 Chapter 66 of The Old Curiosity Shop The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens, Chapter 66 On awaking in the morning, Richard Swiverler became conscious by slow degrees of whispering voices in his room, looking out between the curtains, he aspired Mr. Garland, Mr. Abel, the notary, and a single gentleman gathered round the Marchioness and talking to her with great earnestness, but in very subdued tones, fearing no doubt to disturb him. He lost no time in letting them know that this precaution was unnecessary, and all four gentlemen directly approached his bedside. Old Mr. Garland was the first to stretch out his hand and inquire how he felt. Dick was about to answer that he felt much better, though still as weak as need be, when his little nurse, pushing the visitors aside and pressing up to his pillow as if in jealousy of their interference, set his breakfast before him and insisted on his taking it before he underwent the fatigue of speaking or of being spoken to. Mr. Swiverler, who was perfectly ravenous, and had had all night amazingly distinct and consistent dreams of mutton chops, double stout and similar delicacies, felt even the weak tea and dry toast such irresistible temptations that he consented to eat and drink upon one condition. And that is, said Dick, returning the pressure of Mr. Garland's hand, that you answer me this question truly before I take a bit or drop. Is it too late? For completing the work you began so well last night? returned the old gentleman. No, set your mind at rest upon that point. It is not, I assure you. Comforted by this intelligence, the patient applied himself to his food with a keen appetite, though evidently not with a greater zest in the eating than his nurse appeared to have in seeing him eat. The manner of his meal was this. Mr. Swiverler, holding the slice of toast or cup of tea in his left hand and taking a bite or drink as the case might be, constantly kept in his right one palm of the Martianess tight locked. And to shake, or even to kiss this imprisoned hand, he would stop every now and then in the very act of swallowing with perfect seriousness of intention and the utmost gravity. As often as he put anything into his mouth, whether for eating or drinking, the face of the Martianess lighted up beyond all description. But whenever he gave her one or other of these tokens of recognition, her countenance became overshadowed and she began to sob. Now, whether she was in her laughing joy or in her crying one, the Martianess could not help turning to the visitors with an appealing look which seemed to say, You see this fella, can I help this? And they being thus made as it were parties to the scene, as regularly answered by another look, No, certainly not. This damn show taking place during the whole time of the invalid's breakfast and the invalid himself pale and emaciated, performing no small part in the same, it may be fairly questioned whether at any meal where no word, good or bad, was spoken from beginning to end, so much was expressed by gestures in themselves so slight and unimportant. At length, and to say the truth before very long, Mr Swibola had dispatched as much toast and tea as in that stage of his recovery it was discreet to let him have. But the cares of the Martianess did not stop here. For disappearing for an instant and presently returning with a base in a fair water, she lapped his face and hands, brushed his hair, and in short made him as spruce and smart as anybody under such circumstances could be made. And all this in a brisk and business like a manor, as if he were a very little boy and she, his grown-up nurse. To these various attentions Mr Swibola submitted in a kind of grateful astonishment beyond the reach of language. When they were at last brought to an end, and the Martianess had withdrawn into a distant corner to take her own poor breakfast, cold enough by that time, he turned his face away for some few minutes and shook hands heartily with the air. Gentlemen, said Dick, rousing himself from this pause and turning round again. You'll excuse me. Men who have been brought so low as I have been are easily fatigued. I am fresh again now and fit for talking. We are short of chairs here, among other trifles, but if you'll do me the favour to sit upon the bed. What can we do for you? said Mr Garland kindly. If you could make the Martianess yonder, a Martianess in real, sober earnest, returned Dick, I'd thank you to get it done offhand. But as you can't, and as the question is not what you will do for me, but what you will do for somebody else who has a better claim upon you, pray, sir, let me know what you intend doing. It's chiefly on that account that we have come just now, said the single gentleman. For you will have another visitor presently. We feared you would be anxious unless you knew from ourselves what steps we intended to take, and therefore came to you before we stirred in the matter. Gentlemen, returned Dick, I thank you. Anybody in the helpless state that you see me in is naturally anxious. Don't let me interrupt you, sir. Then you see my good fellow, said the single gentleman, that while we have no doubt whatever of the truth of this disclosure, which has so providentially come to light, meaning hers, said Dick pointing towards the Martianess. Meaning hers, of course. While we have no doubt of that, or that a proper use of it would procure the poor lad's immediate pardon and liberation, we have a great doubt whether it would by itself enable us to reach Quilp, the chief agent in this villainy. I should tell you that this doubt has been confirmed into something very nearly approaching certainty. By the best opinions we have been enabled in this short space of time to take upon the subject. You'll agree with us that to give him even the most distant chance of escape, if we could help it, would be monstrous. You say with us, no doubt, if somebody must escape, let it be anyone but he. Yes, returned Dick, certainly. That is, if somebody must, but upon my word, I am unwilling that anybody should, since laws were made for every degree to curb vice in others as well as in me, and so forth, you know. Doesn't it strike you in that light? The single gentleman smiled as if the light in which Mr Swivola had put the question were not the clearest in the world, and proceeded to explain that they contemplated proceeding by stratagem in the first instance, and that their design was to endeavor to extort a confession from the gentle Sarah. When she finds how much we know, and how we know it, he said, and that she is clearly compromised already, we are not without strong hopes that we may be enabled through her means to punish the other two effectually. If we could do that, she might go scot-free for what I cared. Dick received this project in anything but a gracious manner, representing with as much warmth as he was then capable of showing, that they would find the old buck, meaning Sarah, more difficult to manage than Quillp himself, that for any tampering, terrifying, or cajolery, she was a very unpromising and unyielding subject, that she was of a kind of brass, not easily melted or moulded into shape, in short, that they were no match for her, and would be signally defeated. But it was in vain to urge them to adopt some other cause. The single gentleman has been described as explaining their joint intentions, but it should have been written that they all spoke together, that if any one of them by chance held his peace for a moment, he stood gasping and panting for an opportunity to strike in again, in a word, that they had reached that pitch of impatience and anxiety, where men can neither be persuaded nor reasoned with, and that it would have been easier to turn the most impetuous wind, that ever blew, than to prevail on them to reconsider their determination. So, after telling Mr. Swivelar how they had not lost sight of Kitt's mother and the children, how they had never once even lost sight of Kitt himself, but had been unremitting in their endeavours to procure a mitigation of his sentence, how they had been perfectly distracted between the strong proofs of his guilt and their own fading hopes of his innocence, and how he, Richard Swivelar, might keep his mind at rest for everything should be happily adjusted between that time and night. After telling him all this, and adding a great many kind and cordial expressions personal to himself, which it is unnecessary to recite, Mr. Garland, the notary, and the single gentleman took their leaves at a very critical time, or Richard Swivelar must assuredly have been driven into another fever, whereof the results might have been fatal. Mr. Abel remained behind, very often looking at his watch and at the room door, until Mr. Swivelar was roused from a short nap by the setting down on the landing place outside, as from the shoulders of a porter, or some giant load, which seemed to shake the house and made the little physics bottles on the mantel shelf ring again. Directly this sound reached his ears Mr. Abel started up and hobbled to the door and opened it. And behold, there stood a strong man with a mighty hamper, which being holed into the room and presently unpacked, disgorged such treasures of tea and coffee and wine and rusks and oranges and grapes and fowls ready to rust for boiling, and carved food jelly and arrowroot and sago and other delicate restoratives that the small servant who had never thought it possible that such things could be, except in shops, stood rooted to the spot in her one shoe with her mouth and eyes watering in unison, and her power of speech quite gone. But not so Mr. Abel, or the strong man who emptied the hamper big as it was in a twinkling, and not so the nice old lady who appeared so suddenly that she might have come out of the hamper too. It was quite large enough, and who, bustling about on tiptoe and without noise, now here, now there, now everywhere at once, began to fill out the jelly in tea cups and to make chicken broth in small saucepans and to peel oranges for the sick man and to cut them up in little pieces and to ply the small servant with glasses of wine and choice bits of everything until more substantial meat could be prepared for her refreshment. The whole of which appearances were so unexpected and bewildering that Mr. Svivala, when he had taken two oranges and a little jelly and had seen the strong man walk off with the empty basket, lately leaving all that abundance for his use and benefit, was faint to lie down and fall asleep again from sheer inability to entertain such wonders in his mind. Meanwhile the single gentleman, the notary and Mr. Garland, repaired to a certain coffee house and from that place indicted and sent a letter to Miss Sally Brass requesting her, in terms mysterious and brief, to favour an unknown friend who wished to consult her with her company there as speedily as possible. The communication performed its errand so well that within ten minutes of the messenger's return and report of its delivery, Miss Brass herself was announced. Pray mom, said the single gentleman whom she found alone in the room, take a chair. Miss Brass sat herself down in a very stiff and frigid state and seemed, as indeed she was, not a little astonished to find that the lodger and her mysterious correspondent were one and the same person. You did not expect to see me, said the single gentleman. I didn't think much about it, returned the beauty. I supposed it was business of some kind or other. If it's about the apartments, of course you'll give my brother regular notice. You know, all money? That's very easily settled. You're a respectable party and in such a case, lawful money and lawful notice are pretty much the same. I am obliged to you for your good opinion, retorted the single gentleman and quite concur in those sentiments. But that is not the subject on which I wish to speak with you. Oh, said Sally, then just state the particulars will you? I suppose it's professional business. Why, it is connected with the law certainly. Very well, returned Miss Brass. My brother and I are just the same. I can take any instructions or give you any advice. As there are other parties interested besides myself, said the single gentleman, rising and opening the door of an inner room, we had better confer together. Miss Brass is here, gentlemen. Mr Garland and the notary walked in, looking very grave and drawing up two chairs, one on each side of the single gentleman, formed a kind of fence around the gentle Sara and bent her into a corner. Her brother Samson under such circumstances would certainly have evinced some confusion or anxiety, but she, all composure, pulled out the tin box and calmly took a pinch of snuff. Miss Brass said the notary taking the word at this crisis. We professional people understand each other and, when we choose, can say what we have to say in very few words. You advertised a runaway servant the other day. Well, returned Miss Sally with a sudden flash over spreading her features. What of that? She is found, ma'am, said the notary, pulling out his pocket hunger chief with a flourish. She is found. Who found her? Demanded Sara hastily. We did, ma'am, we three. Only last night, all you would have heard from us before. And now I have heard from you, said Miss Brass, folding her arms resolutely as though she were about to deny something to the death. What have you got to say? Something you have got in your heads about her, of course. Prove it, will you? That's all. Prove it. You have found her, you say. I can tell you, if you don't know it, that you have found the most artful, lying, pilfering and devilish little minx that was ever born. Have you got her here? She added, looking sharply round. No, she is not here at present. Returned the notary. But she is quite safe. Ha! Cried Sally, twitching a pinch of snuff out of her box, as spitefully as if she were in the very act of wrenching off the small servant's nose. She shall be safe enough from this time, I warrant you. I hope so, replied the notary. Did it occur to you for the first time when you found she had run away, that there were two keys to your kitchen door? Miss Sally took another pinch, and putting her head on one side, looked at her questioner with a curious kind of spasm about her mouth, but with a cunning aspect of immense expression. Two keys, repeated the notary, one of which gave her the opportunity of roaming through the house at nights when you supposed her fast locked up, and of overhearing confidential consultations, among others, that particular conference to be described today before a justice, which you will have an opportunity of hearing her relate. That conference, which you and Mr. Brass held together on the night before that most unfortunate and innocent young man was accused of robbery, by a horrible device of which I will only say that it may be characterized by the epithets you have applied to this wretched little witness and by a few stronger ones besides. Sally took another pinch. Although her face was wonderfully composed, it was apparent that she was wholly taken by surprise and that what she had expected to be taxed with in connection with her small servant was something very different from this. Come, come, Miss Brass, said the notary. You have great command of feature, but you feel, I see, that by a chance which never entered your imagination this base design is revealed and two of its plotters must be brought to justice. Now you know the pains and penalties you are liable to and so I need not delay upon them, but I have a proposal to make to you. You have the honor of being sister to one of the greatest scoundrels unhung. And if I may venture to say so to a lady, you are in every respect quite worthy of him. But connected with you too is a third party, a villain of the name of Quilp, the prime mover of the whole diabolical device who I believe to be worse than either. For his sake, Miss Brass, do us the favor to reveal the whole history of this affair. Let me remind you that you're doing so at our instance will place you in a safe and comfortable position. Your present one is not desirable and cannot injure your brother, for against him and you we have quite sufficient evidence as you hear already. I will not say to you that we suggest this cause in mercy. For, to tell you the truth, we do not entertain any regard for you, but it is a necessity to which we are reduced and I recommend it to you as a matter of the very best policy. Time, said Mr Witherden, pulling out his watch, in a business like this is exceedingly precious. Favor us with your decision as speedily as possible, ma'am. With a smile upon her face and looking at each of the three by-turns, Miss Brass took two or three more pinches of snuff and having by this time very little left, traveled round and round the box with her forefinger and thumb, scraping up another. Having disposed of this likewise and put the box carefully in her pocket, she said, I am to accept or reject at once, am I? Yes, said Mr Witherden. The charming creature was opening her lips to speak in reply. When the door was hastily opened too and the head of Samson Brass was thrust into the room. Excuse me, said that gentleman hastily. Wait a bit. So saying and quite indifferent to the astonishment his presence occasioned. He crept in, shut the door, kissed his greasy glover servilely as if it were the dust and made a most abject bow. Sarah, said Brass, hold your tongue if you please and let me speak. Gentlemen, if I could express the pleasure it gives me to see three such men in a happy unity of feeling and concord of sentiment, I think you would hardly believe me. But though I am unfortunate, nay, gentlemen, criminal, if we are to use harsh expressions in a company like this, still I have my feelings like other men. I have heard of a poet who remarked that feelings were the common lot of all. If he could have been a big gentleman and have uttered that sentiment, he would still have been immortal. If you're not an idiot, said Miss Brass harshly, hold your pace. Sarah, my dear, returned her brother, thank you, but I know what I am about, my love, and will take the liberty of expressing myself accordingly. Mr. Witherden, sir, your handkerchief is hanging out of your pocket. Would you allow me to? As Mr. Brass advanced to remedy this accident, the notary shrank from him with an air of great disgust. Brass, who over and above his usual prepossessing qualities, had a scratched face, a green shade over one eye, and a hut grievously crushed, stopped short, and looked round with a pitiful smile. He shuns me, said Samson. Even when I would, as I may say, heap cause of fire upon his head, well, ah, but I am a falling house, and the rats, if I may be allowed the expression in reference to a gentleman that I respect and love beyond everything, fly from me. Gentlemen, regarding your conversation just now, I happened to see my sister on her way here, and wondering where she could be going to, and being, may I venture to say, naturally of a suspicious turn, followed her. Since then, I have been listening. If you are not mad, interposed me, Sally, stop there and say no more. Sarah, my dear, rejoined Brass with undiminished politeness. I thank you kindly, but will still proceed. Mr. Witherden, sir, as we have the honour to be members of the same profession, to say nothing of that other gentleman having been my lodger, and having partaken, as one may say, of the hospitality of my roof, I think you might have given me the refusal of this offer in the first instance. I do indeed. Now, my dear sir, cried Brass, seeing that the notary was about to interrupt him. Suffer me to speak, I beg. Mr. Witherden was silent, and Brass went on. If you will do me the favour, he said, holding up the green shade and revealing an eye most horribly discoloured. To look at this, you will naturally inquire in your own minds how did I get it. If you look from that to my face, you will wonder what could have been the cause of all these scratches, and if from them to my hat, how it came into the state in which you see it. Gentlemen, said Brass, striking the hat fiercely with his clenched hand, to all these questions I answer, quilp. The three gentlemen looked at each other, but said nothing. I say, pursued Brass, glancing aside at his sister, as though he was talking for her information and speaking with a snarling malignity in violent contrast to his usual smoothness, that I answer to all these questions, quilp, quilp, who deludes me into his infernal den and takes a delight in looking on and chuckling while I scorch and burn and bruise and may myself, quilp, who never once, no, never once, in all our communications together has treated me otherwise than as a dog, quilp, whom I have always hated with my whole heart, but never so much as lately. He gives me the cord shoulder on this very matter as if he had had nothing to do with it instead of being the first to propose it. I can't trust him. In one of his howling, raving, blazing humours, I believe he'd let it out if it was murder and never think of himself so long as he could terrify me. Now, said Brass, picking up his hat again, replacing the shade over his eye and actually crouching down in the excess of his servility. What does all this lead me to? What you do say it led me to, gentlemen? Could you guess at all near the mark? Nobody spoke. Brass stood smirking for a little while as if he had propounded some choice conundrum, and then said, To be short with you, then, it leads me to this. If the truth has come out as it plainly has in a manner that there's nothing standing up against, and a very sublime and grand thing is truth, gentlemen, in its way, though like other sublime and grand things, such as thunderstorms and that, we're not always over and above glad to see it, I had better turn upon this man than let this man turn upon me. It's clear to me that I am done for. Therefore, if anybody is to split, I had better be the person and have the advantage of it. Sarah, my dear, comparatively speaking, you are safe. I relate to these circumstances for my own profit. With that, Mr. Brass, in a great hurry, reviewed the whole story, bearing as heavily as possible on his amiable employer and making himself out to be a rather a saint-like and holy character, though subject he acknowledged to human weaknesses. He concluded thus, Now, gentlemen, I am not a man who does things by halves. Being in for a penny, I am ready as the saying is to be in for a pound. You must do with me what you please, and take me where you please. If you wish to have this in writing, we'll reduce it into manuscript immediately. You will be tender with me, I am sure. I am quite confident you will be tender with me. You are men of honour and have feeling hearts. I yield it from necessity to Quilp, for though necessity has no law, she has her lawyers. I yield to you from necessity too, from policy besides, and because of feelings that have been a pretty long time working within me. Punish Quilp, gentlemen, weigh heavily upon him, tread him down, tread him underfoot, he has done as much by me for many and many a day. Having now arrived at the conclusion of his discourse, Samson checked the current of his wrath, kissed his glove again, and smiled as only parasites and cowards can. And this, said Miss Brass, raising her head, with which she had hitherto sat resting on her hands and surveying him from head to foot with a bitter sneer. This is my brother, is it? This is my brother that I have worked and toiled for and believed to have had something of the man in him. Sarah, my dear, returned Samson rubbing his hands feebly. You disturb our friends, besides you, you are disappointed, Sarah, and not knowing what you say expose yourself. Yes, you pitiful dastard! Retorted the lovely damsel, I understand you. But I should be forehand with you. But do you think that I would have been enticed to say a word? I'd have scorned it, if they had tried and tempted me for twenty years. Ha ha! Simpered Brass, who in his deep debasement really seemed to have changed sexes with his sister, and to have made over to her any spark of manliness, he might have possessed. You think so, Sarah, you think so perhaps, that you would have acted quite different, my good fellow? You will not have forgotten that it was a maxim with foxy, our reverent father, gentlemen, always suspect everybody. That's the maxim to go through life with. If you were not actually about to purchase your own safety when I showed myself, I suspect you'd have done it by this time, and therefore I've done it myself and spared you the trouble as well as the shame. The shame, gentlemen! Brass, allowing himself to be slightly overcome, if there is any, is mine. It's better that a female should be spared it. With deference to the better opinion of Mr. Brass, and more particularly to the authority of his great ancestor, it may be doubted with humility whether the elevating principle laid down by the latter gentlemen and acted upon by his descendant is always a prudent one, or attended in practice with the desired results. This is beyond question a bold and presumptuous doubt in as much as many distinguished characters called men of the world, long-headed customers, knowing dogs, shrewd fellows, capital hands at business, and the like have made and do daily make this axiom their polar star and compass. Still the doubt may be gently insinuated, and in illustration it may be observed that if Mr. Brass not being over-suspicious had without prying and listening left his sister to manage the conference on their joint behalf, or, prying and listening had not been in such a mighty hurry to anticipate her, which he would not have been, but for his distrust and jealousy, he would probably have found himself much better off in the end. Thus it will always happen that these men of the world, who go through it in armor, defend themselves from quite as much good as evil. To say nothing of the inconvenience and absurdity of mounting guard with a microscope at all times and of wearing a coat of mail on the most innocent occasions. The three gentlemen spoke together apart for a few moments. At the end of their consultation, which was very brief, the notary pointed to the writing materials on the table and informed Mr. Brass that if he wished to make any statement in writing, he had the opportunity of doing so. At the same time he felt bound to tell him that they would require his attendance presently before a justice of the peace and that in what he did or said he was guided entirely by his own discretion. Gentlemen, said Brass, drawing off his gloves and crawling in spirit upon the ground before them, I will justify the tenderness with which I know I shall be treated and as without tenderness I should now that this discovery has been made stand in the worst position of the three. You may depend upon it. I will make a clean breast. Mr. Withered and Sir, a kind of faintness is upon my spirits. If you were to do me the favour to ring the bell and order up a glass of something warm and spicy, I shall not withstanding what has passed have a melancholy pleasure in drinking your good health. I had hoped, said Brass, looking round with a mournful smile, to have seen you three gentlemen one day or another with your legs under the mahogany in my humble parlour in the marks, but hopes are fleeting, dear me. Mr. Brass found himself so exceedingly affected at this point that he could say or do nothing more until some refreshment arrived. Having partaken of it, pretty freely for one in his agitated state, he sat down to write. The lovely Sarah now with her arms folded and now with her hands clasped behind her paced the room with manly strides while her brother was thus employed and sometimes stopped to pull out her snuff box and bite the lid. She continued to pace up and down until she was quite tired and then fell asleep on a chair near the door. It has been since supposed with some reason that this lumber was a sham or faint as she contrived to slip away and observed in the dusk of the afternoon. Whether this was an intentional and waking departure or a somnambulastic leave taking and walking in her sleep may remain a subject of contention, but on one point, and indeed the main one, all parties are agreed. In whatever state she walked away, she certainly did not walk back again. Mention having been made of the dusk of the afternoon, it will be inferred that Mr. Brass's task occupied some time in the completion. It was not finished until evening, but being done at last, that worthy person and the three friends adjourned in a hackney coach to the private office of a justice who, giving Mr. Brass a warm reception and detaining him in a secure place that he might ensure himself the pleasure of seeing him on the morrow, dismissed the others with a cheerful assurance that a warrant could not fail to be granted next day for the apprehension of Mr. Quillpe and that a proper application and statement of all the circumstances to the Secretary of State who was fortunately in town would no doubt procure kids' free pardon and liberation without delay. And now indeed it seemed that Quillpe's malignant career was drawing to a close and that retribution which often travels slowly, especially when heaviest, had tracked his footsteps with a sure and certain scent and was gaining on him fast. Unmindful of her stealthy tread, her victim holds his course in fancied triumph. Still at his heels she comes and once a food is never turned aside. There business ended, the three gentlemen hastened back to the lodgings of Mr. Swivola whom they found progressing so favourably in his recovery as to have been able to sit up for half an hour and to have conversed with cheerfulness. Mrs. Garland had gone home some time since but Mr. Abel was still sitting with him. After telling him all they had done, the two Mr. Garlands and the single gentlemen as if by some previous understanding took their leaves for the night leaving the invalid alone with the notary and the small servant. As you are so much better, said Mr. Witherden sitting down at the bedside, I may venture to communicate to your piece of news which has come to me professionally. The idea of any professional intelligence from a gentleman connected with legal matters appeared to afford Richard anything but a pleasing anticipation. Perhaps he connected it in his own mind with one or two outstanding accounts in reference to which he had already received diverse threatening letters. His countenance fell as he replied, Certainly sir, I hope it's not anything with a very disagreeable nature, though. If I thought it so, I should choose some better time for communicating it, replied the notary. Let me tell you first that my friends who have been here today know nothing of it and that their kindness to you has been quite spontaneous and with no hope of return. It may do a thoughtless, careless man good to know that. Dick thanked him and said he hoped it would. I have been making some inquiries about you, said Mr. Witherden, little thinking that I should find you under such circumstances as those which have brought us together. You are the nephew of Rebecca Swivola, spinster, deceased, of Cheslebourne in Dorsetshire. Deceased, cried Dick. Deceased. If you had been another sort of nephew, you would have come into possession, so says the will, and I see no reason to doubt it, of five and twenty thousand pounds. As it is, you have fallen into anuity of one hundred and fifty pounds a year. But I think I may congratulate you even upon that. Sir, said Dick, sobbing and laughing together, you may, for please God, will make a scholar of the poor machinist yet, and she shall walk in silk attire and stiller half to spare, or may I never rise from this bed again. End of chapter 66 Chapter 67 of The Old Curiosity Shop This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens Chapter 67 Unconscious of the proceedings faithfully narrated in the last chapter, and little dreaming of the mind which had been sprung beneath him, for to the end that he should have no warning of the business of food, the profoundest secrecy was observed in the whole transaction, Mr. Quill remained shut up in his hermitage and disturbed by any suspicion and extremely well satisfied with the result of his machinations. Being engaged in the adjustment of some accounts, an occupation to which the silence and solitude of his retreat were very favourable, he had not strayed from his den for two whole days. The third day of his devotion to his pursuit found him still hard at work and little disposed to stir abroad. It was the day next after Mr. Brice's confession and consequently that which threatened the restriction of Mr. Quill's liberty and the abrupt communication to him of some very unpleasant and unwelcome facts. Having no intuitive perception of the cloud which lowered upon his house, the dwarf was in his ordinary state of cheerfulness and when he found he was becoming too much engrossed by business with a due regard to his health and spirits, he varied its monotonous routine with a little screeching or howling or some other innocent relaxation of that nature. He was attended as usual by Tom Scott, who sat crouching over the fire after a manner of atode and from time to time when his master's back was turned, imitated his grimaces with a fearful exactness. The figurehead had not yet disappeared but remained in its old place. The face, horribly seared by the frequent applications of the red-hot poker and further ornamented by the insertion in the tip of the nose of a tenpenny nail, yet smiled blandly in its less lacerated parts and seemed like a sturdy martyr to provoke its torment to the commission of new outrages and insults. The day in the highest and brightest quarters of the town was damp, dark, cold and gloomy. In that low and marshy spot the folk filled every nook and corner with a thick dense cloud. Every object was obscured at one or two yards' distance. The warning lights and fires upon the river were powerless beneath this pole and but for a roar and piercing chillness in the air and now and then the cry of some bewildered boatman as he rested on his oars and tried to make out where he was, the river itself might have been miles away. The mist, though sluggish and slow to move, was of a keenly surging kind. No muffling up in furs and broad-cloth kept it out. It seemed to penetrate into the very bones of the shrinking wayfarers and to rack them with cold and pains. Everything was wet and clammy to the touch. The warm blaze alone defied it and leaped and sparkled merrily. It was a day to be at home, crowding about the fire, telling stories of travelers who had lost their way to weather on heaths and moors and to love a warm hearth more than ever. The dwarf's humour, as we know, was to have a fireside to himself and when he was disposed to be convivial to enjoy himself alone. By no means insensible to the comfort of being within doors, he ordered Tom Scott to pile the little stove with coals and dismissing his work for that day, determined to be jovial. To this end, he lighted up fresh candles and heaped more fuel on the fire and having dined off a beefsteak, which he cooked himself in somewhat of a savage and cannibal-like manner, brewed a great bowl of hot punch, lighted his pipe and sat down to spend the evening. At this moment, alone knocking at the cabin door arrested his attention. When it had been twice or thrice repeated, he softly opened the little window and thrusting his head out demanded who was there. Only me, Quillp, replied a woman's voice. Only you, cried the dwarf, stretching his neck to obtain a better view of his visitor. And what brings you here, you jade? How dare you approach the augurs' castle, eh? I have come with some news, rejoined his spouse. Don't be angry with me. Is it good news, pleasant news, news to make a man skip and snap his fingers? Said the dwarf. Is the dear old lady dead? I don't know what news it is, or whether it's good or bad, rejoined his wife. Then she's alive, said Quillp, and there's nothing the matter with her. Go home again, you bird of evil note! Go home! I have brought a letter, cried the meagre little woman. Toss it in at the window here and go your ways. Said Quillp, interrupting her. Or I'll come out and scratch you. No, but please, Quillp, do hear me speak. Urged his submissive wife in tears. Please do. Speak, then, growled the dwarf with a malicious grin. Be quick and short about it. Speak, will you? It was left at our house this afternoon, said Mrs. Quillp trembling, by a boy who said he didn't know from whom it came, but that it was given to him to leave and that he was told to say it must be brought unto you directly, for it was of the very greatest consequence. But please, she added as her husband stretched out his hand for it, please let me in. You don't know how wet and cold I am, or how many times I have lost my way in coming here through this thick fog. Let me dry myself at the fire for five minutes. I'll go away directly you tell me to, Quillp, upon my word I will. Her amiable husband hesitated for a few moments. But be thinking himself that the letter might require some answer, of which she could be the bearer. Close the window, open the door, and bed her enter. Mrs. Quillp obeyed right willingly and kneeling down before the fire to warm her hands, delivered into his little packet. I am glad you're wet, said Quillp, snatching it and squinting at her. I am glad you're cold. I am glad you've lost your way. I am glad your eyes are red with crying. It does my heart good to see your little nose so pinched and frosty. Oh, Quillp! sobbed his wife. How cruel it is of you! Did she think I was dead? said Quillp, wrinkling his face into a most extraordinary series of grimaces. Did she think she was going to have all the money and to marry somebody she liked? Ha ha ha, did she? These taunts elicited no reply from the poor little woman who remained on her knees, warming her hands and sobbing to Mr. Quillp's great delight. But as he was contemplating her and chuckling excessively, he happened to observe that Tom Scott was delighted too. Wherefore, that he might have no presumptuous partner in his glee, the dwarf instantly collared him, dragged him to the door, and after a short scuffle, kicked him into the yard. In return for this mark of attention, he immediately walked upon his scans to the window and, if the expression be allowable, looked in with his shoes, besides rattling his feet upon the glass like a band she upside down. As a matter of course, Mr. Quillp lost no time in resorting to the infallible poker, with which, after some dodging and lying in ambush, he paid his young friend one or two such unequivocal compliments that he vanished precipitately and left him in quiet possession of the field. So, that little job being disposed of, said the dwarf coolly, I'll read my letter. He muttered, looking at the direction. I ought to know this writing. Beautiful Sally. Opening it, he read in a fair, round legal hand as follows. Sammy has been practised upon and has broken confidence. It has all come out. You had better not be in the way, for strangers are going to call upon you. They have been very quiet as yet, because they mean to surprise you. Don't lose time. I didn't. I am not to be found anywhere. If I was you, I wouldn't be either. S.B. Late of B.M. To describe the changes that passed over Quillp's face as he read this letter half a dozen times, would require some new language, such for power of expression, as was never written, read or spoken. For a long time he did not utter one word, but after a considerable interval during which Mrs. Quillp was almost paralysed with the alarm his looks engendered, he contrived to gasp out. If I had him here, if I only had him here. Oh, Quillp! said his wife. What's the matter? Who are you angry with? I should drown him. He said the dwarf not heeding her. Too easy a death. Too short. Too quick. But the river runs close at hand. Oh, if I had him here, just to take him to the brink, coaxingly and pleasantly, holding him by the buttonhole, joking with him, and with a sudden push to send him splashing down. Drowning men come to the surface three times, they say. Ah, to see him those three times and mock him as his face came bobbing up. Oh, what a rich treat that would be! Quillp! stammered his wife venturing at the same time to touch him on the shoulder. What has gone wrong? She was so terrified by the relish with which she pictured this pleasure to himself that she could scarcely make herself intelligible. Such a bloodless cur! said Quillp, rubbing his hands very slowly and pressing them tight together. I thought his cowardice and servility were the best guarantee for his keeping silence. Oh, brass, brass, my dear, good affectionate, faithful, complementary, charming friend, if I only had you here. His wife, who had retreated less she should seem to listen to these matterings, ventured to approach him again, and was about to speak when he hurried to the door and called Tom Scott, who, remembering his late gentle admonition, deemed it prudent to appear immediately. There, said the dwarf, pulling him in. Take her home. Don't come here tomorrow, for this place will be shut up. Come back no more till you hear from me or see me. Do you mind? Tom nodded sulkily and pecked at Mrs. Quillp to lead the way. As for you, said the dwarf, addressing himself to her, make no questions about me, make no search for me, say nothing concerning me. I shall not be dead, mistress, and that'll comfort you. He'll take care of you. But Quillp, what is the matter? Where are you going? Do say something more. I'll say that, said the dwarf, seizing her by the arm, and do that, too, which undone and unsaid would be best for you, unless you go directly. Has anything happened? cried his wife. Oh, do tell me that. Yes. Snarled the dwarf. No, what matter, which? I have told you what to do. Well, betide you if you fail to do it, or disobey me by a hair's breadth. Will you go? I am going. I'll go directly, but... faulted his wife. I'll go first. Has this letter any connection with dear little Nell? I must ask you that. I must indeed, Quillp. You cannot think what days and nights of sorrow I have had through having once deceived that child. I don't know what harm I may have brought about, but great or little I did it for you, Quillp. My conscience misgave me when I did it. Do answer me this question if you please. The exasperated dwarf returned no answer, but turned round and caught up his usual weapon with such vehemence that Tom Scott dragged his charge away by main force, and as swiftly as he could. It was well he did so, for Quillp, who was nearly mad with rage, pursued them to the neighbouring lane and might have prolonged the chase but for the dense mist which obscured them from his view, and appeared to thicken every moment. It will be a good night for travelling anonymously, he said, as he returned slowly, being pretty well breathed with his run. Stay, we may look better here. This is too hospitable and free. By a great exertion of strength he closed the two old gates which were deeply sunken in the mud and barred them with a heavy beam. That done, he shook his matted hair from about his eyes and tried them. Strong and fast. The fence between this wharf and the next is easily climbed, said the dwarf when he had taken these precautions. There's a back lane too from there. That shall be my way out. A man need know his road well to find it in this lovely place tonight. I need fear no unwelcome visitors while this lasts, I think. Almost reduced to the necessity of groping his way with his hands, it had grown so dark and the fog had so much increased it turned to his lair and after musing for some time over the fire, busied himself in preparations for a speedy departure. While he was collecting a few necessaries and cramming them into his pockets he never once ceased communing with himself in a low voice or enclenched his teeth which he had ground together on finishing Miss Brass' note. Oh, Samson! You worthy creature! If I could but hug you if I could only fold you in my arms and squeeze your ribs as I could squeeze them if I once had you tight what a meeting there would be between us. If we ever do cross each other again Samson will have a greeting not easily to be forgotten, trust me. This time Samson this moment when all had gone on so well was so nicely chosen. It was so thoughtful of you so penitent, so good! Oh, if we were face to face in this room again my white-livered man of law how well contented one of us would be! There he stopped and raising the bowl of punch to his lips drank a long, deep draft as if it were fair water and cooling to his parched mouth. Setting it down abruptly and resuming his preparations he went on with his soliloquy. There Sally said with flashing eyes the woman has spirit determination, purpose was she asleep or petrified? She could have stabbed him poisoned him safely she might have seen this coming on why does she give me notice when it's too late? When he sat there yonder there, over there with his white face and red head and sickly smile why didn't I know what was passing in his heart? It should have stopped beating that night if I had been in his secret Oh, there are no drugs to lull a man to sleep and no fire to burn him! Another draft from the bowl and cowering over the fire with a ferocious aspect he muttered to himself again and this like every other trouble and anxiety I have had of late times brings from that old dotted and his darling child to wretched feeble wanderers I'll be their evil genius yet and you, sweet kid honest kid, virtuous innocent kid, look to yourself where I hate, I bite I hate you my darling fellow with good cause and proud as you are tonight I'll have my turn What's that? A knocking at the gate he had closed a loud and violent knocking then a pause as if those who knocked had stopped to listen then the noise again more clamorous and important than before So soon said the dwarf and so eager I am afraid I shall disappoint you it's well I'm quite prepared Sully, I thank you As he spoke he extinguished the candle in his impetuous attempts to subdue the brightness of the fire he overset the stove which came tumbling forward and fell with a crash upon the burning embers it had shot forth in its descent leaving the room in pitch darkness the noise at the gate still continuing he felt his way to the door and stepped into the open air at that moment the knocking seized it was about eight o'clock but the dead of the darkest night would have been his noon day in comparison with the thick cloud which then rested upon the earth and shrouded everything from view he darted forward for a few paces as if into the mouth of some dim yawning cavern then, thinking he had gone wrong changed the direction of his steps then stood still not knowing where to turn if they would knock again said quillp trying to peer into the gloom by which he was surrounded a sound might guide me come batter the gate once more he stood listening intently but the noise was not renewed nothing was to be heard in that deserted place but at intervals the distant parking of dogs the sound was far away now in one corner now answered in another nor was it any guide for it often came from shipboard as he knew if I could find a wall or fence said the dwarf stretching out his arms and walking slowly on I should know which way to turn a good black devil's knight this to have my dear friend here if I had but that wish it might for anything I cared never be there again as the word passed his lips he staggered and fell and next moment was fighting with the cold dark water for all its bubbling up and rushing in his ears he could hear the knocking at the gate again could hear a shout that followed it could recognize the voice for all his struggling and plashing he could understand that they had lost their way and had wandered back to the point from which they started that they were all but looking on while he was drowned that they were close at hand but could not make an effort to save him that he himself had shut and barred them out he answered the shout with a yell which seemed to make the hundred fires that danced before his eyes tremble and flicker as if a gust of wind had stirred them it was of no avail the strong tide filled his throat and bore him on upon its rapid current another mortal struggle and he was up again beating the water with his hands and looking out with wild and glaring eyes that showed him some black object he was drifting close upon the hull of a ship he could touch its smooth and slippery surface with his hand one loud cry now but the resistless water bore him down before he could give it utterance and driving him under it carried away a corpse it toyed and sported with its ghastly freight now bruising it against the slimy piles now hiding it in mud or long rank grass now dragging it heavily over rough stones and gravel now feigning to yield it to its own element and in the same action luring it away until tired of the ugly plaything it flung it on a swamp a dismal place where pirates had swung in chains through many a wintry night and left it there to bleach and there it lay alone the sky was red with flame and the water that bore it there had been tinged with the sullen light as it flowed along the place the deserted carcass could left so recently a living man was now a blazing ruin there was something of the glare upon its face the hair stirred by the damp breeze played in a kind of mockery of death such a mockery as the dead man himself would have reveled in when alive about its head and its dress fluttered idly in the night wind end of chapter 67 chapter 68 of the old curiosity shop this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org and the curiosity shop by Charles Dickens chapter 68 lighted rooms bright fires cheerful faces the music of glad voices words of love and welcome warm hearts and tears of happiness what a change is this but it is to such delights that kid is hastening they are awaiting him he knows before he gets among them they have prepared him for this all day he is not to be carried off tomorrow with the rest they tell him first by degrees they let him know that doubts have arisen that inquiries are to be made and perhaps he may be pardoned after all at last the evening being come they bring him to a room where some gentlemen are assembled foremost among them is his good old master comes and takes him by the hand he hears that his innocence is established and that he is pardoned he cannot see the speaker but he turns towards the voice and in trying to answer falls down insensible they recover him again and tell him he must be composed and bear this like a man somebody says he must think of his poor mother it is because he does think of her so much that the happy news have overpowered him they crowd about him and tell him that the truth has gone abroad and that all the town and country ring with sympathy for his misfortunes he has no years for this his thoughts as yet have no wider range than home does she know it what did she say who told her he can speak of nothing else they make him drink a little wine and talk kindly to him for a while until he is more collected and can listen and thank them he is free to go Mr. Garland thinks if he feels better it is time they went away the gentlemen cluster around him and shake hands with him he feels very grateful to them for the interest they have in him and for the kind promises they make but the power of speech has gone again and he has much ado to keep his feet even though leaning on his master's arm as they pass through the dismal passages some officers of the jail who are in waiting there congratulate him in their rough way on his release the newsmonger is of the number but his manner is not quite hearty there is something of surliness in his compliments he looks upon Kit as an intruder as one who has obtained admission to that place on false pretenses who has enjoyed a privilege without being duly qualified he may be a very good sort of young man he thinks but he has no business there and the sooner he is gone the better the last door shuts behind them they have passed the outer wall and stand in the open air in the street he has so often pictured to himself when hemmed in by those gloomy stones and which has been in all his dreams it seems wider and more busy than it used to be the night is bad and yet how cheerful and gay in his eyes one of the gentlemen in taking leave of him pressed some money into his hand he has not counted it but when they have gone a few paces beyond the box for poor prisoners he hastily returns and drops it in Mr Garland has a coach waiting in a neighbouring street and taking Kit inside with him bids the man drive home at first they can only travel at a food pace and then with tortures going on before because of the heavy fog but as they get further from the river and leave the closer portions of the town behind they are able to dispense with this precaution and to proceed at a brisk rate on the road hard caliping would be too slow for Kit but when they are drawing near their journey's end he begs they may go more slowly and when the house appears inside that they may stop only for a minute or two to give him time to breathe but there is no stopping then for the old gentleman speaks stoutly to him the horses mend their pace and they are already at the garden gate next minute there at the door there is a noise of tongues and a tread of feet inside it opens Kit rushes in and finds his mother clinging round his neck and there too is the ever faithful barbarous mother still holding the baby as if she had never put it down since that Saturday when they little hoped to have such joy as this there she is heaven bless her crying her eyes out and sobbing as never woman sobbed before and there is little Barbara poor little Barbara so much thinner and so much paler and yet so very pretty trembling like a leaf and supporting herself against the wall Mrs. Garland neater and nicer than ever fainting away stone dead with nobody to help her and there is Mr. Abel violently blowing his nose and wanting to embrace everybody and there is the single gentleman hovering around them all and constant to nothing for an instant and there is that good dear thoughtful little Jacob sitting all alone by himself on the bottom stair with his hands on his knees like an old man boring fearfully without giving any trouble to anybody and each and all of them are for the time clean out of their wits and do jointly and severally commit all manner of follies and even when the rest have in some measure come to themselves again and can find words and smiles Barbara that soft hearted gentle foolish little Barbara is suddenly missed and found to be in a swoon by herself in the back paler from which swoon she falls into hysterics and from which hysterics into a swoon again and is indeed so bad that despite a mortal quantity of vinegar and cold water she is hardly a bit better at last than she was at first then kids mother comes in and says will he come and speak to her and kids says yes and goes and he says in a kind voice Barbara and Barbara's mother tells her that she is the only kid and Barbara says with her eyes closed all the time oh, but is it him indeed and Barbara's mother says to be sure it is my dear there's nothing the matter now and in further assurance that his safe and sound kid speaks to her again and then Barbara goes off into another fit of laughter and then into another fit of crying and then Barbara's mother and kids mother nod to each other and pretend to scold her but only to bring her to herself the faster, bless you and being experienced matrons and acute at perceiving the first dawning symptoms of recovery they comfort kid with the assurance that she'll do now and so dismiss him to the place from whence he came well in that place which is the next room there are decanters of wine and all that sort of thing and his friends were a first-rate company and there is little Jacob walking, as the popular phrase is into a homemade plum cake at a most surprising pace and keeping his eye on the figs and oranges which are to follow and making the best use of his time you may believe kid no sooner comes in than that single gentleman never was such a busy gentleman charges all the glasses bumpers and drinks his health he shall never want a friend while he lives and so does Mr. Garland and so does Mrs. Garland and so does Mr. Abel but even this honour and distinction is not all for the single gentleman forthwith pulls out of his pocket a massive silver watch going hard and right to half a second and upon the back of this watch is engraved kids name with flourishes all over and in short it is kids watch bought expressly for him and presented to him on the spot you may rest assured that Mr. and Mrs. Garland can't help hinting about their present in store and that Mr. Abel tells outright that he has his and that kid is the happiest of the happy there is one friend he has not seen yet and as he cannot be conveniently introduced into the family circle by reason of his being an iron short quadruped he takes the first opportunity of slipping away and hurrying to the stable the moment he lays his hand upon the latch the pony nays the loudest pony's greeting before he has crossed the threshold the pony is capering about his loose box for he brooks not the indignity of a halter mad to give him welcome and when kid goes up to caress and pat him the pony wraps his nose against his coat and fondles him more lovingly than a pony fondled man it is the crowning circumstance of his earnest heartfelt reception and kid fairly puts his arm round whisker's neck and hugs him but how comes Barbara to trip in there and how smart she is again she has been at her glass since she recovered how comes Barbara in the stable of all places in the world why? since kid has been away the pony would take his food from nobody but her and Barbara you see not a dreaming Christopher was there and just looking in to see that everything was right has come upon him unawares blushing little Barbara it may be that kid has caressed the pony enough it may be that there are even better things to caress than pony's he leaves him for Barbara at any rate and hopes she is better yes Barbara is a great deal better she is afraid and here Barbara looks down and blushes more that he must have thought her very foolish not at all says kid Barbara is glad of that and coughs just the slightest cough possible not more than that what a discreet pony when he chooses he is as quiet now as if he were of marble he has a very knowing look but that he always has we have hardly had time to shake hands Barbara says kid Barbara gives him hers why she is trembling now foolish fluttering Barbara arms length the length of an arm is not much Barbara's was not a long arm by any means and besides she didn't hold it out straight but bent a little kid was so near her that he could see a small tiny tear yet trembling on an eyelash it was natural that he should look at it unknown to Barbara it was natural that Barbara should raise her eyes unconsciously and find him out was it natural that at that instant without any previous impulse or design he should kiss Barbara he did it whether oh no Barbara said for shame do it too twice he might have done it thrice but the pony kicked up his heels and took his head as if he were suddenly taken with convulsions of delight and Barbara being frightened ran away not straight to where her mother and kid's mother were though lest they should see how red her cheeks were and should ask her why sly little Barbara when the first transports of the whole party had subsided and kid and his mother and Barbara and her mother with little Jacob and the baby to boot had had their sappers together which there was no hurrying over for they were going to stop there all night Mr Garland called kid to him and taking him into a room where they could be alone told him that he had something yet to say which would surprise him greatly kid looked so anxious and turned so pale on hearing this that the old gentleman hastened to add he would be agreeably surprised and asked him if he would be ready next morning for a journey for a journey sir cried kid in company with me and my friend in the next room can you guess its purpose kid turned paler yet and shook his head oh yes I think you do already said his master try kid murmured something rather rambling and unintelligible but he plainly pronounced the words Miss Nell three or four times shaking his head while he did so as if he would add there was no hope of that but Mr Garland instead of saying try again as kid had made sure he would told him very seriously that he had guessed right the place of their retreat is indeed discovered he said at last and that is our journey's end kid faltered out such questions as where was it and how had it been found and how long since and was she well and happy happy she is beyond all doubt said Mr Garland and well I I trust she will be soon she has been weakened ailing as I learn but she was better when I heard this morning and they were full of hope sit you down and you shall hear the rest scarcely venturing to draw his breath kid did as he was told Mr Garland then related to him how he had a brother of whom he would remember to have heard him speak and whose picture taken when he was a young man hung in the best room and how this brother lived a long way off in a country place with an old clergyman who had been his early friend how although they loved each other as brothers should they had not met for many years but had communicated by letter from time to time always looking forward to some period when they would take each other by the hand once more and still letting the present time steal on as it was the habit of men to do and suffering the future to melt into the past how this brother whose temper was very mild and quiet and retiring such as Mr Ables was greatly beloved by the simple people among whom he dwelt who quite revered the bachelor for so they called him and had everyone experienced his charity and benevolence how even these slight circumstances had come to his knowledge very slowly and in cause of years for the bachelor was one of those whose goodness shuns the light and who have more pleasure in discovering and extolling the good deeds of others than in trumpeting their own be they never so commendable how for that reason his held them told them of his village friends but how for all that his mind had become so full of two among them a child and an old man to whom he had been very kind that in a letter received a few days before he had dwelt upon them from first to last and had told there such a tale of their wanderings and mutual love that few could read it without being moved to tears how he the recipient of that letter was directly led to the belief that these must be the very wanderers for whom so much search had been made and whom heaven had directed to his brother's care how he had written for such further information as would put the fact beyond all doubt how it had that morning arrived had confirmed his first impression into a certainty and was the immediate cause of that journey being planned which they were to take tomorrow in the meantime with no gentlemen rising and laying his hand on Kit's shoulder you have great need of rest for such a day as this would wear out the strongest man good night and heaven sent our journey may have a prosperous ending end of chapter 68 chapter 69 of the old curiosity shop this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information if you would like to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the old curiosity shop by Charles Dickens chapter 69 Kit was no sluggered next morning but springing from his bed sometime before day began to prepare for his welcome expedition the hurry of spirits consequent upon the events of yesterday and the unexpected intelligence he had heard at night had troubled his sleep through the long dark hours and summoned such an easy dreams about his pillow that it was rest to rise but had it been the beginning of some great labor with the same ending view had it been the commencement of a long journey to be performed on foot in that inclement season of the year to be pursued under every privation and difficulty and to be achieved only with greater distress, fatigue and suffering had it been the dawn of some painful enterprise certain to task his utmost powers of resolution and endurance and to need his utmost fortitude but only likely to end if happily achieved in good fortune and delight to Nell Kit's cheerful zeal would have been as highly roused Kit's ardour and impatience would have been at least the same nor was he alone excited and eager before he had been up a quarter of an hour the whole house were a stir and busy everybody hurried to do something towards facilitating the preparations the single gentleman it is true could do nothing himself but he overlooked everybody else and was more locomotive than anybody the work of packing and making ready went briskly on and by daybreak every preparation for the journey was completed then Kit began to wish they had not been quite so nimble for the travelling carriage the ride for the occasion was not to arrive until 9 o'clock and there was nothing but breakfast to fill up the intervening blank of one hour and a half yes, there was though there was Barbara Barbara was busy to be sure but so much the better Kit could help her and that would pass away the time better than any means that could be devised Barbara had no objection to this arrangement and Kit tracking out the idea to come upon him so suddenly overnight began to think that surely Barbara was fond of him and surely he was fond of Barbara now Barbara if the truth must be told as it must and ought to be Barbara seemed of all the little household to take least pleasure in the bustle of the occasion and when Kit in the openness of his heart told her how glad and overjoyed it made him Barbara became more downcast still and seemed to have even less pleasure in it than before you have not been home so long Christopher said Barbara and it is impossible to tell how carelessly she said it you have not been home so long that you need be glad to go away again I should think but for such a purpose returned Kit to bring back Miss Nell to see her again only think of that I am so pleased too to think that you will see her Barbara at last Barbara did not absolutely say that she felt no great gratification on this point but she expressed the sentiment so plainly by one little toss of her head that Kit was quite disconcerted and wondered in his simplicity why she was so cool about it you'll say she has the sweetest and beautifulest face you ever saw I know said Kit rubbing his hands I'm sure you'll say that Barbara tossed her head again what's the matter Barbara said Kit nothing cried Barbara and Barbara pouted not sulkily or in an ugly manner but just enough to make her look more cherry-lipped than ever there is no school in which a pupil gets on so fast as that in which Kit became a scholar when he gave Barbara the kiss he saw what Barbara meant now he had his lesson by heart all at once she was the book there it was before he was playing a sprint Barbara said Kit you're not cross with me oh dear no why should Barbara be cross and what right had she to be cross and what did it matter whether she was cross or no whom minded her why I do said Kit of course I do Barbara didn't see why it was of course at all Kit was sure she must would she think again certainly Barbara would think again no she didn't see why it was of course she didn't understand what Christopher meant and besides she was sure they wanted her upstairs by this time and she must go indeed no but Barbara said Kit detaining her gently let us part friends I was always thinking of you in my troubles I should have been a great deal more miserable than I was if it hadn't been for you goodness gracious how pretty Barbara was when she coloured and when she trembled like a little shrinking bird I am telling you the truth Barbara upon my word but not half so strong as I could wish said Kit earnestly when I want you to be pleased to see Miss Nell it's only because I should like you to be pleased with what pleases me that's all as to her Barbara I think I could almost die to do her service but you would think so too if you knew her as I do I am sure you would Barbara was touched and sorry to have appeared indifferent I have been used you see said Kit to talk and think of her almost as if she was an angel when I look forward to meeting her again I think of her smiling as she used to do and being glad to see me and putting out her hand and saying it's my own old Kit or some such words as those like what she used to say I think of seeing her happy and with friends about her and brought up as she deserves and as she ought to be when I think of myself it's as her old servant and one that loved her dearly as his kind good gentle mistress and who would have gone yes and still would go through any harm to serve her once I couldn't help being afraid that if she came back with friends about her she might forget or be ashamed of having known a humble lad like me and so speak coldly which would have cut me Barbara deeper than I can tell but when I came to think again I felt sure that I was doing her wrong in this and so I went on as I did at first hoping to see her once more just as she used to be hoping this and remembering what she was made me feel as if I would always try to please her and always be what I should like to seem to her if I was still her servant if I'm the better for that and I don't think I'm the worse I am grateful to her for it and love and honor her the more that's the plain honest truth dear Barbara upon my word it is little Barbara was not of a wayward or capricious nature and being full of remorse to what further conversation this might have led we need not stop to inquire for the wheels of the carriage were heard at that moment and being followed by a smart ring at the garden gate caused the bustle in the house which had laid dormant for a short time to burst again into tenfold life and vigor simultaneously with the traveling equippage arrived Mr. Chuckster in a hackney cab with certain papers and supplies of money for the single gentleman into whose hands he delivered them this duty discharged he subsided into the bosom of the family and entertaining himself with a strolling or peripatetic breakfast watched with a gentile indifference the process of loading the carriage Snob is in this I see sir he said to Mr. Abel Garland I thought he wasn't in the last trip because it was expected that his presence wouldn't be very acceptable to the ancient buffalo to whom sir demanded Mr. Abel to the old gentleman returned Mr. Chuckster slightly abashed our client prefers to take him now said Mr. Abel dryly there is no longer any need for that precaution as my father's relationship to a gentleman in whom the objects of his search have full confidence will be a sufficient guarantee for the friendly nature of their errand ah Mr. Chuckster looking out of window anybody but me Snobby before me of course he didn't happen to take that particular five pound note but I have not the smallest doubt that he's always up to something of that sort I always said it long before this came out devilish pretty girl that pawn my soul on amazing little creature Barbara was the subject of Mr. Chuckster's commentations and as she was lingering near the carriage all being now ready for its departure that gentleman was suddenly seized with a strong interest in the proceedings which impelled him to swagger down the garden and take up his position at a convenient ogling distance having had great experience of the sex and being perfectly acquainted with all those little artifices which find the rediest road to their hearts Mr. Chuckster on taking his ground planted one hand on his hip and with the other adjusted his flowing hair this is a favorite attitude in the polite circles and accompanied with a graceful whistling has been known to do immense execution such however is the difference between town and country that nobody took the smallest notice of this insinuating figure the riches being wholly engaged in bidding the travelers farewell in kissing hands to each other waving hunger chiefs and the like and vulgar practices for now the single gentleman and Mr. Garland were in the carriage and the post boy was in the saddle and Kit well wrapped and muffled up was in the rumble behind and Mrs. Garland was there and Mr. Abel was there and Kit's mother was there and little Jacob was there and Barbara's mother was visible in remote perspective nursing the ever-wakeful baby and all were nodding, beckoning, or crying out goodbye with all the energy they could express in another minute the carriage was out of sight and Mr. Chakster remained alone upon the spot where it had lately been with a vision of Kit standing up in the rumble waving his hand to Barbara and of Barbara in the full light and luster of his eyes his eyes Chakster's the successful on whom ladies of quality had looked with favor from the parks on Sundays waving hers to Kit how Mr. Chakster entranced by this monstrous fact stood for some time rooted to the earth protesting within himself that Kit was the prince of felonious characters the very emperor or great mogul of snobs and how he clearly traced this revolting circumstance back to that old villainy of the shilling our matters fall into our purpose which is to track the rolling wheels and bear the traveller's company on their cold bleak journey it was a bitter day a keen wind was blowing and rushed against them fiercely bleaching the hard ground shaking the white frost from the trees and hedges and whirling it away like dust but little cared Kit for weather there was a freedom and freshness in the wind as it came howling by which let it cut never so sharp was welcome as it swept on with its cloud of frost bearing down the dry twigs and boughs and withered leaves and carrying them away pell-mell it seemed as though some general sympathy had got abroad and everything was in a hurry like themselves the harder the gusts the better progress they appeared to make it was a good thing to go struggling and fighting forward vanquishing them one by one to watch them driving up gathering strength and fury as they came along for a moment as they whistled past and then to look back and see them speed away their hoarse noise dying in the distance and the stout trees cowering down before them all day long it blew without cessation the night was clear and starlight but the wind had not fallen and the cold was piercing sometimes towards the end of a long stage Kit could not help wishing it were a little warmer but when they stopped to change horses and he had had a good run and what with that and the bustle of paying the old pastilian and rousing the new one and running to and fro again until the horses were put to he was so warm that the blood tingled and smarted in his fingers ends then he felt as if to have it one degree less cold would be to lose half the delight and glory of the journey and up he jumped again right cheerily singing to the merry music of the wheels as they rolled away and leaving the townspeople in their warm beds pursued their course along the lonely road meantime the two gentlemen inside who were little disposed to sleep beguiled the time with conversation as both were anxious and expectant it naturally turned upon the subject of their expedition on the manner in which it had been brought about and on the hopes and fears they entertained respecting it of the former they had many of the latter few none perhaps beyond that indefinable uneasiness which is inseparable from suddenly awakened hope and protracted expectation in one of the pauses of their discourse and when half the night had worn away the single gentlemen who had gradually become more and more silent and thoughtful turned to his companion and said abruptly are you a good listener like most other men I suppose returned Mr. Garland smiling I can be if I am interested and if not interested I should still try to appear so why do you ask I have a short narrative on my lips rejoined his friend and will try you with it it is very brief pausing for no reply he laid his hand on the old gentleman's sleeve and proceeded thus there were once two brothers who loved each other dearly there was a disparity in their ages some 12 years I am not sure but they may insensibly have loved each other the better for that reason why does the interval between them was however they became rivals too soon the deepest and strongest affection of both their hearts settled upon one object the youngest there were reasons for his being sensitive and watchful was the first to find this out I will not tell you what misery he underwent what agony of soul he knew how great his mental struggle was he had been a sickly child his brother patient and considerate in the midst of his own high health and strength had many and many a day denied himself the sports he loved his couch telling him old stories till his pale face lighted up with an unwounded glow to carry him in his arms to some green spot where he could tend the poor pensive boy as he looked upon the bright summer day and saw all nature healthy but himself to be in any way his fond and faithful nurse I may not dwell on all he did to make the poor weak creature love him or my tail would have no end but when the time of trial came the younger brother's heart was full of those old days heaven strengthened it to repay the sacrifices of inconsiderate youth by one of thoughtful manhood he left his brother to be happy the truth never passed his lips and he quitted the country hoping to die abroad the elder brother married her she was in heaven before long and left him with an infant daughter if you have seen the picture gallery of any one old family you will remember how the same face and figure often the fairest and slightest of them all come upon you in different generations and how you trace the same sweet girl through a long line of portraits never growing old or changing the good angel of the race abiding by them in all reverses redeeming all their sins in this daughter the mother lived again you may judge with what devotion he who lost that mother almost in the winning clung to this girl her breathing image she grew to womanhood and gave her heart to one who could not know it's worth well her fond father could not see her pine and droop he might be more deserving than he thought him he surely might become so with a wife like her he joined their hands and they were married through all the misery that followed this union through all the cold neglect and undeserved reproach through all the poverty he brought upon her through all the struggles of their daily life too mean and pitiful to tell but a dreadful to endure she toiled on in the deep devotion of her spirit and in her better nature as only women can her means and substance wasted her father nearly beggard by her husband's hand and the hourly witness for they lived now under one roof of her ill usage and unhappiness she never but for him bewailed her fate patient and upheld by strong affection to the last she died a widow of some three weeks date leaving to her father's scared two orphans one a son of ten or twelve years old the other a girl such another infant child the same in helplessness in age in form in future as she had been herself when her young mother died the elder brother grandfather to these two children was now a broken man crushed and born down less by the weight of years than by the heavy hand of sorrow with the wreck of his possessions he began to trade in pictures first and then in curious ancient things he had entertained a fondness for such matters from a boy and the taste he had cultivated were now to yield him an anxious and precarious subsistence the boy grew like his father in mind and person the girl so like her mother that when the old man had her on his knee and looked into her mild blue eyes he felt as if awakening from a wretched dream and his daughter were a little child again the wayward boy soon spurned the shelter of his roof and sought associates more congenial to his taste the old man and the child dwelt alone together it was then when the love of two dead people who had been nearest and dearest to his heart was all transferred to this slight creature when her face constantly before him reminded him from hour to hour of the too early change he had seen in such another all the sufferings he had watched and known and all his child had undergone when the young man's profligate and hardened cause drained him of money as his father's had and even sometimes occasioned them temporary privation and distress it was then that there began to beset him and to be ever in his mind a gloomy dread of poverty and want he had no thought for himself in this his fear was for the child it was a specter in his house and haunted him night and day the younger brother had been a traveler in many countries and had made his pilgrimage through life alone his voluntary banishment had been misconstrued and he had born not without pain reproach and slight for doing that which had wrung his heart and cast a mournful shadow on his path apart from this communication between him and the elder was difficult and uncertain and often failed still it was not so wholly broken off but that he learned with long blanks and gaps between each interval of information all that I have told you now then dreams of their young happy life happy to him though laden with pain and early care visited his pillow yet oftener than before and every night a boy again he was at his brother's side with the utmost speed he could exert he settled his affairs converted into money all the goods he had and with honourable wealth enough for both with open heart and hand with limbs that trembled as they bore him on with emotions such as men can hardly bear and live arrived one evening at his brother's door the narrator whose voice had faltered lately stopped the rest said mr. garland pressing his hand I know yes rejoined his friend after a pause we may spare ourselves the sequel you know the poor result of all my search even when by dint of such inquiries as the utmost vigilance and sagacity could set on foot we found they had been seen with two poor travelling showmen and in time discovered the men themselves and in time the actual place of their retreat even then we were too late pray god we are not too late again we cannot be said mr. garland this time we must succeed I have believed and hoped so returned the other I try to believe and hope so still but a heavy weight has fallen on my spirits my good friend and the sadness that gathers over me will yield to neither hope nor reason that does not surprise me said mr. garland it is a natural consequence of the events you have recalled of this dreary time and place and above all of this wild and dismal night a dismal night indeed hark how the wind is howling end of chapter 69 chapter 70 of the old curiosity shop this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information on the volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the old curiosity shop by Charles Dickens chapter 70 day broke and found them still upon their way since leaving home they had halted here and there for necessary refreshment delayed especially in the night time by waiting for fresh horses they had made no other stoppages but the weather continued rough and the roads were often steep and heavy it would be night again before they reached their place of destination kit all bluff and hardened with the cold went on manfully and having enough to do to keep his blood circulating to picture to himself the happy end of this adventurous journey and to look about him and be amazed at everything had little spare time for thinking of discomforts though his impatience and that of his fellow travelers rapidly increased as the day the hours did not stand still the short daylight of winter soon faded away and it was dark again when they had yet many miles to travel as it grew dusk the wind fell and the moanings were more low and mournful and as it came creeping up the road and rattling covetly among the dry brambles on either hand it seemed like some great phantom for whom the way was narrow whose garments rustled as it stalked along by degrees it lulled and died away and then it came on to snow the flakes fell fast and thick soon covering the ground some inches deep and spreading some stillness the rolling wheels were noiseless and the sharp ring and clutter of the horses hooves became a dull muffled tramp the life of their progress seemed to be slowly hushed and something deathlike to usurp its place shading his eyes from the falling snow which froze upon their lashes and obscured his sight kid often tried to catch the earliest glimpse of twinkling lights denoting their approach to some out-distant town he could describe objects enough at such times but none correctly now a tall church spire appeared in view which presently became a tree a barn a shadow on the ground thrown on it by their own bright lamps now there were horsemen food passengers carriages going on before or meeting them in narrow ways which when they were close upon them turned to shadows too a wall, a ruin a sturdy gable end would rise up in the road and when they were plunging headlong at it would be the road itself strange turnings too bridges and sheets of water appeared to start up here and there making the way doubtful and uncertain and yet they were on the same bare road and these things like the others as they were past turned into dim illusions he descended slowly from his seat for his limbs were numbed when they arrived at a lone posting house and inquired how far they had to go to reach their journey's end it was a late hour in such by-places and the people were a bed but a voice answered from an upper window, ten miles the ten minutes that ensued appeared an hour but at the end of that time a shivering figure let out the horses they required and after another brief delay they were again in motion it was a cross-country road full after the first three or four miles of holes and cart-ruts which being covered by the snow were so many pitfalls to the trembling horses and obliged them to keep a food pace as it was next to impossible for men so much agitated as they were by this time to sit still and move so slowly all three got out and plotted on behind the carriage the distance seemed interminable and the warp was most laborious as each was thinking within himself that the driver must have lost his way a church bell, closed at hand struck the hour of midnight and the carriage stopped it had moved softly enough but when it ceased to crunch the snow the silence was a startling as if some great noise had been replaced by perfect stillness this is the place gentlemen said the driver dismounting from his horse and knocking at the door of a little inn hello past twelve o'clock is the dead of night here the knocking was loud and long but it failed to rouse the drowsy inmates all continued dark and silent as before they fell back a little and looked up at the windows which were mere black patches in the white and house front no light appeared the house might have been deserted for any air of life it had about it they spoke together with a strange inconsistency in whispers unwilling to disturb again the dreary echoes they had just now raised let us go on said the younger brother and leave this good fellow to wake them if he can I cannot rest until I know that we are not too late let us go on in the name of heaven they did so leaving the postillion to order such accommodation as the house afforded and to renew his knocking kit accompanied them with a little bundle which he had hung in the carriage when they left home and had not forgotten since the bird in his old cage just as she had left him she would be glad to see her bird he knew the road wound gently downward as they proceeded they lost sight of the church whose clock they had heard and of the small village clustering round it the knocking which was now renewed and which in that stillness they could plainly hear troubled them they wished the man would forbear or that they had told him not to break the silence until they returned the old church tower clad in a ghostly garb of pure cold white again rose up before them and a few moments brought them close beside it a venerable building gray even in the midst of the hoary landscape an ancient sundial on the belfry wall was nearly hidden by the snow drift and scarcely to be known for what it was time itself seemed to have grown dull and old as if no day were ever to displace the melancholy night a wicked gate was closed at hand but there was more than one path across the churchyard to which it led and uncertain which to take they came to a stand again the village street if street that could be called which was an irregular cluster of poor cottages of many heights and ages some with their fronts some with their backs and some with gable ends towards the road with here and there a signpost or a shed encroaching on the path was closed at hand there was a faint light in a chamber window not far off and kid ran towards that house to ask their way the crowd was answered by an old man within who presently appeared at the casement wrapping some garment around his throat as a protection from the cold and demanded who was abroad at that unseasonable hour wanting him just hard whether this he grumbled and not a night to call me up in my trade is not of that kind that I need to be roused from bad the business on which folks want me will keep cold especially at this season what do you want I would not have roused you if I had known you were old and ill said kid old repeated the other peevishly how do you know I am old not so old as you think friend perhaps as to being ill you will find many young people in worse case than I am more is the pity that it should be so not that I should be strong and hearty for my years I mean but that they should be weak and tender I ask your pardon though said the old man if I spoke rather rough at first my eyes are not good at night that's neither age nor illness they never were and I didn't see you were a stranger I am sorry to call you from your bed said kid but those gentlemen you may see by the church yard gate are strangers too who have just arrived from a long journey and seek the pass in each house you can direct us I should be able to answer the old man in a trembling voice for come next summer I have been sexton here good 50 years the right hand path friend is the road there is no ill news for our good gentlemen I hope kid thanked him and made him a hasty answer in the negative he was turning back when his attention was caught by the voice of a child looking up he saw a very little creature at the neighboring window what is that cried the child earnestly has my dream come true pray speak to me whoever that is awakened up poor boy said the sexton before kid could answer how goes it darling has my dream come true exclaimed the child again in a voice so fervent that it might have thrilled to the heart of any listener but no that can never be could it be oh how could it I guess his meaning said the sexton to thy bed again dear boy I cried the child in a burst of despair I knew it could never be I felt too sure of that before I asked but all tonight and last night too it was the same I never fell asleep but that cruel dream comes back try to sleep again said the old man soothingly it will go in time no I would rather that it stayed cruel as it is I would rather that it stayed rejoined the child I am not afraid to have it in my sleep but I am so sad so very very sad the old man blessed him the child in tears replied good night and kid was again alone he hurried back moved by what he had heard though more by the child's manner than by anything he had said as his meaning was hidden from him they took the path indicated by the sexton and soon arrived before the passage wall turning round to look about them when they had got thus far they saw among some ruined buildings at a distance one single solitary light it shone from what appeared to be an old orial window and being surrounded by the deep shadows of overhanging walls sprinkled like a star bright and glimmering as the stars above their heads lonely and motionless as they it seemed to claim some kindred with the eternal lamps of heaven and to burn in fellowship with them what light is that exclaimed the younger brother it is surely said Mr. Garland in the ruin where they live I see no other ruin hereabouts they cannot return the brother hastily bewaking at this late hour kid interposed directly and begged that while they rang and waited at the gate they would let him make his way to where this light was shining and try to ascertain if any people were about obtaining the permission he desired he darted off with breathless eagerness and still carrying the bird cage in his hand made straight towards the spot it was not easy to hold that pace among the graves and at another time he might have gone more slowly all round by the path unmindful of all obstacles however he pressed forward without slagging his speed and soon arrived within a few yards of the window he approached as softly as he could and advancing so near the wall as to brush the white and ivy with his dress listened there was no sound inside the church itself was not more quiet touching the glass with his cheek he listened again no and yet there was such a silence all around but he felt sure he could have heard even the breathing of a sleeper if there had been one there a strange circumstance a light in such a place at that time of night with no one near it a curtain was drawn across the lower portion of the window he entered into the room but there was no shadow thrown upon it from within to have gained a footing on the wall and tried to look in from above would have been attended with some danger certainly with some noise and the chance of terrifying the child if that really were her habitation again and again he listened again and again the same wearisome blank leaving the spot with slow and cautious steps a few paces he came at length to adore he knocked no answer but there was a curious noise inside it was difficult to determine what it was it bore a resemblance to the low moaning of one in pain but it was not that being far too regular and constant now it seemed a kind of song now a wail seemed that is to his changing fancy for the sound itself was never changed or checked it was unlike anything he had ever heard and in its tone there was something fearful chilling and unearthly the listener's blood ran colder now than ever it had done in frost and snow but he knocked again there was no answer and the sound went on without any interruption he laid his hand softly upon the latch and put his knee against the door it was not secured on the inside but yielded to the pressure and turned upon its hinges he saw the glimmering of a fire upon the old walls and entered end of chapter 70