'm ready yes he added as his eye fell upon Barnaby I have a word to say too come here there lad there was for the moment something kind and even tenders struggling in his fierce aspect as he rung his poor companion by the hand I'll say this he cried looking firmly round that if I had ten lives to lose and the loss of each would give me ten times the agony of the hardest death I'd lay them all down AI would though you gentlemen may not believe it to save this one this one he added ringing his hand again that will be lost through me not through you said the idiot mildly don't say that you were not to blame you have always been very good to me here we shall know what makes the stars shine now I took him from her in a reckless mood and didn't think what harm would come of it said Hugh laying his hand upon his head and speaking in a lower voice I asked her pardon in his look here he added roughly in his former tone you see this lad they murmured yes and seemed to wonder why he asked that gentleman yonder pointing to the clergyman has often in the last few days spoken to me of faith and strong belief you see what I am more brute than man as I have been often told but I had faith enough to believe indeed believe as strongly as any of you gentlemen can believe anything that this one life would be spared see what he is look at him barnaby had moved towards the door instead beckoning him to follow if this was not faith and strong belief cried Hugh raising his right arm aloft and looking upward like a savage prophet whom the near approach of death filled with inspiration where are they what else should teach me me born as I was born and reared as I have been reared to hope for any mercy in this hardened cruel unrelenting place on these human shambles I who never raised this hand in prayer till now call down the wrath of God on that black tree of which I am the ripened fruit I do invoke the curse of all its victims past and present and to come on the head of that man who in his conscience owns me for his son I leave the wish that he may never second on his bed of down but die a violent death as I do now and if the night wind for his only mourner to this I say amen amen his arm fell downward by his side he turned and moved towards them with a steady step the man he had been before there's nothing more said the governor he motioned barnaby not to come near him though without looking in the direction where he stood and answered there's nothing more move forward unless said you glancing hurriedly back list any person here has a fancy for a dog and not then unless he means to use him well there's one belongs to me at the house I came from and it wouldn't be easy to find a better hill wine at first but he'll soon get over that you wonder that I think about a dog just now he added with a kind of laugh if any man deserved it of me half as well I think of him he spoke no more but moved onward in his place with a careless air though listening at the same time to the service for the dead with something between sullen attention and quickened curiosity as soon as he had passed the door his miserable associate was carried out and the crowd beheld the rest barnaby would have mounted the steps at the same time indeed he would have gone before them but in both attempts he was restrained as he was to undergo the sentence elsewhere in a few minutes the sheriffs reappeared the same procession was again formed and they passed through various rooms and passages to another door that at which the cart was waiting he held on his head to avoid seeing what he knew his eyes must otherwise encounter and took his seat sorrowfully and yet was something of a childish pride and pleasure in the vehicle the officers fell into their places at the sides in front and in the rear the sheriffs carriages rolled on a guard of soldiers surrounded the hall and they moved slowly forward through the throng and pressure toward lord man's fields ruined house it was a sad sight all the show and strength and glitter assembled round one helpless creature and sadder yet to note as he rode along how his wandering thoughts found strange encouragement in the crowded windows and the concourse in the streets and how even then he felt the influence of the bright sky and looked up smiling into its deep unfathomable blue but there had been many such sites since the riots were over some so moving in their nature and so repulsive too that they were far more calculated to awaken pity for the sufferers than respect for that law whose strong arms seemed in more than one case to be as wantonly stretched forth now that all was safe as it had been basely paralyzed in time of danger two cripples both mere boys one with a leg of wood one who dragged his twisted limbs along by the help of a crutch were hanged in the same Bloomsbury Square as the cart was about to glide from under them it was observed that they stood with their faces from not to the house they had assisted to despoil and their misery was protracted that the submission might be remedied another boy was hanged in bow street other young lads in various quarters of the town four wretched women too were put to death in a word those who suffered as rioters were for the most part the weakest meanest and most miserable among them it was a most exquisite satire upon the false religious cry which had led to so much misery that some of these people owned themselves to be catholics and beg to be attended by their own priests one young man was hanged in bishopsgate street whose aged grey-headed father waited for him at the gallows kissed him at its foot when he arrived and sat there on the ground till they took him down they would have given him the body of his child but he had no hearse no coffin nothing to remove it in being too poor and walked meekly away beside the cart that took it back to prison trying as he went to touch its lifeless hand but the crowd had forgotten these matters or cared little about them if they lived in their memory and while one great multitude fought and hustled to get near the gibbet before Newgate for a parting look another followed in the train of poor lost Barnaby to swell the throng that waited for him on the spot end of chapter seventy-seven chapter seventy-eight of Barnaby Rudge this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens chapter seventy-eight on this same day and about this very hour Mr. Willett the Elder sat smoking his pipe in a chamber at the black lion although it was hot summer weather Mr. Willett sat close to the fire he was in a state of profound cogitation with his own thoughts and it was his custom at such times to stew himself slowly under the impression that that process of cookery was favorable to the melting out of his ideas which when he began to simmer sometimes oozed forth so copiously as to astonish even himself Mr. Willett had been several thousand times comforted by his friends and acquaintance with the assurance that for the loss he had sustained in the damage done to the maypole he could come upon the county but as this phrase happened to bear an unfortunate resemblance to the popular expression of coming on the parish it suggested to Mr. Willett's mind no more consolatory visions than pauperism on an extensive scale and ruin in a capacious aspect consequently he had never failed to receive the intelligence with a rueful shake of the head or a dreary stare and had been always observed to appear much more melancholy after a visit of condolence than at any other time in the whole four and twenty hours it chanced however that sitting over the fire on this particular occasion perhaps because he was as it were done to a turn perhaps because he was in an unusually bright state of mind perhaps because he had considered the subject so long perhaps because of all these favoring circumstances taken together a chance that sitting over the fire on this particular occasion Mr. Willett did a far off and in the remotest depths of his intellect perceive a kind of lurking hint or faint suggestion that out of the public purse there might issue funds for the restoration of the maypole to its former high place among the taverns of the earth and this dim ray of light did so diffuse itself within him and did so kindle up and shine that at last he had it as plainly and visibly before him as the blaze by which he sat and fully persuaded that he was the first to make the discovery and that he had started hunted down, fallen upon, knocked on the head a perfectly original idea which had never presented itself to any other man alive or dead he laid down his pipe, rubbed his hands, and chuckled audibly my father cried, Joe, entering at the moment, you're in spirits today it's nothing particular, said Mr. Willett, chuckling again, it's nothing at all particular, Joseph tell me something about the Salwaners. Having preferred this request Mr. Willett chuckled a third time and after these unusual demonstrations of levity he put his pipe in his mouth again what shall I tell you father, asked Joe, laying his hand upon his sire's shoulder and looking down into his face, that I have come back poorer than a church mouse you know that, that I have come back maimed and crippled you know that. It was took off, muttered Mr. Willett with his eyes upon the fire at the defense of the Salwaners in America where the war is quite right, returned Joe, smiling and leaning with his remaining elbow on the back of his father's chair the very subject I came to speak to you about a man with one arm, father, is not of much use in the busy world this was one of those vast propositions which Mr. Willett had never considered for an instant and required time to tackle wherefore he made no answer it all events, said Joe, he can't pick and choose his means of earning a livelihood as another man may he can't say I will turn my hand to this or I won't turn my hand to that but must take what he can do and be thankful it's no worse what did you say Mr. Willett had been softly repeating to himself an amusing tone the words defense of the Salwaners but he seemed embarrassed at having been overheard and answered nothing now look here father, Mr. Edward has come to England from the West Indies when he was lost sight of I ran away on the same day father he made a voyage to one of the islands where a school friend of his had settled and finding him wasn't too proud to be employed on his estate and in short got on well and is prospering it has come over here on business of his own and is going back again speedily our returning nearly at the same time and meeting in the course of the late troubles has been a good thing every way for it has not only enabled us to do old friends some service but has opened a path in life for me which I may tread without being a burden upon you to be plain father he can employ me I have satisfied myself that I can be of real use to him and I am going to carry my one arm away with him and to make the most of it in the minds eye of Mr. Willett the West Indies and indeed all foreign countries were inhabited by savage nations who were perpetually burying pipes of peace flourishing tomahawks and puncturing strange patterns in their bodies he no sooner heard this announcement therefore than he leaned back in his chair took his pipe from his lips and stared at his son with as much dismay as if he already beheld him tied to a stake and tortured for the entertainment of a lively population in what form of expression his feelings would have found event it is impossible to say nor is it necessary for before a syllable occurred to him Dolly Varden came running into the room in tears threw herself on Joe's breast without a word of explanation and clasped her white arms around his neck Dolly cried Joe Dolly call me that call me that always exclaimed the locksmith's little daughter never speak coldly to me never be distant never again reprove me for the follies I have long repented or I shall die Joe I reprove you said Joe yes for every kind and honest word you uttered went to my heart for you who have borne so much from me for you who owe your sufferings and pain to my caprice for you to be so kind so noble to me Joe he could say nothing to her not a syllable there was an odd sort of eloquence in his one arm which had crept round her waist but his lips were mute if you had reminded me by a word only by one short word sob Dolly clinging yet closer to him how little I deserved that you should treat me with so much forbearance if you had exalted only for one moment in your triumph I could have borne it better triumph repeated Joe with a smile which seemed to say I am a pretty figure for that yes triumph she cried with her whole heart and soul and her earnest voice and gushing tears or it is one I am glad to think and know it is I wouldn't be less humbled dear I wouldn't be without the recollection of that last time we spoke together in this place no not if I could recall the past and make our parting yesterday did ever love or look as Joe looked now dear Joe said Dolly I always loved you in my own heart I always did although I was so vain and giddy I hoped you would come back that night I made quite sure you would I prayed for it on my knees through all these long long years I have never once forgotten you or left off hoping that this happy time might come the eloquence of Joe's arms surpassed the most impassioned language and so did that of his lips yet he said nothing either and now at last cried Dolly trembling with the fervor of her speech if you were sick and shattered in your every limb if you were ailing weak and sorrowful if instead of being what you are you were in everybody's eyes but mine the wreck and ruin of a man I would be your wife dear love with greater pride and joy than if you were the statelyest lord in England what have I done cried Joe what have I done to meet with this reward you've taught me said Dolly raising her pretty face to his to know myself and your worth to be something better than I was to be more deserving of your true and manly nature in years to come dear Joe you shall find that you have done so for I will be not only now when we are young and full of hope but when we have grown old and weary your patient gentle never tiring wife will never know a wish or care beyond our home in you and I will always study how to please you with my best affection and my most devoted love I will indeed I will Joe could only repeat his former eloquence but it was very much to the purpose they know of this at home said Dolly for your sake I would leave even them but they know it and are glad of it and I was proud of you as I am and it's full of gratitude you'll not come and see me as a poor friend who knew me when I was a girl will you dear Joe well well it don't matter what Joe said an answer but he said a great deal and Dolly said a great deal too and he folded Dolly in his one arm pretty tight considering that it was but one and Dolly made no resistance and if ever two people were happy in this world which is not an utterly miserable one with all its faults we may with some appearance of certainty conclude that they were to say that during these proceedings Mr. Willet the elder underwent the greatest emotions of astonishment of which our common nature is susceptible to say that he was in a perfect paralysis of surprise and that he wandered into the most stupendous and therefore unattainable heights of complicated amazement would be to shadow forth his state of mind in the feeblest and lamest terms if a rock and eagle a griffin a flying elephant a winged seahorse had suddenly appeared and taking him on its back carried him bodily into the heart of the sawaners it would have been to him as an everyday occurrence in comparison with what he now beheld to be sitting quietly by seeing and hearing these things to be completely overlooked unnoticed and disregarded while his son and a young lady were talking to each other in the most impassioned manner kissing each other and making themselves in all respects perfectly at home was a position so tremendous so inexplicable so utterly beyond the widest range of his capacity of comprehension that he fell into a lethargy of wonder and could no more rouse himself than an enchanted sleeper in the first year of his very lease a century long father said Joe presenting dolly you know who this is mr. will it looked first at her then at his son then back again at dolly and then made an ineffectual effort to extract a whip from his pipe which had gone out long ago say a word father if it's only how do you do urge Joe certainly joseph answered mr. will it oh yes why not to be sure said Joe why not ah replied his father why not and with this remark which he uttered in a low voice as though he were discussing some grave question with himself he used the little finger if any of his fingers can be said to have come under that denomination of his right hand as a tobacco stopper and was silent again and so he sat for half an hour at least although dolly and the most endearing of manners hoped a dozen times that he was not angry with her so he sat for half an hour quite motionless and looking all the while like nothing so much as a great dutch pin or skittle at the expiration of that period he suddenly and without the least notice burst to the great consternation of the young people into a very loud and very short laugh and repeating certainly joseph oh yes why not went out for a walk end of chapter seventy eight chapter seventy nine of barnaby rudge this libra vox recording is in the public domain barnaby rudge by charles dickens chapter seventy nine old john did not walk near the golden key for between the golden key and the black lion there lay a wilderness of streets as everybody knows who is acquainted with the relative bearings of clarkin well and white chapel and he was by no means famous for pedestrian exercises but the golden key lies in our way though it was out of his so to the golden key this chapter goes the golden key itself fair emblem of the locksmiths trade had been pulled down by the rioters and roughly trampled under foot but now it was hoisted up again in all the glory of a new coat of paint ensued more bravely even than in days of yore indeed the whole house front was spruce and trim and so fresh and up throughout that if they yet remained at large any of the rioters who had been concerned in the attack upon it the sight of the old goodly prosperous welling so revived must have been to them as gall and wormwood the shutters of the shop were closed however and the window blinds above were all pulled down and in place of its usual cheerful appearance the house had a look of sadness and an air of mourning which the neighbors who in old days had often seen poor barnaby go in and out were at no loss to understand the door stood partly open but the locksmith's hammer was unheard the cat sat moping on the ashy forge all was deserted dark in silent on the threshold of this door mr. heredale and edward chester met the younger man gave place and both passing in with a familiar air which seemed to denote that they were tarrying there or were well accustomed to go to and fro unquestioned shut it behind them entering the old back parlor and descending the flight of stairs abrupt and steep and quaintly fashioned as of old they turned into the best room the pride of mrs. varden's heart and urged the scene of miggs's household labors varden brought the mother here last evening he told me said mr. heredale she is above stairs now in the room over here edward rejoined her grief they say is past all telling i needn't add for that you know beforehand sir that the care humanity and sympathy of these good people have no bounds i am sure of that haven't repay them for it and for much more varden is out he returned with your messenger who arrived almost at the moment of his coming home himself he was out the whole night but that of course you know he was with you the greater part of it he was without him i should have lacked my right hand he is an older man than i but nothing can conquer him the cheeriest stout-hearted fellow in the world he has a right to be he has a right to be a better creature never lived he reaps what he has sown no more it is not all men said edward after a moment's hesitation who have the happiness to do that more than you imagine returned mr. heredale we note the harvest more than the seed time you do so and me in truth his pale and haggard face and gloomy bearing had so far influenced the remark that edward was for the moment at a loss to answer him tut tut said mr. heredale it was not very difficult to read a thought so natural but you are mistaken nevertheless i have had my share of sorrows more than the common lot perhaps but i have borne them ill i have broken where i should have bent and have mused and brooded when my spirit should have mixed with all god's great creation the men who learn endurance are they who call the whole world brother i have turned from the world and i pay the penalty edward would have interposed but he went on without giving him time it is too late to evade it now i sometimes think that if i had to live my life once more i might amend this fault not so much i discover when i search my mind for the love of what is right as for my own sake but even when i make these better resolutions i instinctively recoil from the idea of suffering again what i have undergone and in this circumstance i find the unwelcome assurance that i should still be the same man though i could cancel the past and begin a new with its experience to guide me nay you make too sure of that said edward you think so mr. heredale answered and i am glad you do i know myself better and therefore just trust myself more let us leave this subject for another not so far removed from it as it might at first sight seem to be sir you still love my niece and she is still attached to you i have that assurance from her own lips said edward and you know i am sure you know that i would not exchange it for any blessing life could yield me you are frank honorable and disinterested said mr. heredale you have forced the conviction that you are so even on my once jaundiced mind and i believe you wait here till i come back he left the room as he spoke but soon returned with his niece on that first and only time he said looking from the one to the other when we three stood together under her father's roof i told you to quit it and charged you never to return it is the only circumstance arising out of our love observed edward that i have forgotten you own a name said mr. heredale i had deep reason to remember i was moved and goaded by recollections of personal wrong and injury i know but even now i cannot charge myself with having then or ever lost sight of a heartfelt desire for her true happiness or with having acted however much i was mistaken with any other impulse than the one pure single earnest wish to be to her as far as in my inferior nature lay the father she had lost dear uncle cried emma i have known no parent but you i have loved the memory of others but i have loved you all my life never was father kinder to his child than you have been to me without the interval of one harsh hour since i can first remember you speak too fondly he answered and yet i cannot wish you were less partial for i have a pleasure in hearing those words and she'll have in calling them to mind when we are far asunder which nothing else could give me bear with me for a moment longer edward for she and i have been together many years and although i believe that in resigning her to you i put the seal upon her future happiness i find it needs an effort he pressed her tenderly to his bosom and after a minute's pause resumed i have done you wrong sir and i ask your forgiveness in no common phrase or show of sorrow but with earnestness and sincerity in the same spirit i acknowledged to you both that the time has been when i connived at treachery and falsehood which if i did not perpetrate myself i still permitted to rend you to asunder you judge yourself too harshly said edward let these things rest they rise in judgment against me when i look back and not now for the first time he answered i cannot part from you without your full forgiveness for busy life and i have little left in common now and i have regrets enough to carry into solitude without addition to the stock you bear a blessing from us both said Emma never mingle thoughts of me of me who owe you so much love and duty with anything but undying affection and gratitude for the past and bright hopes for the future the future returned her uncle with a melancholy smile is a bright word for you and its image should be wreathed with cheerful hopes mine is of another kind but it will be one of peace and free i trust from care or passion when you quit england i shall leave it too there are cloisters abroad and know that the two great objects of my life are set at rest i know no better home you droop at that forgetting that i am growing old and that my course is nearly run well we will speak of it again not once or twice but many times and you shall give me cheerful counsel emma and you will take it asked his niece i'll listen to it he answered with a kiss and it will have its weight be certain what have i left to say you have of late been much together it is better and more fitting that the circumstances attendant on the past which brought your separation and soared between you suspicion and distrust should not be entered on by me much much better whispered emma i have all my share in them said mr hairdale though i held it at the time in detestation let no man turn aside ever so slightly from the broad path of honor on the plausible pretense that he is justified by the goodness of his end all good ends can be worked out by good means those that cannot are bad and may be counted so it wants to left alone he looked from her to edward and said in a gentler tone in goods and fortune you are now nearly equal i have been her faithful steward and to that remnant of a richer property which my brother left her i desire to add in token of my love a poor pittance scarcely worth the mention for which i have no longer any need i'm glad you go abroad let our ill-fated house remain the ruin it is when you return after a few thriving years you will command a better and a more fortunate one we are friends edward took his extended hand and grasped it heartily you are neither slow nor cold in your response said mr hairdale doing the like by him and when i look upon you now and know you i feel that i would choose you for her husband her father had a generous nature and you would have pleased him well i give her to you in his name and with his blessing if the world and i part in this act we part on happier terms than we have lived for many a day he placed her in his arms and would have left the room but that he was stopped in his passage to the door by a great noise at a distance which made them start and pause it was a loud shouting mingled with boisterous acclimations that rent the very air it drew nearer and nearer every moment and approached so rapidly that even while they listened it burst into a deafening confusion of sounds at the street corner this must be stopped quieted said mr hairdale hastily we should have foreseen this and provided against it i will go out to them at once but before he could reach the door and before edward could catch up his hat and follow him they were again arrested by a loud shriek from above stairs and the locksmith's wife bursting in and fairly running into mr hairdale's arms cried out she knows it all dear sir she knows it all we broke it out to her by degrees and she is quite prepared having made this communication and furthermore thanked heaven with great fervor and heartiness the good lady according to the custom of matrons on all occasions of excitement painted away directly they ran to the window drew up the sash and looked into the crowded street among a dense mob of persons of whom not one was for an instant still the locksmith's ruddy face and burly form could be described beating about as though he was struggling with a rough sea now he was carried back a score of yards now onward nearly to the door now back again now forced against the opposite houses now against those joining his own now carried up a flight of steps and greeted by the outstretched hands of half a hundred men while the whole tumultuous concourse stretched their throats and cheered with all their might though he was really in a fair way to be torn to pieces in the general enthusiasm the locksmith nothing discomposed echoed their shouts till he was as hoarse as they and in a glow of joy and right good humor waved his hat until the daylight shown between its brim and crown but in all the bandings from hand to hand the strivings to and fro and sweepings here and there which saving that he looked more jolly and more radiant after every struggle troubled his peace of mind no more than if he had been a straw up on the water's surface he never once released his firm grasp of an arm drawn tight through his he sometimes turned to clap this friend upon the back or whisper in his ear a word of staunch encouragement or cheer him with a smile but his great care was to shield him from the pressure and force a passage for him to the golden key passive and timid scared pale and wandering and casing at the throng as if he were newly risen from the dead and felt himself a ghost among the living barnaby not barnaby in the spirit but in flesh and blood with pulses sinews nerves and beating heart and strong affections clung to his stout old friend and followed where he led and thus in course of time they reached the door held ready for their entrance by no unwilling hands then slipping in and shutting out the crowd by main force gabriel stood between mr. hairedale and edward chester and barnaby rushing up the stairs fell upon his knees beside his mother's bed such as the blessed end sir cried the panting locksmith mr. hairedale of the best day's work we ever did the rogues it's been hard fighting to get away from them i almost thought once or twice they'd have been too much for us but their kindness they had striven all the previous day to rescue barnaby from his impending fate failing in their attempts in the first quarter to which they addressed themselves they renewed them in another failing there likewise they began afresh at midnight and made their way not only to the judge and jury who had tried him but to men of influence at court to the young prince of wales and even to the antechamber of the king himself successful at last in awakening an interest in his favor and an inclination to inquire more dispassionately into his case they had had an interview with the minister in his bed so late as eight o'clock that morning the result of a searching inquiry in which they who had known the poor fellow from his childhood did other good service besides bringing it about was that between 11 and 12 o'clock a free pardon to barnaby rudge was made out and signed and entrusted to a horse soldier for instant conveyance to the place of execution this courier reached a spot just as the card appeared in sight and barnaby being carried back to jail mr. hairedale assured that all was safe had gone straight from bloomsbury square to the golden key leaving to gabriel the grateful task of bringing him home in triumph i needn't say observe the locksmith when he had shaken hands with all the males in the house and hugged all the females five and forty times at least did accept among ourselves i didn't want to make a triumph of it but directly we got into the street we were known and this hubbub began of the two he added as he wiped his crimson face and after experience of both i think i'd rather be taken out of my house by a crowd of enemies than escorted home by a mob of friends it was plain enough however that this was mere talk on gabriel's part and that the whole proceeding afforded him the keenest delight for the people continuing to make a great noise without and to cheer as if their voices were in the freshest order and good for a fortnight he sent upstairs for grip who had come home at his master's back and had acknowledged the favors of the multitude by drawing blood from every finger that came within his reach and with the bird upon his arm presented himself at the first floor window and waved his head again until it dangled by a shred between his finger and thumb this demonstration having been received with appropriate shouts and silence being in some degree restored he thanked them for their sympathy and taking the liberty to inform them that there was a sick person in the house proposed that they should give three chairs for king george three more for old england and three more for nothing particular as a closing ceremony the crowd is senting substituted gabriel varden for the nothing particular and giving him one over for good measure dispersed in high good humor what congratulations were exchanged among the inmates of the golden key when they were left alone what an overflowing of joy and happiness there was among them how incapable it was of expression in barnaby's own person and how he went wildly from one to another until he became so far tranquilized as to stretch himself on the ground beside his mother's couch and fall into a deep sleep our matters that need not be told and it is well they happen to be of this class for they would be very hard to tell were their narration ever so indispensable before leaving this bright picture it may be well to glance at a dark and very different one which was presented to only a few eyes that same night the scene was a church yard the time midnight the persons edward chester a clergyman a grave digger and the four bearers of a homely coffin they stood about a grave which had been newly dug and one of the bearers held up a dim lantern the only light there which shed its feeble ray upon the book of prayer he placed it for a moment on the coffin when he and his companions were about to lower it there was no inscription on the lid the mold fell solemnly upon the last house of this nameless man and the rattling dust left a dismal echo even in the accustomed ears of those who had borne it to its resting place the grave was filled into the top and trodden down they all left the spot together you never saw him living asked the clergyman of edward often years ago not knowing him for my brother never since never yesterday he steadily refused to see me it was urged upon him many times at my desire still he refused that was hardened and unnatural do you think so i infer that you do not you will write we hear the world wonder every day at monsters of ingratitude did it never occur to you that it often looks for monsters of affection as though they were things of course they had reached the gate by this time and bidding each other good night departed on their separate ways end of chapter 79 chapter 80 of barnaby rudge this liber box recording is in the public domain barnaby rudge by charles dickens chapter 80 that afternoon when he had slept off his fatigue had shaved and washed and dressed and freshened himself from top to toe when he had dined comforted himself with a pipe an extra toby a nap in the great arm chair and a quiet chat with mrs. varden on everything that had happened was happening or about to happen within the sphere of their domestic concern the locksmith sat himself down at the tea table and the little back parlor the rosiest cosiest merriest heartiest best contented old bucking great britain are out of it there he sat with his beaming eye on mrs v and his shining face suffused with gladness and his capacious waistcoat smiling in every wrinkle and his jovial humor peeping from under the table in the very plumpness of his legs a sight to turn the vinegar of misanthropy into purest milk of human kindness there he sat watching his wife as she decorated the room with flowers for the greater honor of dolly and joseph willett who had gone out walking and for whom the tea kettle had been singing gaily on the hob full 20 minutes chirping as never kettle chirped before for whom the best service of real undoubted china patterned with diverse round-faced mandarins holding up broad umbrellas was now displayed in all its glory to tempt whose appetites a clear transparent juicy ham garnished with cool green lettuce leaves and fragrant cucumber reposed upon a shady table covered with a snow white cloth for whose delight preserves and jams crisp cakes and other pastry short to eat with cunning twists and cottage loaves and rolls of bread both white and brown were all set forth in rich profusion in whose youth mrs v herself had grown quite young and stood there in a gown of red and white symmetrical in figure buxom and bodice ruddy in cheek and lip faultless in ankle laughing in face and mood in all respects delicious to behold there sat the locksmith among all and every these delights the sun that shone upon them all the center of the system the source of light heat life and frank enjoyment in the bright household world and when had dolly ever been the dolly of that afternoon to see how she came in arming arm with joe and how she made an effort not to blush or seem at all confused and how she made believe she didn't care to sit on his side of the table and how she coaxed the locksmith in a whisper not to joke and how her color came and went in a little restless flutter of happiness which made her do everything wrong and yet so charmingly wrong that it was better than right why the locksmith could have looked on at this as he mentioned to mrs varden when they retired for the night for four and twenty hours at a stretch and never wished it done the recollections too with which they made merry over that long protracted tea the glee with which the locksmith asked joe if he remembered that stormy night at the maypole when he first asked after dolly the laugh they all had about that night when she was going out to the party in the sedan chair the unmerciful manner in which they rallied mrs. varden about putting those flowers outside that very window the difficulty mrs. varden found in joining the laugh against herself at first and the extraordinary perception she had of the joke when she overcame it the confidential statements of joe concerning the precise day and hour when he was first conscious of being fond of dolly and dolly's blushing admissions half volunteered and half extorted as to the time from which she dated the discovery that she didn't mind joe here was an exhaustless fund of mirth and conversation then there was a great deal to be said regarding mrs. varden's doubts and motherly alarms and shrewd suspicions and it appeared that for mrs. varden's penetration and extreme sagacity nothing had ever been hidden she had known it all along she had seen it from the first she had always predicted it she had been aware of it before the principles she had said within herself for she remembered the exact words that young will it is certainly looking after our dolly and i must look after him accordingly she had looked after him and had observed many little circumstances all of which she named so exceedingly minute that nobody else could make anything out of them even now and had it seemed from first to last displayed the most unbounded tact and most consummate general ship of course the night when joe would ride homeward by the side of the chase and when mrs. varden would insist upon his going back again was not forgotten nor the night when dolly fainted on his name being mentioned nor the times upon times when mrs. varden ever watchful and prudent had found her pining in her own chamber in short nothing was forgotten and everything by some means or other brought them back to the conclusion that that was the happiest hour in all their lives consequently that everything must have occurred for the best and nothing could be suggested which would have made it better while they were in the full glow of such discourse as this there came a startling knock at the door opening from the street into the workshop which had been kept closed all day that the house might be more quiet joe as in duty bound would hear of nobody but himself going to open it and accordingly left the room for that purpose it would have been odd enough certainly if joe had forgotten the way to this door and even if he had as it was a pretty large one and stood straight before him he could not easily have missed it but dolly perhaps because she was in the flutter of spirits before mentioned or perhaps because she thought he would not be able to open it with his one arm she could have had no other reason hurried out after him and they stopped so long in the passage no doubt owing to joe's entreaties that she would not expose herself to the draft of july air which must infallibly come rushing in on this same door being opened that the knock was repeated in a yet more startling manner than before is anybody going to open that door cried the locksmith or shall I come upon that dolly went running back into the parlor all dimples and blushes and joe opened it with a mighty noise and other superfluous demonstrations of being in a violent hurry well so the locksmith when he reappeared what is it a joe what are you laughing at nothing sir it's coming in who's coming in what's coming in mrs. barden as much at a loss as her husband could only shake her head in answer to his inquiring look so the locksmith wheeled his chair around to command a better view of the room door and stared at it with his eyes wide open and a mingled expression of curiosity and wonder shining in his jolly face instead of some person or person's straight way appearing diverse remarkable sounds were heard first in the workshop and afterwards in the little dark passage between it and the parlor as though some unwieldy chest or heavy piece of furniture were being brought in by an amount of human strength inadequate to the task at length after much struggling and helping and bruising of the wall on both sides the door was forced open as by a battering ram and the locksmith steadily regarding what appeared beyond smote his thigh elevated his eyebrows opened his mouth and cried in a loud voice expressive of the utmost consternation dammy if it ain't migs come back the young damsel whom he named no sooner heard these words than deserting a small boy in a very large box by which she was accompanied and advancing with such precipitation that her bonnet flew off her head burst into the room clasped her hands in which she held a pair of patents one in each raised her eyes devotedly to the ceiling and shed a flood of tears the old story cried the locksmith looking at her in inexpressible desperation she was born to be a damper this young woman nothing can prevent it home master home mime cried migs can i constrain my feelings in these here once again united moments home mr. warsan here's blessedness among relations sir here's forgiveness of injuries here's amicable nesses the locksmith looked from his wife to dolly and from dolly to joe and from joe to migs with his eyebrows still elevated and his mouth still open when his eyes got back to migs they rested on her fascinated to think cried migs with hysterical joy that mr. joe and dear miss dolly has rarely come together after all this has been said and done contrary to see them two is setting along with him and her so pleasant and in all respect so affable and mild and me not knowing of it and not being in the ways to make no preparations for their teas oh what a cutting thing it is and yet what sweet sensations is awoke within me either in clasping her hands again or in an ecstasy of pious joy miss migs clinked her patents after the manner of a pair of symbols at this juncture and then resumed in the softest accents and did my mrs. think oh goodness did she think as her own migs which supported her under so many trials and understood her nator when them as intended well but acted rough went so deep into her feelings did she think as her own migs would ever leave her did she think as migs though she was but a servant and know that servitudes was no inheritances would forget that she was the humble instruments has always made it comfortable between them to when they fell out and always told master of the meekness and forgiveness of her blessed dispositions did she think as migs had no attachments did she think that wages was her only object to none of these interrogatories where of everyone was more pathetically delivered than the last did mrs. varden answer one word but migs not at all abashed by this circumstance turned to the small boy in attendance her eldest nephew son of her own married sister born in golden lion court number 27 and bred in the very shadow of the second bell handle on the right hand doorpost and with a plentiful use of her pocket handkerchief addressed herself to him requesting that on his return home he would console his parents for the loss of her his aunt by delivering to them a faithful statement of his having left her in the bosom of that family with which as his aforesaid parents well knew her best affections were incorporated that he would remind them that nothing less than her imperious sense of duty and devoted attachment to her old master and mrs likewise miss dolly and young mr. joe should ever have induced her to decline that pressing invitation which they his parents had as he could testify given her to lodge and board with them free of all cost and charge forevermore lastly that he would help her with her box upstairs and then repair straight home bearing her blessing and her strong injunctions to mingle in his prayers a supplication that he might in course of time grow up a locksmith or a mr. joe and have mrs. vardens and miss dollies for his relations and friends having brought this admonition to an end upon which to say the truth the young gentleman for whose benefit it was designed bestowed little or no heed having to all appearance his faculties absorbed in the contemplation of the sweetmeats miss miggs signified to the company in general that they were not to be uneasy for she would soon return and with her nephew's aid prepared to bear her wardrobe up the staircase my dear said the locksmith to his wife do you desire this I desire it she answered I am astonished I am amazed at her audacity let her leave the house this moment miggs hearing this letter into the box fall heavily to the floor gave a very loud sniff crossed her arms screwed down the corners of her mouth and cried in an ascending oh good gracious three distinct times you hear what your mr says my love remark the locksmith you had better go I think stay take this with you for the sake of old service miss miggs clutched the bank note he took from his pocketbook and held out to her deposited it in a small red leather purse put the purse in her pocket displaying as she did so a considerable portion of some undergarment made a flannel and more black cotton stocking than is commonly seen in public and tossing her head as she looked at mrs varden repeated oh good gracious I think you said that once before my dear observed the locksmith times has changed as they mim cried miggs bridling you can spare me now can you you can keep them down without me you're not in wants of anyone to scold or throw the blame upon no longer at you mim I'm glad to find you've grown so independent I wish you joy I'm sure with that she dropped a curtsy and keeping her head erect her ear towards mrs varden and her eye on the rest of the company as she alluded to them in her remarks proceeded I'm quite delighted I'm sure to find such independency feeling sorry though at the same time mim that you should have been forced into submissions when you couldn't help yourself it must be great vexations especially considering how ill you always spoke of mr joe to have him for a son-in-law at last and I wonder miss dolly can put up with him either after being off and on for so many years with the coachmaker but I have here to say that the coachmaker thought twice about it he he he and that he told a young man as was a friend of his that he hoped he'd know better than to be drawn into that though she and all the family did pull on common strong here she paused for a reply and receiving none went on as before I have here to say ma'am that the illnesses of some ladies was all pretensions and that they could faint away stone dead whenever they had the inclinations to do so of course I never see such cases with my own eyes ho ho hee hee nor master neither ho ho hee hee I have here the neighbors make remark as someone as they was acquainted with was a poor good natured mean spirited creature as went out fishing for a wife one day and caught a tartar of course I never to my knowledge see the poor person himself nor did you neither mim oh no I wonder who it can be don't you mim no doubt you do ma'am oh yes hee hee again miggs paused for a reply and then being offered was so oppressed with teeming spite and spleen that she seemed like to burst I'm glad miss dolly can laugh cried miggs with a feeble titter I like to see folks laughing so do you ma'am don't you you was always glad to see people in spirits wasn't you ma'am and you always did your best to keep them cheerful didn't you ma'am though there aren't such a great deal to laugh at now either is there mim it ain't so much of a catch after looking out so sharp ever since she was a little chit and costing such a deal in dress and show to get a poor common soldier with one arm is it mim hee hee I wouldn't have a husband with one arm anyways I would have two arms I would have two arms if it was me though instead of hands they'd only got hooks at the end like our dustman miss miggs was about to add and had indeed begun to add the taking them in the abstract dustmen were far more eligible matches than soldiers though to be sure when people were past choosing they must take the best they could get and think themselves well off too but her vexation and chagrin being of that internally bitter sort which finds no relief in words and is aggravated to madness by want of contradiction she could hold out no longer and burst into a storm of sobs and tears in this extremity she fell on the unlucky nephew tooth and nail and plucking a handful of hair from his head demanded to know how long she was to stand there to be insulted and whether or no he meant to help her to carry out the box again and if he took a pleasure in hearing his family reviled with other inquiries of that nature at which disgrace and provocation the small boy who had been all this time gradually lashed into rebellion by the sight of unattainable pastry walked off indignant leaving his aunt and the box to follow at their leisure somehow or other by dint of pushing and pulling they did attain the street at last where miss miggs all bloused with the exertion of getting there and with her sobs and tears sat down upon her property to rest and grieve until she couldn't snare some other youth to help her home it's a thing to laugh at Martha not to care for whispered the locksmith as he followed his wife to the window and good humorally dried her eyes what does it matter you had seen your fault before come bring up toby again my dear dolly shall sing us a song and will be all the merrier for this interruption end of chapter 80