http://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/crunch/blob/5d237b36/crunch-test/src/main/resources/dickens.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/crunch-test/src/main/resources/dickens.txt b/crunch-test/src/main/resources/dickens.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..89a93f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/crunch-test/src/main/resources/dickens.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23665 @@ +The Old Curiosity Shop + +By Charles Dickens + + + + +CHAPTER 1 + +Night is generally my time for walking. In the summer I often leave +home early in the morning, and roam about fields and lanes all day, or +even escape for days or weeks together; but, saving in the country, I +seldom go out until after dark, though, Heaven be thanked, I love its +light and feel the cheerfulness it sheds upon the earth, as much as any +creature living. + +I have fallen insensibly into this habit, both because it favours my +infirmity and because it affords me greater opportunity of speculating +on the characters and occupations of those who fill the streets. The +glare and hurry of broad noon are not adapted to idle pursuits like +mine; a glimpse of passing faces caught by the light of a street-lamp +or a shop window is often better for my purpose than their full +revelation in the daylight; and, if I must add the truth, night is +kinder in this respect than day, which too often destroys an air-built +castle at the moment of its completion, without the least ceremony or +remorse. + +That constant pacing to and fro, that never-ending restlessness, that +incessant tread of feet wearing the rough stones smooth and glossy--is +it not a wonder how the dwellers in narrows ways can bear to hear it! +Think of a sick man in such a place as Saint Martin's Court, listening +to the footsteps, and in the midst of pain and weariness obliged, +despite himself (as though it were a task he must perform) to detect +the child's step from the man's, the slipshod beggar from the booted +exquisite, the lounging from the busy, the dull heel of the sauntering +outcast from the quick tread of an expectant pleasure-seeker--think of +the hum and noise always being present to his sense, and of the stream +of life that will not stop, pouring on, on, on, through all his +restless dreams, as if he were condemned to lie, dead but conscious, in +a noisy churchyard, and had no hope of rest for centuries to come. + +Then, the crowds for ever passing and repassing on the bridges (on +those which are free of toll at last), where many stop on fine evenings +looking listlessly down upon the water with some vague idea that by and +by it runs between green banks which grow wider and wider until at last +it joins the broad vast sea--where some halt to rest from heavy loads +and think as they look over the parapet that to smoke and lounge away +one's life, and lie sleeping in the sun upon a hot tarpaulin, in a +dull, slow, sluggish barge, must be happiness unalloyed--and where +some, and a very different class, pause with heavier loads than they, +remembering to have heard or read in old time that drowning was not a +hard death, but of all means of suicide the easiest and best. + +Covent Garden Market at sunrise too, in the spring or summer, when the +fragrance of sweet flowers is in the air, over-powering even the +unwholesome streams of last night's debauchery, and driving the dusky +thrush, whose cage has hung outside a garret window all night long, +half mad with joy! Poor bird! the only neighbouring thing at all akin +to the other little captives, some of whom, shrinking from the hot +hands of drunken purchasers, lie drooping on the path already, while +others, soddened by close contact, await the time when they shall be +watered and freshened up to please more sober company, and make old +clerks who pass them on their road to business, wonder what has filled +their breasts with visions of the country. + +But my present purpose is not to expatiate upon my walks. The story I +am about to relate, and to which I shall recur at intervals, arose out +of one of these rambles; and thus I have been led to speak of them by +way of preface. + +One night I had roamed into the City, and was walking slowly on in my +usual way, musing upon a great many things, when I was arrested by an +inquiry, the purport of which did not reach me, but which seemed to be +addressed to myself, and was preferred in a soft sweet voice that +struck me very pleasantly. I turned hastily round and found at my elbow +a pretty little girl, who begged to be directed to a certain street at +a considerable distance, and indeed in quite another quarter of the +town. + +'It is a very long way from here,' said I, 'my child.' + +'I know that, sir,' she replied timidly. 'I am afraid it is a very long +way, for I came from there to-night.' + +'Alone?' said I, in some surprise. + +'Oh, yes, I don't mind that, but I am a little frightened now, for I +had lost my road.' + +'And what made you ask it of me? Suppose I should tell you wrong?' + +'I am sure you will not do that,' said the little creature,' you are +such a very old gentleman, and walk so slow yourself.' + +I cannot describe how much I was impressed by this appeal and the +energy with which it was made, which brought a tear into the child's +clear eye, and made her slight figure tremble as she looked up into my +face. + +'Come,' said I, 'I'll take you there.' + +She put her hand in mine as confidingly as if she had known me from her +cradle, and we trudged away together; the little creature accommodating +her pace to mine, and rather seeming to lead and take care of me than I +to be protecting her. I observed that every now and then she stole a +curious look at my face, as if to make quite sure that I was not +deceiving her, and that these glances (very sharp and keen they were +too) seemed to increase her confidence at every repetition. + +For my part, my curiosity and interest were at least equal to the +child's, for child she certainly was, although I thought it probably +from what I could make out, that her very small and delicate frame +imparted a peculiar youthfulness to her appearance. Though more +scantily attired than she might have been she was dressed with perfect +neatness, and betrayed no marks of poverty or neglect. + +'Who has sent you so far by yourself?' said I. + +'Someone who is very kind to me, sir.' + +'And what have you been doing?' + +'That, I must not tell,' said the child firmly. + +There was something in the manner of this reply which caused me to look +at the little creature with an involuntary expression of surprise; for +I wondered what kind of errand it might be that occasioned her to be +prepared for questioning. Her quick eye seemed to read my thoughts, for +as it met mine she added that there was no harm in what she had been +doing, but it was a great secret--a secret which she did not even know +herself. + +This was said with no appearance of cunning or deceit, but with an +unsuspicious frankness that bore the impress of truth. She walked on as +before, growing more familiar with me as we proceeded and talking +cheerfully by the way, but she said no more about her home, beyond +remarking that we were going quite a new road and asking if it were a +short one. + +While we were thus engaged, I revolved in my mind a hundred different +explanations of the riddle and rejected them every one. I really felt +ashamed to take advantage of the ingenuousness or grateful feeling of +the child for the purpose of gratifying my curiosity. I love these +little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh +from God, love us. As I had felt pleased at first by her confidence I +determined to deserve it, and to do credit to the nature which had +prompted her to repose it in me. + +There was no reason, however, why I should refrain from seeing the +person who had inconsiderately sent her to so great a distance by night +and alone, and as it was not improbable that if she found herself near +home she might take farewell of me and deprive me of the opportunity, I +avoided the most frequented ways and took the most intricate, and thus +it was not until we arrived in the street itself that she knew where we +were. Clapping her hands with pleasure and running on before me for a +short distance, my little acquaintance stopped at a door and remaining +on the step till I came up knocked at it when I joined her. + +A part of this door was of glass unprotected by any shutter, which I +did not observe at first, for all was very dark and silent within, and +I was anxious (as indeed the child was also) for an answer to our +summons. When she had knocked twice or thrice there was a noise as if +some person were moving inside, and at length a faint light appeared +through the glass which, as it approached very slowly, the bearer +having to make his way through a great many scattered articles, enabled +me to see both what kind of person it was who advanced and what kind of +place it was through which he came. + +It was an old man with long grey hair, whose face and figure as he held +the light above his head and looked before him as he approached, I +could plainly see. Though much altered by age, I fancied I could +recognize in his spare and slender form something of that delicate +mould which I had noticed in the child. Their bright blue eyes were +certainly alike, but his face was so deeply furrowed and so very full +of care, that here all resemblance ceased. + +The place through which he made his way at leisure was one of those +receptacles for old and curious things which seem to crouch in odd +corners of this town and to hide their musty treasures from the public +eye in jealousy and distrust. There were suits of mail standing like +ghosts in armour here and there, fantastic carvings brought from +monkish cloisters, rusty weapons of various kinds, distorted figures in +china and wood and iron and ivory: tapestry and strange furniture that +might have been designed in dreams. The haggard aspect of the little +old man was wonderfully suited to the place; he might have groped among +old churches and tombs and deserted houses and gathered all the spoils +with his own hands. There was nothing in the whole collection but was +in keeping with himself nothing that looked older or more worn than he. + +As he turned the key in the lock, he surveyed me with some astonishment +which was not diminished when he looked from me to my companion. The +door being opened, the child addressed him as grandfather, and told him +the little story of our companionship. + +'Why, bless thee, child,' said the old man, patting her on the head, +'how couldst thou miss thy way? What if I had lost thee, Nell!' + +'I would have found my way back to YOU, grandfather,' said the child +boldly; 'never fear.' + +The old man kissed her, then turning to me and begging me to walk in, I +did so. The door was closed and locked. Preceding me with the light, he +led me through the place I had already seen from without, into a small +sitting-room behind, in which was another door opening into a kind of +closet, where I saw a little bed that a fairy might have slept in, it +looked so very small and was so prettily arranged. The child took a +candle and tripped into this little room, leaving the old man and me +together. + +'You must be tired, sir,' said he as he placed a chair near the fire, +'how can I thank you?' + +'By taking more care of your grandchild another time, my good friend,' +I replied. + +'More care!' said the old man in a shrill voice, 'more care of Nelly! +Why, who ever loved a child as I love Nell?' + +He said this with such evident surprise that I was perplexed what +answer to make, and the more so because coupled with something feeble +and wandering in his manner, there were in his face marks of deep and +anxious thought which convinced me that he could not be, as I had been +at first inclined to suppose, in a state of dotage or imbecility. + +'I don't think you consider--' I began. + +'I don't consider!' cried the old man interrupting me, 'I don't +consider her! Ah, how little you know of the truth! Little Nelly, +little Nelly!' + +It would be impossible for any man, I care not what his form of speech +might be, to express more affection than the dealer in curiosities did, +in these four words. I waited for him to speak again, but he rested his +chin upon his hand and shaking his head twice or thrice fixed his eyes +upon the fire. + +While we were sitting thus in silence, the door of the closet opened, +and the child returned, her light brown hair hanging loose about her +neck, and her face flushed with the haste she had made to rejoin us. +She busied herself immediately in preparing supper, and while she was +thus engaged I remarked that the old man took an opportunity of +observing me more closely than he had done yet. I was surprised to see +that all this time everything was done by the child, and that there +appeared to be no other persons but ourselves in the house. I took +advantage of a moment when she was absent to venture a hint on this +point, to which the old man replied that there were few grown persons +as trustworthy or as careful as she. + +'It always grieves me,' I observed, roused by what I took to be his +selfishness, 'it always grieves me to contemplate the initiation of +children into the ways of life, when they are scarcely more than +infants. It checks their confidence and simplicity--two of the best +qualities that Heaven gives them--and demands that they share our +sorrows before they are capable of entering into our enjoyments.' + +'It will never check hers,' said the old man looking steadily at me, +'the springs are too deep. Besides, the children of the poor know but +few pleasures. Even the cheap delights of childhood must be bought and +paid for.' + +'But--forgive me for saying this--you are surely not so very +poor'--said I. + +'She is not my child, sir,' returned the old man. 'Her mother was, and +she was poor. I save nothing--not a penny--though I live as you see, +but'--he laid his hand upon my arm and leant forward to whisper--'she +shall be rich one of these days, and a fine lady. Don't you think ill +of me because I use her help. She gives it cheerfully as you see, and +it would break her heart if she knew that I suffered anybody else to do +for me what her little hands could undertake. I don't consider!'--he +cried with sudden querulousness, 'why, God knows that this one child is +the thought and object of my life, and yet he never prospers me--no, +never!' + +At this juncture, the subject of our conversation again returned, and +the old man motioning to me to approach the table, broke off, and said +no more. + +We had scarcely begun our repast when there was a knock at the door by +which I had entered, and Nell bursting into a hearty laugh, which I was +rejoiced to hear, for it was childlike and full of hilarity, said it +was no doubt dear old Kit coming back at last. + +'Foolish Nell!' said the old man fondling with her hair. 'She always +laughs at poor Kit.' + +The child laughed again more heartily than before, and I could not help +smiling from pure sympathy. The little old man took up a candle and +went to open the door. When he came back, Kit was at his heels. + +Kit was a shock-headed, shambling, awkward lad with an uncommonly wide +mouth, very red cheeks, a turned-up nose, and certainly the most +comical expression of face I ever saw. He stopped short at the door on +seeing a stranger, twirled in his hand a perfectly round old hat +without any vestige of a brim, and resting himself now on one leg and +now on the other and changing them constantly, stood in the doorway, +looking into the parlour with the most extraordinary leer I ever +beheld. I entertained a grateful feeling towards the boy from that +minute, for I felt that he was the comedy of the child's life. + +'A long way, wasn't it, Kit?' said the little old man. + +'Why, then, it was a goodish stretch, master,' returned Kit. + +'Of course you have come back hungry?' + +'Why, then, I do consider myself rather so, master,' was the answer. + +The lad had a remarkable manner of standing sideways as he spoke, and +thrusting his head forward over his shoulder, as if he could not get at +his voice without that accompanying action. I think he would have +amused one anywhere, but the child's exquisite enjoyment of his oddity, +and the relief it was to find that there was something she associated +with merriment in a place that appeared so unsuited to her, were quite +irresistible. It was a great point too that Kit himself was flattered +by the sensation he created, and after several efforts to preserve his +gravity, burst into a loud roar, and so stood with his mouth wide open +and his eyes nearly shut, laughing violently. + +The old man had again relapsed into his former abstraction and took no +notice of what passed, but I remarked that when her laugh was over, the +child's bright eyes were dimmed with tears, called forth by the +fullness of heart with which she welcomed her uncouth favourite after +the little anxiety of the night. As for Kit himself (whose laugh had +been all the time one of that sort which very little would change into +a cry) he carried a large slice of bread and meat and a mug of beer +into a corner, and applied himself to disposing of them with great +voracity. + +'Ah!' said the old man turning to me with a sigh, as if I had spoken to +him but that moment, 'you don't know what you say when you tell me that +I don't consider her.' + +'You must not attach too great weight to a remark founded on first +appearances, my friend,' said I. + +'No,' returned the old man thoughtfully, 'no. Come hither, Nell.' + +The little girl hastened from her seat, and put her arm about his neck. + +'Do I love thee, Nell?' said he. 'Say--do I love thee, Nell, or no?' + +The child only answered by her caresses, and laid her head upon his +breast. + +'Why dost thou sob?' said the grandfather, pressing her closer to him +and glancing towards me. 'Is it because thou know'st I love thee, and +dost not like that I should seem to doubt it by my question? Well, +well--then let us say I love thee dearly.' + +'Indeed, indeed you do,' replied the child with great earnestness, 'Kit +knows you do.' + +Kit, who in despatching his bread and meat had been swallowing +two-thirds of his knife at every mouthful with the coolness of a +juggler, stopped short in his operations on being thus appealed to, and +bawled 'Nobody isn't such a fool as to say he doosn't,' after which he +incapacitated himself for further conversation by taking a most +prodigious sandwich at one bite. + +'She is poor now'--said the old man, patting the child's cheek, 'but I +say again that the time is coming when she shall be rich. It has been a +long time coming, but it must come at last; a very long time, but it +surely must come. It has come to other men who do nothing but waste and +riot. When WILL it come to me!' + +'I am very happy as I am, grandfather,' said the child. + +'Tush, tush!' returned the old man, 'thou dost not know--how should'st +thou!' then he muttered again between his teeth, 'The time must come, I +am very sure it must. It will be all the better for coming late'; and +then he sighed and fell into his former musing state, and still holding +the child between his knees appeared to be insensible to everything +around him. By this time it wanted but a few minutes of midnight and I +rose to go, which recalled him to himself. + +'One moment, sir,' he said, 'Now, Kit--near midnight, boy, and you +still here! Get home, get home, and be true to your time in the +morning, for there's work to do. Good night! There, bid him good night, +Nell, and let him be gone!' + +'Good night, Kit,' said the child, her eyes lighting up with merriment +and kindness. + +'Good night, Miss Nell,' returned the boy. + +'And thank this gentleman,' interposed the old man, 'but for whose care +I might have lost my little girl to-night.' + +'No, no, master,' said Kit, 'that won't do, that won't.' + +'What do you mean?' cried the old man. + +'I'd have found her, master,' said Kit, 'I'd have found her. I'll bet +that I'd find her if she was above ground, I would, as quick as +anybody, master. Ha, ha, ha!' + +Once more opening his mouth and shutting his eyes, and laughing like a +stentor, Kit gradually backed to the door, and roared himself out. + +Free of the room, the boy was not slow in taking his departure; when he +had gone, and the child was occupied in clearing the table, the old man +said: + +'I haven't seemed to thank you, sir, for what you have done to-night, +but I do thank you humbly and heartily, and so does she, and her thanks +are better worth than mine. I should be sorry that you went away, and +thought I was unmindful of your goodness, or careless of her--I am not +indeed.' + +I was sure of that, I said, from what I had seen. 'But,' I added, 'may +I ask you a question?' + +'Ay, sir,' replied the old man, 'What is it?' + +'This delicate child,' said I, 'with so much beauty and +intelligence--has she nobody to care for her but you? Has she no other +companion or advisor?' + +'No,' he returned, looking anxiously in my face, 'no, and she wants no +other.' + +'But are you not fearful,' said I, 'that you may misunderstand a charge +so tender? I am sure you mean well, but are you quite certain that you +know how to execute such a trust as this? I am an old man, like you, +and I am actuated by an old man's concern in all that is young and +promising. Do you not think that what I have seen of you and this +little creature to-night must have an interest not wholly free from +pain?' + +'Sir,' rejoined the old man after a moment's silence. 'I have no right +to feel hurt at what you say. It is true that in many respects I am the +child, and she the grown person--that you have seen already. But waking +or sleeping, by night or day, in sickness or health, she is the one +object of my care, and if you knew of how much care, you would look on +me with different eyes, you would indeed. Ah! It's a weary life for an +old man--a weary, weary life--but there is a great end to gain and that +I keep before me.' + +Seeing that he was in a state of excitement and impatience, I turned to +put on an outer coat which I had thrown off on entering the room, +purposing to say no more. I was surprised to see the child standing +patiently by with a cloak upon her arm, and in her hand a hat, and +stick. + +'Those are not mine, my dear,' said I. + +'No,' returned the child, 'they are grandfather's.' + +'But he is not going out to-night.' + +'Oh, yes, he is,' said the child, with a smile. + +'And what becomes of you, my pretty one?' + +'Me! I stay here of course. I always do.' + +I looked in astonishment towards the old man, but he was, or feigned to +be, busied in the arrangement of his dress. From him I looked back to +the slight gentle figure of the child. Alone! In that gloomy place all +the long, dreary night. + +She evinced no consciousness of my surprise, but cheerfully helped the +old man with his cloak, and when he was ready took a candle to light us +out. Finding that we did not follow as she expected, she looked back +with a smile and waited for us. The old man showed by his face that he +plainly understood the cause of my hesitation, but he merely signed to +me with an inclination of the head to pass out of the room before him, +and remained silent. I had no resource but to comply. + +When we reached the door, the child setting down the candle, turned to +say good night and raised her face to kiss me. Then she ran to the old +man, who folded her in his arms and bade God bless her. + +'Sleep soundly, Nell,' he said in a low voice, 'and angels guard thy +bed! Do not forget thy prayers, my sweet.' + +'No, indeed,' answered the child fervently, 'they make me feel so +happy!' + +'That's well; I know they do; they should,' said the old man. 'Bless +thee a hundred times! Early in the morning I shall be home.' + +'You'll not ring twice,' returned the child. 'The bell wakes me, even +in the middle of a dream.' + +With this, they separated. The child opened the door (now guarded by a +shutter which I had heard the boy put up before he left the house) and +with another farewell whose clear and tender note I have recalled a +thousand times, held it until we had passed out. The old man paused a +moment while it was gently closed and fastened on the inside, and +satisfied that this was done, walked on at a slow pace. At the +street-corner he stopped, and regarding me with a troubled countenance +said that our ways were widely different and that he must take his +leave. I would have spoken, but summoning up more alacrity than might +have been expected in one of his appearance, he hurried away. I could +see that twice or thrice he looked back as if to ascertain if I were +still watching him, or perhaps to assure himself that I was not +following at a distance. The obscurity of the night favoured his +disappearance, and his figure was soon beyond my sight. + +I remained standing on the spot where he had left me, unwilling to +depart, and yet unknowing why I should loiter there. I looked wistfully +into the street we had lately quitted, and after a time directed my +steps that way. I passed and repassed the house, and stopped and +listened at the door; all was dark, and silent as the grave. + +Yet I lingered about, and could not tear myself away, thinking of all +possible harm that might happen to the child--of fires and robberies +and even murder--and feeling as if some evil must ensue if I turned my +back upon the place. The closing of a door or window in the street +brought me before the curiosity-dealer's once more; I crossed the road +and looked up at the house to assure myself that the noise had not come +from there. No, it was black, cold, and lifeless as before. + +There were few passengers astir; the street was sad and dismal, and +pretty well my own. A few stragglers from the theatres hurried by, and +now and then I turned aside to avoid some noisy drunkard as he reeled +homewards, but these interruptions were not frequent and soon ceased. +The clocks struck one. Still I paced up and down, promising myself that +every time should be the last, and breaking faith with myself on some +new plea as often as I did so. + +The more I thought of what the old man had said, and of his looks and +bearing, the less I could account for what I had seen and heard. I had +a strong misgiving that his nightly absence was for no good purpose. I +had only come to know the fact through the innocence of the child, and +though the old man was by at the time, and saw my undisguised surprise, +he had preserved a strange mystery upon the subject and offered no word +of explanation. These reflections naturally recalled again more +strongly than before his haggard face, his wandering manner, his +restless anxious looks. His affection for the child might not be +inconsistent with villany of the worst kind; even that very affection +was in itself an extraordinary contradiction, or how could he leave her +thus? Disposed as I was to think badly of him, I never doubted that his +love for her was real. I could not admit the thought, remembering what +had passed between us, and the tone of voice in which he had called her +by her name. + +'Stay here of course,' the child had said in answer to my question, 'I +always do!' What could take him from home by night, and every night! I +called up all the strange tales I had ever heard of dark and secret +deeds committed in great towns and escaping detection for a long series +of years; wild as many of these stories were, I could not find one +adapted to this mystery, which only became the more impenetrable, in +proportion as I sought to solve it. + +Occupied with such thoughts as these, and a crowd of others all tending +to the same point, I continued to pace the street for two long hours; +at length the rain began to descend heavily, and then over-powered by +fatigue though no less interested than I had been at first, I engaged +the nearest coach and so got home. A cheerful fire was blazing on the +hearth, the lamp burnt brightly, my clock received me with its old +familiar welcome; everything was quiet, warm and cheering, and in happy +contrast to the gloom and darkness I had quitted. + +But all that night, waking or in my sleep, the same thoughts recurred +and the same images retained possession of my brain. I had ever before +me the old dark murky rooms--the gaunt suits of mail with their ghostly +silent air--the faces all awry, grinning from wood and stone--the dust +and rust and worm that lives in wood--and alone in the midst of all +this lumber and decay and ugly age, the beautiful child in her gentle +slumber, smiling through her light and sunny dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER 2 + +After combating, for nearly a week, the feeling which impelled me to +revisit the place I had quitted under the circumstances already +detailed, I yielded to it at length; and determining that this time I +would present myself by the light of day, bent my steps thither early +in the morning. + +I walked past the house, and took several turns in the street, with +that kind of hesitation which is natural to a man who is conscious that +the visit he is about to pay is unexpected, and may not be very +acceptable. However, as the door of the shop was shut, and it did not +appear likely that I should be recognized by those within, if I +continued merely to pass up and down before it, I soon conquered this +irresolution, and found myself in the Curiosity Dealer's warehouse. + +The old man and another person were together in the back part, and +there seemed to have been high words between them, for their voices +which were raised to a very high pitch suddenly stopped on my entering, +and the old man advancing hastily towards me, said in a tremulous tone +that he was very glad I had come. + +'You interrupted us at a critical moment,' said he, pointing to the man +whom I had found in company with him; 'this fellow will murder me one +of these days. He would have done so, long ago, if he had dared.' + +'Bah! You would swear away my life if you could,' returned the other, +after bestowing a stare and a frown on me; 'we all know that!' + +'I almost think I could,' cried the old man, turning feebly upon him. +'If oaths, or prayers, or words, could rid me of you, they should. I +would be quit of you, and would be relieved if you were dead.' + +'I know it,' returned the other. 'I said so, didn't I? But neither +oaths, or prayers, nor words, WILL kill me, and therefore I live, and +mean to live.' + +'And his mother died!' cried the old man, passionately clasping his +hands and looking upward; 'and this is Heaven's justice!' + +The other stood lounging with his foot upon a chair, and regarded him +with a contemptuous sneer. He was a young man of one-and-twenty or +thereabouts; well made, and certainly handsome, though the expression +of his face was far from prepossessing, having in common with his +manner and even his dress, a dissipated, insolent air which repelled +one. + +'Justice or no justice,' said the young fellow, 'here I am and here I +shall stop till such time as I think fit to go, unless you send for +assistance to put me out--which you won't do, I know. I tell you again +that I want to see my sister.' + +'YOUR sister!' said the old man bitterly. + +'Ah! You can't change the relationship,' returned the other. 'If you +could, you'd have done it long ago. I want to see my sister, that you +keep cooped up here, poisoning her mind with your sly secrets and +pretending an affection for her that you may work her to death, and add +a few scraped shillings every week to the money you can hardly count. I +want to see her; and I will.' + +'Here's a moralist to talk of poisoned minds! Here's a generous spirit +to scorn scraped-up shillings!' cried the old man, turning from him to +me. 'A profligate, sir, who has forfeited every claim not only upon +those who have the misfortune to be of his blood, but upon society +which knows nothing of him but his misdeeds. A liar too,' he added, in +a lower voice as he drew closer to me, 'who knows how dear she is to +me, and seeks to wound me even there, because there is a stranger +nearby.' + +'Strangers are nothing to me, grandfather,' said the young fellow +catching at the word, 'nor I to them, I hope. The best they can do, is +to keep an eye to their business and leave me to mine. There's a friend +of mine waiting outside, and as it seems that I may have to wait some +time, I'll call him in, with your leave.' + +Saying this, he stepped to the door, and looking down the street +beckoned several times to some unseen person, who, to judge from the +air of impatience with which these signals were accompanied, required a +great quantity of persuasion to induce him to advance. At length there +sauntered up, on the opposite side of the way--with a bad pretense of +passing by accident--a figure conspicuous for its dirty smartness, +which after a great many frowns and jerks of the head, in resistance of +the invitation, ultimately crossed the road and was brought into the +shop. + +'There. It's Dick Swiveller,' said the young fellow, pushing him in. +'Sit down, Swiveller.' + +'But is the old min agreeable?' said Mr Swiveller in an undertone. + +Mr Swiveller complied, and looking about him with a propitiatory smile, +observed that last week was a fine week for the ducks, and this week +was a fine week for the dust; he also observed that whilst standing by +the post at the street-corner, he had observed a pig with a straw in +his mouth issuing out of the tobacco-shop, from which appearance he +augured that another fine week for the ducks was approaching, and that +rain would certainly ensue. He furthermore took occasion to apologize +for any negligence that might be perceptible in his dress, on the +ground that last night he had had 'the sun very strong in his eyes'; by +which expression he was understood to convey to his hearers in the most +delicate manner possible, the information that he had been extremely +drunk. + +'But what,' said Mr Swiveller with a sigh, 'what is the odds so long as +the fire of soul is kindled at the taper of conwiviality, and the wing +of friendship never moults a feather! What is the odds so long as the +spirit is expanded by means of rosy wine, and the present moment is the +least happiest of our existence!' + +'You needn't act the chairman here,' said his friend, half aside. + +'Fred!' cried Mr Swiveller, tapping his nose, 'a word to the wise is +sufficient for them--we may be good and happy without riches, Fred. +Say not another syllable. I know my cue; smart is the word. Only one +little whisper, Fred--is the old min friendly?' + +'Never you mind,' replied his friend. + +'Right again, quite right,' said Mr Swiveller, 'caution is the word, +and caution is the act.' with that, he winked as if in preservation of +some deep secret, and folding his arms and leaning back in his chair, +looked up at the ceiling with profound gravity. + +It was perhaps not very unreasonable to suspect from what had already +passed, that Mr Swiveller was not quite recovered from the effects of +the powerful sunlight to which he had made allusion; but if no such +suspicion had been awakened by his speech, his wiry hair, dull eyes, +and sallow face would still have been strong witnesses against him. His +attire was not, as he had himself hinted, remarkable for the nicest +arrangement, but was in a state of disorder which strongly induced the +idea that he had gone to bed in it. It consisted of a brown body-coat +with a great many brass buttons up the front and only one behind, a +bright check neckerchief, a plaid waistcoat, soiled white trousers, and +a very limp hat, worn with the wrong side foremost, to hide a hole in +the brim. The breast of his coat was ornamented with an outside pocket +from which there peeped forth the cleanest end of a very large and very +ill-favoured handkerchief; his dirty wristbands were pulled on as far +as possible and ostentatiously folded back over his cuffs; he displayed +no gloves, and carried a yellow cane having at the top a bone hand with +the semblance of a ring on its little finger and a black ball in its +grasp. With all these personal advantages (to which may be added a +strong savour of tobacco-smoke, and a prevailing greasiness of +appearance) Mr Swiveller leant back in his chair with his eyes fixed on +the ceiling, and occasionally pitching his voice to the needful key, +obliged the company with a few bars of an intensely dismal air, and +then, in the middle of a note, relapsed into his former silence. + +The old man sat himself down in a chair, and with folded hands, looked +sometimes at his grandson and sometimes at his strange companion, as if +he were utterly powerless and had no resource but to leave them to do +as they pleased. The young man reclined against a table at no great +distance from his friend, in apparent indifference to everything that +had passed; and I--who felt the difficulty of any interference, +notwithstanding that the old man had appealed to me, both by words and +looks--made the best feint I could of being occupied in examining some +of the goods that were disposed for sale, and paying very little +attention to a person before me. + +The silence was not of long duration, for Mr Swiveller, after favouring +us with several melodious assurances that his heart was in the +Highlands, and that he wanted but his Arab steed as a preliminary to +the achievement of great feats of valour and loyalty, removed his eyes +from the ceiling and subsided into prose again. + +'Fred,' said Mr Swiveller stopping short, as if the idea had suddenly +occurred to him, and speaking in the same audible whisper as before, +'is the old min friendly?' + +'What does it matter?' returned his friend peevishly. + +'No, but IS he?' said Dick. + +'Yes, of course. What do I care whether he is or not?' + +Emboldened as it seemed by this reply to enter into a more general +conversation, Mr Swiveller plainly laid himself out to captivate our +attention. + +He began by remarking that soda-water, though a good thing in the +abstract, was apt to lie cold upon the stomach unless qualified with +ginger, or a small infusion of brandy, which latter article he held to +be preferable in all cases, saving for the one consideration of +expense. Nobody venturing to dispute these positions, he proceeded to +observe that the human hair was a great retainer of tobacco-smoke, and +that the young gentlemen of Westminster and Eton, after eating vast +quantities of apples to conceal any scent of cigars from their anxious +friends, were usually detected in consequence of their heads possessing +this remarkable property; when he concluded that if the Royal Society +would turn their attention to the circumstance, and endeavour to find +in the resources of science a means of preventing such untoward +revelations, they might indeed be looked upon as benefactors to +mankind. These opinions being equally incontrovertible with those he +had already pronounced, he went on to inform us that Jamaica rum, +though unquestionably an agreeable spirit of great richness and +flavour, had the drawback of remaining constantly present to the taste +next day; and nobody being venturous enough to argue this point either, +he increased in confidence and became yet more companionable and +communicative. + +'It's a devil of a thing, gentlemen,' said Mr Swiveller, 'when +relations fall out and disagree. If the wing of friendship should never +moult a feather, the wing of relationship should never be clipped, but +be always expanded and serene. Why should a grandson and grandfather +peg away at each other with mutual wiolence when all might be bliss and +concord. Why not jine hands and forgit it?' + +'Hold your tongue,' said his friend. + +'Sir,' replied Mr Swiveller, 'don't you interrupt the chair. +Gentlemen, how does the case stand, upon the present occasion? Here is +a jolly old grandfather--I say it with the utmost respect--and here is +a wild, young grandson. The jolly old grandfather says to the wild +young grandson, "I have brought you up and educated you, Fred; I have +put you in the way of getting on in life; you have bolted a little out +of course, as young fellows often do; and you shall never have another +chance, nor the ghost of half a one." The wild young grandson makes +answer to this and says, "You're as rich as rich can be; you have been +at no uncommon expense on my account, you're saving up piles of money +for my little sister that lives with you in a secret, stealthy, +hugger-muggering kind of way and with no manner of enjoyment--why can't +you stand a trifle for your grown-up relation?" The jolly old +grandfather unto this, retorts, not only that he declines to fork out +with that cheerful readiness which is always so agreeable and pleasant +in a gentleman of his time of life, but that he will bow up, and call +names, and make reflections whenever they meet. Then the plain question +is, an't it a pity that this state of things should continue, and how +much better would it be for the gentleman to hand over a reasonable +amount of tin, and make it all right and comfortable?' + +Having delivered this oration with a great many waves and flourishes of +the hand, Mr Swiveller abruptly thrust the head of his cane into his +mouth as if to prevent himself from impairing the effect of his speech +by adding one other word. + +'Why do you hunt and persecute me, God help me!' said the old man +turning to his grandson. 'Why do you bring your prolifigate companions +here? How often am I to tell you that my life is one of care and +self-denial, and that I am poor?' + +'How often am I to tell you,' returned the other, looking coldly at +him, 'that I know better?' + +'You have chosen your own path,' said the old man. 'Follow it. Leave +Nell and me to toil and work.' + +'Nell will be a woman soon,' returned the other, 'and, bred in your +faith, she'll forget her brother unless he shows himself sometimes.' + +'Take care,' said the old man with sparkling eyes, 'that she does not +forget you when you would have her memory keenest. Take care that the +day don't come when you walk barefoot in the streets, and she rides by +in a gay carriage of her own.' + +'You mean when she has your money?' retorted the other. 'How like a +poor man he talks!' + +'And yet,' said the old man dropping his voice and speaking like one +who thinks aloud, 'how poor we are, and what a life it is! The cause is +a young child's guiltless of all harm or wrong, but nothing goes well +with it! Hope and patience, hope and patience!' + +These words were uttered in too low a tone to reach the ears of the +young men. Mr Swiveller appeared to think that they implied some mental +struggle consequent upon the powerful effect of his address, for he +poked his friend with his cane and whispered his conviction that he had +administered 'a clincher,' and that he expected a commission on the +profits. Discovering his mistake after a while, he appeared to grow +rather sleepy and discontented, and had more than once suggested the +propriety of an immediate departure, when the door opened, and the +child herself appeared. + + + + +CHAPTER 3 + +The child was closely followed by an elderly man of remarkably hard +features and forbidding aspect, and so low in stature as to be quite a +dwarf, though his head and face were large enough for the body of a +giant. His black eyes were restless, sly, and cunning; his mouth and +chin, bristly with the stubble of a coarse hard beard; and his +complexion was one of that kind which never looks clean or wholesome. +But what added most to the grotesque expression of his face was a +ghastly smile, which, appearing to be the mere result of habit and to +have no connection with any mirthful or complacent feeling, constantly +revealed the few discoloured fangs that were yet scattered in his +mouth, and gave him the aspect of a panting dog. His dress consisted of +a large high-crowned hat, a worn dark suit, a pair of capacious shoes, +and a dirty white neckerchief sufficiently limp and crumpled to +disclose the greater portion of his wiry throat. Such hair as he had +was of a grizzled black, cut short and straight upon his temples, and +hanging in a frowzy fringe about his ears. His hands, which were of a +rough, coarse grain, were very dirty; his fingernails were crooked, +long, and yellow. + +There was ample time to note these particulars, for besides that they +were sufficiently obvious without very close observation, some moments +elapsed before any one broke silence. The child advanced timidly +towards her brother and put her hand in his, the dwarf (if we may call +him so) glanced keenly at all present, and the curiosity-dealer, who +plainly had not expected his uncouth visitor, seemed disconcerted and +embarrassed. + +'Ah!' said the dwarf, who with his hand stretched out above his eyes +had been surveying the young man attentively, 'that should be your +grandson, neighbour!' + +'Say rather that he should not be,' replied the old man. 'But he is.' + +'And that?' said the dwarf, pointing to Dick Swiveller. + +'Some friend of his, as welcome here as he,' said the old man. + +'And that?' inquired the dwarf, wheeling round and pointing straight at +me. + +'A gentleman who was so good as to bring Nell home the other night when +she lost her way, coming from your house.' + +The little man turned to the child as if to chide her or express his +wonder, but as she was talking to the young man, held his peace, and +bent his head to listen. + +'Well, Nelly,' said the young fellow aloud. 'Do they teach you to hate +me, eh?' + +'No, no. For shame. Oh, no!' cried the child. + +'To love me, perhaps?' pursued her brother with a sneer. + +'To do neither,' she returned. 'They never speak to me about you. +Indeed they never do.' + +'I dare be bound for that,' he said, darting a bitter look at the +grandfather. 'I dare be bound for that Nell. Oh! I believe you there!' + +'But I love you dearly, Fred,' said the child. + +'No doubt!' + +'I do indeed, and always will,' the child repeated with great emotion, +'but oh! If you would leave off vexing him and making him unhappy, then +I could love you more.' + +'I see!' said the young man, as he stooped carelessly over the child, +and having kissed her, pushed her from him: 'There--get you away now +you have said your lesson. You needn't whimper. We part good friends +enough, if that's the matter.' + +He remained silent, following her with his eyes, until she had gained +her little room and closed the door; and then turning to the dwarf, +said abruptly, + +'Harkee, Mr--' + +'Meaning me?' returned the dwarf. 'Quilp is my name. You might +remember. It's not a long one--Daniel Quilp.' + +'Harkee, Mr Quilp, then,' pursued the other, 'You have some influence +with my grandfather there.' + +'Some,' said Mr Quilp emphatically. + +'And are in a few of his mysteries and secrets.' + +'A few,' replied Quilp, with equal dryness. + +'Then let me tell him once for all, through you, that I will come into +and go out of this place as often as I like, so long as he keeps Nell +here; and that if he wants to be quit of me, he must first be quit of +her. What have I done to be made a bugbear of, and to be shunned and +dreaded as if I brought the plague? He'll tell you that I have no +natural affection; and that I care no more for Nell, for her own sake, +than I do for him. Let him say so. I care for the whim, then, of coming +to and fro and reminding her of my existence. I WILL see her when I +please. That's my point. I came here to-day to maintain it, and I'll +come here again fifty times with the same object and always with the +same success. I said I would stop till I had gained it. I have done +so, and now my visit's ended. Come Dick.' + +'Stop!' cried Mr Swiveller, as his companion turned toward the door. +'Sir!' + +'Sir, I am your humble servant,' said Mr Quilp, to whom the +monosyllable was addressed. + +'Before I leave the gay and festive scene, and halls of dazzling light, +sir,' said Mr Swiveller, 'I will with your permission, attempt a slight +remark. I came here, sir, this day, under the impression that the old +min was friendly.' + +'Proceed, sir,' said Daniel Quilp; for the orator had made a sudden +stop. + +'Inspired by this idea and the sentiments it awakened, sir, and feeling +as a mutual friend that badgering, baiting, and bullying, was not the +sort of thing calculated to expand the souls and promote the social +harmony of the contending parties, I took upon myself to suggest a +course which is THE course to be adopted to the present occasion. Will +you allow me to whisper half a syllable, sir?' + +Without waiting for the permission he sought, Mr Swiveller stepped up +to the dwarf, and leaning on his shoulder and stooping down to get at +his ear, said in a voice which was perfectly audible to all present, + +'The watch-word to the old min is--fork.' + +'Is what?' demanded Quilp. + +'Is fork, sir, fork,' replied Mr Swiveller slapping his pocket. 'You +are awake, sir?' + +The dwarf nodded. Mr Swiveller drew back and nodded likewise, then drew +a little further back and nodded again, and so on. By these means he in +time reached the door, where he gave a great cough to attract the +dwarf's attention and gain an opportunity of expressing in dumb show, +the closest confidence and most inviolable secrecy. Having performed +the serious pantomime that was necessary for the due conveyance of +these idea, he cast himself upon his friend's track, and vanished. + +'Humph!' said the dwarf with a sour look and a shrug of his shoulders, +'so much for dear relations. Thank God I acknowledge none! Nor need you +either,' he added, turning to the old man, 'if you were not as weak as +a reed, and nearly as senseless.' + +'What would you have me do?' he retorted in a kind of helpless +desperation. 'It is easy to talk and sneer. What would you have me do?' + +'What would I do if I was in your case?' said the dwarf. + +'Something violent, no doubt.' + +'You're right there,' returned the little man, highly gratified by the +compliment, for such he evidently considered it; and grinning like a +devil as he rubbed his dirty hands together. 'Ask Mrs Quilp, pretty Mrs +Quilp, obedient, timid, loving Mrs Quilp. But that reminds me--I have +left her all alone, and she will be anxious and know not a moment's +peace till I return. I know she's always in that condition when I'm +away, thought she doesn't dare to say so, unless I lead her on and tell +her she may speak freely and I won't be angry with her. Oh! +well-trained Mrs Quilp.' + +The creature appeared quite horrible with his monstrous head and little +body, as he rubbed his hands slowly round, and round, and round +again--with something fantastic even in his manner of performing this +slight action--and, dropping his shaggy brows and cocking his chin in +the air, glanced upward with a stealthy look of exultation that an imp +might have copied and appropriated to himself. + +'Here,' he said, putting his hand into his breast and sidling up to the +old man as he spoke; 'I brought it myself for fear of accidents, as, +being in gold, it was something large and heavy for Nell to carry in +her bag. She need be accustomed to such loads betimes though, +neighbor, for she will carry weight when you are dead.' + +'Heaven send she may! I hope so,' said the old man with something like +a groan. + +'Hope so!' echoed the dwarf, approaching close to his ear; 'neighbour, +I would I knew in what good investment all these supplies are sunk. But +you are a deep man, and keep your secret close.' + +'My secret!' said the other with a haggard look. 'Yes, you're +right--I--I--keep it close--very close.' + +He said no more, but taking the money turned away with a slow, +uncertain step, and pressed his hand upon his head like a weary and +dejected man. The dwarf watched him sharply, while he passed into the +little sitting-room and locked it in an iron safe above the +chimney-piece; and after musing for a short space, prepared to take his +leave, observing that unless he made good haste, Mrs Quilp would +certainly be in fits on his return. + +'And so, neighbour,' he added, 'I'll turn my face homewards, leaving my +love for Nelly and hoping she may never lose her way again, though her +doing so HAS procured me an honour I didn't expect.' With that he bowed +and leered at me, and with a keen glance around which seemed to +comprehend every object within his range of vision, however, small or +trivial, went his way. + +I had several times essayed to go myself, but the old man had always +opposed it and entreated me to remain. As he renewed his entreaties on +our being left along, and adverted with many thanks to the former +occasion of our being together, I willingly yielded to his persuasions, +and sat down, pretending to examine some curious miniatures and a few +old medals which he placed before me. It needed no great pressing to +induce me to stay, for if my curiosity has been excited on the occasion +of my first visit, it certainly was not diminished now. + +Nell joined us before long, and bringing some needle-work to the table, +sat by the old man's side. It was pleasant to observe the fresh flowers +in the room, the pet bird with a green bough shading his little cage, +the breath of freshness and youth which seemed to rustle through the +old dull house and hover round the child. It was curious, but not so +pleasant, to turn from the beauty and grace of the girl, to the +stooping figure, care-worn face, and jaded aspect of the old man. As +he grew weaker and more feeble, what would become of this lonely little +creature; poor protector as he was, say that he died--what would be her +fate, then? + +The old man almost answered my thoughts, as he laid his hand on hers, +and spoke aloud. + +'I'll be of better cheer, Nell,' he said; 'there must be good fortune +in store for thee--I do not ask it for myself, but thee. Such miseries +must fall on thy innocent head without it, that I cannot believe but +that, being tempted, it will come at last!' + +She looked cheerfully into his face, but made no answer. + +'When I think,' said he, 'of the many years--many in thy short +life--that thou has lived with me; of my monotonous existence, knowing +no companions of thy own age nor any childish pleasures; of the +solitude in which thou has grown to be what thou art, and in which thou +hast lived apart from nearly all thy kind but one old man; I sometimes +fear I have dealt hardly by thee, Nell.' + +'Grandfather!' cried the child in unfeigned surprise. + +'Not in intention--no no,' said he. 'I have ever looked forward to the +time that should enable thee to mix among the gayest and prettiest, and +take thy station with the best. But I still look forward, Nell, I still +look forward, and if I should be forced to leave thee, meanwhile, how +have I fitted thee for struggles with the world? The poor bird yonder +is as well qualified to encounter it, and be turned adrift upon its +mercies--Hark! I hear Kit outside. Go to him, Nell, go to him.' + +She rose, and hurrying away, stopped, turned back, and put her arms +about the old man's neck, then left him and hurried away again--but +faster this time, to hide her falling tears. + +'A word in your ear, sir,' said the old man in a hurried whisper. 'I +have been rendered uneasy by what you said the other night, and can +only plead that I have done all for the best--that it is too late to +retract, if I could (though I cannot)--and that I hope to triumph yet. +All is for her sake. I have borne great poverty myself, and would spare +her the sufferings that poverty carries with it. I would spare her the +miseries that brought her mother, my own dear child, to an early grave. +I would leave her--not with resources which could be easily spent or +squandered away, but with what would place her beyond the reach of want +for ever. You mark me sir? She shall have no pittance, but a +fortune--Hush! I can say no more than that, now or at any other time, +and she is here again!' + +The eagerness with which all this was poured into my ear, the trembling +of the hand with which he clasped my arm, the strained and starting +eyes he fixed upon me, the wild vehemence and agitation of his manner, +filled me with amazement. All that I had heard and seen, and a great +part of what he had said himself, led me to suppose that he was a +wealthy man. I could form no comprehension of his character, unless he +were one of those miserable wretches who, having made gain the sole end +and object of their lives and having succeeded in amassing great +riches, are constantly tortured by the dread of poverty, and beset by +fears of loss and ruin. Many things he had said which I had been at a +loss to understand, were quite reconcilable with the idea thus +presented to me, and at length I concluded that beyond all doubt he was +one of this unhappy race. + +The opinion was not the result of hasty consideration, for which indeed +there was no opportunity at that time, as the child came directly, and +soon occupied herself in preparations for giving Kit a writing lesson, +of which it seemed he had a couple every week, and one regularly on +that evening, to the great mirth and enjoyment both of himself and his +instructress. To relate how it was a long time before his modesty could +be so far prevailed upon as it admit of his sitting down in the +parlour, in the presence of an unknown gentleman--how, when he did set +down, he tucked up his sleeves and squared his elbows and put his face +close to the copy-book and squinted horribly at the lines--how, from +the very first moment of having the pen in his hand, he began to wallow +in blots, and to daub himself with ink up to the very roots of his +hair--how, if he did by accident form a letter properly, he immediately +smeared it out again with his arm in his preparations to make +another--how, at every fresh mistake, there was a fresh burst of +merriment from the child and louder and not less hearty laugh from poor +Kit himself--and how there was all the way through, notwithstanding, a +gentle wish on her part to teach, and an anxious desire on his to +learn--to relate all these particulars would no doubt occupy more space +and time than they deserve. It will be sufficient to say that the +lesson was given--that evening passed and night came on--that the old +man again grew restless and impatient--that he quitted the house +secretly at the same hour as before--and that the child was once more +left alone within its gloomy walls. + +And now that I have carried this history so far in my own character and +introduced these personages to the reader, I shall for the convenience +of the narrative detach myself from its further course, and leave those +who have prominent and necessary parts in it to speak and act for +themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER 4 + +Mr and Mrs Quilp resided on Tower Hill; and in her bower on Tower Hill +Mrs Quilp was left to pine the absence of her lord, when he quitted her +on the business which he had already seen to transact. + +Mr Quilp could scarcely be said to be of any particular trade or +calling, though his pursuits were diversified and his occupations +numerous. He collected the rents of whole colonies of filthy streets +and alleys by the waterside, advanced money to the seamen and petty +officers of merchant vessels, had a share in the ventures of divers +mates of East Indiamen, smoked his smuggled cigars under the very nose +of the Custom House, and made appointments on 'Change with men in +glazed hats and round jackets pretty well every day. On the Surrey side +of the river was a small rat-infested dreary yard called 'Quilp's +Wharf,' in which were a little wooden counting-house burrowing all awry +in the dust as if it had fallen from the clouds and ploughed into the +ground; a few fragments of rusty anchors; several large iron rings; +some piles of rotten wood; and two or three heaps of old sheet copper, +crumpled, cracked, and battered. On Quilp's Wharf, Daniel Quilp was a +ship-breaker, yet to judge from these appearances he must either have +been a ship-breaker on a very small scale, or have broken his ships up +very small indeed. Neither did the place present any extraordinary +aspect of life or activity, as its only human occupant was an +amphibious boy in a canvas suit, whose sole change of occupation was +from sitting on the head of a pile and throwing stones into the mud +when the tide was out, to standing with his hands in his pockets gazing +listlessly on the motion and on the bustle of the river at high-water. + +The dwarf's lodging on Tower hill comprised, besides the needful +accommodation for himself and Mrs Quilp, a small sleeping-closet for +that lady's mother, who resided with the couple and waged perpetual war +with Daniel; of whom, notwithstanding, she stood in no slight dread. +Indeed, the ugly creature contrived by some means or other--whether by +his ugliness or his ferocity or his natural cunning is no great +matter--to impress with a wholesome fear of his anger, most of those +with whom he was brought into daily contact and communication. Over +nobody had he such complete ascendance as Mrs Quilp herself--a pretty +little, mild-spoken, blue-eyed woman, who having allied herself in +wedlock to the dwarf in one of those strange infatuations of which +examples are by no means scarce, performed a sound practical penance +for her folly, every day of her life. + +It has been said that Mrs Quilp was pining in her bower. In her bower +she was, but not alone, for besides the old lady her mother of whom +mention has recently been made, there were present some half-dozen +ladies of the neighborhood who had happened by a strange accident (and +also by a little understanding among themselves) to drop in one after +another, just about tea-time. This being a season favourable to +conversation, and the room being a cool, shady, lazy kind of place, +with some plants at the open window shutting out the dust, and +interposing pleasantly enough between the tea table within and the old +Tower without, it is no wonder that the ladies felt an inclination to +talk and linger, especially when there are taken into account the +additional inducements of fresh butter, new bread, shrimps, and +watercresses. + +Now, the ladies being together under these circumstances, it was +extremely natural that the discourse should turn upon the propensity of +mankind to tyrannize over the weaker sex, and the duty that developed +upon the weaker sex to resist that tyranny and assert their rights and +dignity. It was natural for four reasons: firstly, because Mrs Quilp +being a young woman and notoriously under the dominion of her husband +ought to be excited to rebel; secondly, because Mrs Quilp's parent was +known to be laudably shrewish in her disposition and inclined to resist +male authority; thirdly, because each visitor wished to show for +herself how superior she was in this respect to the generality of her +sex; and fourthly, because the company being accustomed to scandalise +each other in pairs, were deprived of their usual subject of +conversation now that they were all assembled in close friendship, and +had consequently no better employment than to attack the common enemy. + +Moved by these considerations, a stout lady opened the proceedings by +inquiring, with an air of great concern and sympathy, how Mr Quilp was; +whereunto Mr Quilp's wife's mother replied sharply, 'Oh! He was well +enough--nothing much was every the matter with him--and ill weeds were +sure to thrive.' All the ladies then sighed in concert, shook their +heads gravely, and looked at Mrs Quilp as a martyr. + +'Ah!' said the spokeswoman, 'I wish you'd give her a little of your +advice, Mrs Jiniwin'--Mrs Quilp had been a Miss Jiniwin it should be +observed--'nobody knows better than you, ma'am, what us women owe to +ourselves.' + +'Owe indeed, ma'am!' replied Mrs Jiniwin. 'When my poor husband, her +dear father, was alive, if he had ever ventured a cross word to me, I'd +have--' The good old lady did not finish the sentence, but she twisted +off the head of a shrimp with a vindictiveness which seemed to imply +that the action was in some degree a substitute for words. In this +light it was clearly understood by the other party, who immediately +replied with great approbation, 'You quite enter into my feelings, +ma'am, and it's jist what I'd do myself.' + +'But you have no call to do it,' said Mrs Jiniwin. 'Luckily for you, +you have no more occasion to do it than I had.' + +'No woman need have, if she was true to herself,' rejoined the stout +lady. + +'Do you hear that, Betsy?' said Mrs Jiniwin, in a warning voice. 'How +often have I said the same words to you, and almost gone down my knees +when I spoke 'em!' + +Poor Mrs Quilp, who had looked in a state of helplessness from one face +of condolence to another, coloured, smiled, and shook her head +doubtfully. This was the signal for a general clamour, which beginning +in a low murmur gradually swelled into a great noise in which everybody +spoke at once, and all said that she being a young woman had no right +to set up her opinions against the experiences of those who knew so +much better; that it was very wrong of her not to take the advice of +people who had nothing at heart but her good; that it was next door to +being downright ungrateful to conduct herself in that manner; that if +she had no respect for herself she ought to have some for other women, +all of whom she compromised by her meekness; and that if she had no +respect for other women, the time would come when other women would +have no respect for her; and she would be very sorry for that, they +could tell her. Having dealt out these admonitions, the ladies fell to +a more powerful assault than they had yet made upon the mixed tea, new +bread, fresh butter, shrimps, and watercresses, and said that their +vexation was so great to see her going on like that, that they could +hardly bring themselves to eat a single morsel. + +It's all very fine to talk,' said Mrs Quilp with much simplicity, 'but +I know that if I was to die to-morrow, Quilp could marry anybody he +pleased--now that he could, I know!' + +There was quite a scream of indignation at this idea. Marry whom he +pleased! They would like to see him dare to think of marrying any of +them; they would like to see the faintest approach to such a thing. +One lady (a widow) was quite certain she should stab him if he hinted +at it. + +'Very well,' said Mrs Quilp, nodding her head, 'as I said just now, +it's very easy to talk, but I say again that I know--that I'm +sure--Quilp has such a way with him when he likes, that the best +looking woman here couldn't refuse him if I was dead, and she was free, +and he chose to make love to her. Come!' + +Everybody bridled up at this remark, as much as to say, 'I know you +mean me. Let him try--that's all.' and yet for some hidden reason they +were all angry with the widow, and each lady whispered in her +neighbour's ear that it was very plain that said widow thought herself +the person referred to, and what a puss she was! + +'Mother knows,' said Mrs Quilp, 'that what I say is quite correct, for +she often said so before we were married. Didn't you say so, mother?' + +This inquiry involved the respected lady in rather a delicate position, +for she certainly had been an active party in making her daughter Mrs +Quilp, and, besides, it was not supporting the family credit to +encourage the idea that she had married a man whom nobody else would +have. On the other hand, to exaggerate the captivating qualities of her +son-in-law would be to weaken the cause of revolt, in which all her +energies were deeply engaged. Beset by these opposing considerations, +Mrs Jiniwin admitted the powers of insinuation, but denied the right to +govern, and with a timely compliment to the stout lady brought back the +discussion to the point from which it had strayed. + +'Oh! It's a sensible and proper thing indeed, what Mrs George has +said!' exclaimed the old lady. 'If women are only true to +themselves!--But Betsy isn't, and more's the shame and pity.' + +'Before I'd let a man order me about as Quilp orders her,' said Mrs +George, 'before I'd consent to stand in awe of a man as she does of +him, I'd--I'd kill myself, and write a letter first to say he did it!' + +This remark being loudly commended and approved of, another lady (from +the Minories) put in her word: + +'Mr Quilp may be a very nice man,' said this lady, 'and I supposed +there's no doubt he is, because Mrs Quilp says he is, and Mrs Jiniwin +says he is, and they ought to know, or nobody does. But still he is not +quite a--what one calls a handsome man, nor quite a young man neither, +which might be a little excuse for him if anything could be; whereas +his wife is young, and is good-looking, and is a woman--which is the +greatest thing after all.' + +This last clause being delivered with extraordinary pathos, elicited a +corresponding murmer from the hearers, stimulated by which the lady +went on to remark that if such a husband was cross and unreasonable +with such a wife, then-- + +'If he is!' interposed the mother, putting down her tea-cup and +brushing the crumbs out of her lap, preparatory to making a solemn +declaration. 'If he is! He is the greatest tyrant that every lived, she +daren't call her soul her own, he makes her tremble with a word and +even with a look, he frightens her to death, and she hasn't the spirit +to give him a word back, no, not a single word.' + +Notwithstanding that the fact had been notorious beforehand to all the +tea-drinkers, and had been discussed and expatiated on at every +tea-drinking in the neighbourhood for the last twelve months, this +official communication was no sooner made than they all began to talk +at once and to vie with each other in vehemence and volubility. Mrs +George remarked that people would talk, that people had often said this +to her before, that Mrs Simmons then and there present had told her so +twenty times, that she had always said, 'No, Henrietta Simmons, unless +I see it with my own eyes and hear it with my own ears, I never will +believe it.' Mrs Simmons corroborated this testimony and added strong +evidence of her own. The lady from the Minories recounted a successful +course of treatment under which she had placed her own husband, who, +from manifesting one month after marriage unequivocal symptoms of the +tiger, had by this means become subdued into a perfect lamb. Another +lady recounted her own personal struggle and final triumph, in the +course whereof she had found it necessary to call in her mother and two +aunts, and to weep incessantly night and day for six weeks. A third, +who in the general confusion could secure no other listener, fastened +herself upon a young woman still unmarried who happened to be amongst +them, and conjured her, as she valued her own peace of mind and +happiness to profit by this solemn occasion, to take example from the +weakness of Mrs Quilp, and from that time forth to direct her whole +thoughts to taming and subduing the rebellious spirit of man. The noise +was at its height, and half the company had elevated their voices into +a perfect shriek in order to drown the voices of the other half, when +Mrs Jiniwin was seen to change colour and shake her forefinger +stealthily, as if exhorting them to silence. Then, and not until then, +Daniel Quilp himself, the cause and occasion of all this clamour, was +observed to be in the room, looking on and listening with profound +attention. + +'Go on, ladies, go on,' said Daniel. 'Mrs Quilp, pray ask the ladies to +stop to supper, and have a couple of lobsters and something light and +palatable.' + +'I--I--didn't ask them to tea, Quilp,' stammered his wife. 'It's quite +an accident.' + +'So much the better, Mrs Quilp; these accidental parties are always the +pleasantest,' said the dwarf, rubbing his hands so hard that he seemed +to be engaged in manufacturing, of the dirt with which they were +encrusted, little charges for popguns. 'What! Not going, ladies, you +are not going, surely!' + +His fair enemies tossed their heads slightly as they sought their +respective bonnets and shawls, but left all verbal contention to Mrs +Jiniwin, who finding herself in the position of champion, made a faint +struggle to sustain the character. + +'And why not stop to supper, Quilp,' said the old lady, 'if my daughter +had a mind?' + +'To be sure,' rejoined Daniel. 'Why not?' + +'There's nothing dishonest or wrong in a supper, I hope?' said Mrs +Jiniwin. + +'Surely not,' returned the dwarf. 'Why should there be? Nor anything +unwholesome, either, unless there's lobster-salad or prawns, which I'm +told are not good for digestion.' + +'And you wouldn't like your wife to be attacked with that, or anything +else that would make her uneasy would you?' said Mrs Jiniwin. + +'Not for a score of worlds,' replied the dwarf with a grin. 'Not even +to have a score of mothers-in-law at the same time--and what a blessing +that would be!' + +'My daughter's your wife, Mr Quilp, certainly,' said the old lady with +a giggle, meant for satirical and to imply that he needed to be +reminded of the fact; 'your wedded wife.' + +'So she is, certainly. So she is,' observed the dwarf. + +'And she has a right to do as she likes, I hope, Quilp,' said the +old lady trembling, partly with anger and partly with a secret fear of +her impish son-in-law. + +'Hope she has!' he replied. 'Oh! Don't you know she has? Don't you know +she has, Mrs Jiniwin? + +'I know she ought to have, Quilp, and would have, if she was of my way +of thinking.' + +'Why an't you of your mother's way of thinking, my dear?' said the +dwarf, turing round and addressing his wife, 'why don't you always +imitate your mother, my dear? She's the ornament of her sex--your +father said so every day of his life. I am sure he did.' + +'Her father was a blessed creetur, Quilp, and worthy twenty thousand of +some people,' said Mrs Jiniwin; 'twenty hundred million thousand.' + +'I should like to have known him,' remarked the dwarf. 'I dare say he +was a blessed creature then; but I'm sure he is now. It was a happy +release. I believe he had suffered a long time?' + +The old lady gave a gasp, but nothing came of it; Quilp resumed, with +the same malice in his eye and the same sarcastic politeness on his +tongue. + +'You look ill, Mrs Jiniwin; I know you have been exciting yourself too +much--talking perhaps, for it is your weakness. Go to bed. Do go to +bed.' + +'I shall go when I please, Quilp, and not before.' + +'But please to do now. Do please to go now,' said the dwarf. + +The old woman looked angrily at him, but retreated as he advanced, and +falling back before him, suffered him to shut the door upon her and +bolt her out among the guests, who were by this time crowding +downstairs. Being left along with his wife, who sat trembling in a +corner with her eyes fixed upon the ground, the little man planted +himself before her, and folding his arms looked steadily at her for a +long time without speaking. + +'Mrs Quilp,' he said at last. + +'Yes, Quilp,' she replead meekly. + +Instead of pursuing the theme he had in his mind, Quilp folded his arms +again, and looked at her more sternly than before, while she averted +her eyes and kept them on the ground. + +'Mrs Quilp.' + +'Yes, Quilp.' + +'If ever you listen to these beldames again, I'll bite you.' + +With this laconic threat, which he accompanied with a snarl that gave +him the appearance of being particularly in earnest, Mr Quilp bade her +clear the teaboard away, and bring the rum. The spirit being set before +him in a huge case-bottle, which had originally come out of some ship's +locker, he settled himself in an arm-chair with his large head and face +squeezed up against the back, and his little legs planted on the table. + +'Now, Mrs Quilp,' he said; 'I feel in a smoking humour, and shall +probably blaze away all night. But sit where you are, if you please, in +case I want you.' + +His wife returned no other reply than the necessary 'Yes, Quilp,' and +the small lord of the creation took his first cigar and mixed his first +glass of grog. The sun went down and the stars peeped out, the Tower +turned from its own proper colours to grey and from grey to black, the +room became perfectly dark and the end of the cigar a deep fiery red, +but still Mr Quilp went on smoking and drinking in the same position, +and staring listlessly out of window with the doglike smile always on +his face, save when Mrs Quilp made some involuntary movement of +restlessness or fatigue; and then it expanded into a grin of delight. + + + + +CHAPTER 5 + +Whether Mr Quilp took any sleep by snatches of a few winks at a time, +or whether he sat with his eyes wide open all night long, certain it is +that he kept his cigar alight, and kindled every fresh one from the +ashes of that which was nearly consumed, without requiring the +assistance of a candle. Nor did the striking of the clocks, hour after +hour, appear to inspire him with any sense of drowsiness or any natural +desire to go to rest, but rather to increase his wakefulness, which he +showed, at every such indication of the progress of the night, by a +suppressed cackling in his throat, and a motion of his shoulders, like +one who laughs heartily but the same time slyly and by stealth. + +At length the day broke, and poor Mrs Quilp, shivering with cold of +early morning and harassed by fatigue and want of sleep, was discovered +sitting patiently on her chair, raising her eyes at intervals in mute +appeal to the compassion and clemency of her lord, and gently reminding +him by an occasion cough that she was still unpardoned and that her +penance had been of long duration. But her dwarfish spouse still smoked +his cigar and drank his rum without heeding her; and it was not until +the sun had some time risen, and the activity and noise of city day +were rife in the street, that he deigned to recognize her presence by +any word or sign. He might not have done so even then, but for certain +impatient tapping at the door he seemed to denote that some pretty hard +knuckles were actively engaged upon the other side. + +'Why dear me!' he said looking round with a malicious grin, 'it's day. +Open the door, sweet Mrs Quilp!' + +His obedient wife withdrew the bolt, and her lady mother entered. + +Now, Mrs Jiniwin bounced into the room with great impetuosity; for, +supposing her son-in-law to be still a-bed, she had come to relieve her +feelings by pronouncing a strong opinion upon his general conduct and +character. Seeing that he was up and dressed, and that the room +appeared to have been occupied ever since she quitted it on the +previous evening, she stopped short, in some embarrassment. + +Nothing escaped the hawk's eye of the ugly little man, who, perfectly +understanding what passed in the old lady's mind, turned uglier still +in the fulness of his satisfaction, and bade her good morning, with a +leer or triumph. + +'Why, Betsy,' said the old woman, 'you haven't been--you don't mean to +say you've been a--' + +'Sitting up all night?' said Quilp, supplying the conclusion of the +sentence. 'Yes she has!' + +'All night?' cried Mrs Jiniwin. + +'Ay, all night. Is the dear old lady deaf?' said Quilp, with a smile of +which a frown was part. 'Who says man and wife are bad company? Ha ha! +The time has flown.' + +'You're a brute!' exclaimed Mrs Jiniwin. + +'Come come,' said Quilp, wilfully misunderstanding her, of course, 'you +mustn't call her names. She's married now, you know. And though she did +beguile the time and keep me from my bed, you must not be so tenderly +careful of me as to be out of humour with her. Bless you for a dear +old lady. Here's to your health!' + +'I am much obliged to you,' returned the old woman, testifying by a +certain restlessness in her hands a vehement desire to shake her +matronly fist at her son-in-law. 'Oh! I'm very much obliged to you!' + +'Grateful soul!' cried the dwarf. 'Mrs Quilp.' + +'Yes, Quilp,' said the timid sufferer. + +'Help your mother to get breakfast, Mrs Quilp. I am going to the wharf +this morning--the earlier the better, so be quick.' + +Mrs Jiniwin made a faint demonstration of rebellion by sitting down in +a chair near the door and folding her arms as if in a resolute +determination to do nothing. But a few whispered words from her +daughter, and a kind inquiry from her son-in-law whether she felt +faint, with a hint that there was abundance of cold water in the next +apartment, routed these symptoms effectually, and she applied herself +to the prescribed preparations with sullen diligence. + +While they were in progress, Mr Quilp withdrew to the adjoining room, +and, turning back his coat-collar, proceeded to smear his countenance +with a damp towel of very unwholesome appearance, which made his +complexion rather more cloudy than it was before. But, while he was +thus engaged, his caution and inquisitiveness did not forsake him, for +with a face as sharp and cunning as ever, he often stopped, even in +this short process, and stood listening for any conversation in the +next room, of which he might be the theme. + +'Ah!' he said after a short effort of attention, 'it was not the towel +over my ears, I thought it wasn't. I'm a little hunchy villain and a +monster, am I, Mrs Jiniwin? Oh!' + +The pleasure of this discovery called up the old doglike smile in full +force. When he had quite done with it, he shook himself in a very +doglike manner, and rejoined the ladies. + +Mr Quilp now walked up to front of a looking-glass, and was standing +there putting on his neckerchief, when Mrs Jiniwin happening to be +behind him, could not resist the inclination she felt to shake her fist +at her tyrant son-in-law. It was the gesture of an instant, but as she +did so and accompanied the action with a menacing look, she met his eye +in the glass, catching her in the very act. The same glance at the +mirror conveyed to her the reflection of a horribly grotesque and +distorted face with the tongue lolling out; and the next instant the +dwarf, turning about with a perfectly bland and placid look, inquired +in a tone of great affection. + +'How are you now, my dear old darling?' + +Slight and ridiculous as the incident was, it made him appear such a +little fiend, and withal such a keen and knowing one, that the old +woman felt too much afraid of him to utter a single word, and suffered +herself to be led with extraordinary politeness to the breakfast-table. +Here he by no means diminished the impression he had just produced, for +he ate hard eggs, shell and all, devoured gigantic prawns with the +heads and tails on, chewed tobacco and water-cresses at the same time +and with extraordinary greediness, drank boiling tea without winking, +bit his fork and spoon till they bent again, and in short performed so +many horrifying and uncommon acts that the women were nearly frightened +out of their wits, and began to doubt if he were really a human +creature. At last, having gone through these proceedings and many +others which were equally a part of his system, Mr Quilp left them, +reduced to a very obedient and humbled state, and betook himself to the +river-side, where he took boat for the wharf on which he had bestowed +his name. + +It was flood tide when Daniel Quilp sat himself down in the ferry to +cross to the opposite shore. A fleet of barges were coming lazily on, +some sideways, some head first, some stern first; all in a +wrong-headed, dogged, obstinate way, bumping up against the larger +craft, running under the bows of steamboats, getting into every kind of +nook and corner where they had no business, and being crunched on all +sides like so many walnut-shells; while each with its pair of long +sweeps struggling and splashing in the water looked like some lumbering +fish in pain. In some of the vessels at anchor all hands were busily +engaged in coiling ropes, spreading out sails to dry, taking in or +discharging their cargoes; in others no life was visible but two or +three tarry boys, and perhaps a barking dog running to and fro upon the +deck or scrambling up to look over the side and bark the louder for the +view. Coming slowly on through the forests of masts was a great +steamship, beating the water in short impatient strokes with her heavy +paddles as though she wanted room to breathe, and advancing in her huge +bulk like a sea monster among the minnows of the Thames. On either hand +were long black tiers of colliers; between them vessels slowly working +out of harbour with sails glistening in the sun, and creaking noise on +board, re-echoed from a hundred quarters. The water and all upon it was +in active motion, dancing and buoyant and bubbling up; while the old +grey Tower and piles of building on the shore, with many a church-spire +shooting up between, looked coldly on, and seemed to disdain their +chafing, restless neighbour. + +Daniel Quilp, who was not much affected by a bright morning save in so +far as it spared him the trouble of carrying an umbrella, caused +himself to be put ashore hard by the wharf, and proceeded thither +through a narrow lane which, partaking of the amphibious character of +its frequenters, had as much water as mud in its composition, and a +very liberal supply of both. Arrived at his destination, the first +object that presented itself to his view was a pair of very imperfectly +shod feet elevated in the air with the soles upwards, which remarkable +appearance was referable to the boy, who being of an eccentric spirit +and having a natural taste for tumbling, was now standing on his head +and contemplating the aspect of the river under these uncommon +circumstances. He was speedily brought on his heels by the sound of his +master's voice, and as soon as his head was in its right position, Mr +Quilp, to speak expressively in the absence of a better verb, 'punched +it' for him. + +'Come, you let me alone,' said the boy, parrying Quilp's hand with both +his elbows alternatively. 'You'll get something you won't like if you +don't and so I tell you.' + +'You dog,' snarled Quilp, 'I'll beat you with an iron rod, I'll scratch +you with a rusty nail, I'll pinch your eyes, if you talk to me--I will.' + +With these threats he clenched his hand again, and dexterously diving +in between the elbows and catching the boy's head as it dodged from +side to side, gave it three or four good hard knocks. Having now +carried his point and insisted on it, he left off. + +'You won't do it agin,' said the boy, nodding his head and drawing +back, with the elbows ready in case of the worst; 'now--' + +'Stand still, you dog,' said Quilp. 'I won't do it again, because I've +done it as often as I want. Here. Take the key.' + +'Why don't you hit one of your size?' said the boy approaching very +slowly. + +'Where is there one of my size, you dog?' returned Quilp. 'Take the +key, or I'll brain you with it'--indeed he gave him a smart tap with +the handle as he spoke. 'Now, open the counting-house.' + +The boy sulkily complied, muttering at first, but desisting when he +looked round and saw that Quilp was following him with a steady look. +And here it may be remarked, that between this boy and the dwarf there +existed a strange kind of mutual liking. How born or bred, and or +nourished upon blows and threats on one side, and retorts and defiances +on the other, is not to the purpose. Quilp would certainly suffer +nobody to contract him but the boy, and the boy would assuredly not +have submitted to be so knocked about by anybody but Quilp, when he had +the power to run away at any time he chose. + +'Now,' said Quilp, passing into the wooden counting-house, 'you mind +the wharf. Stand upon your head agin, and I'll cut one of your feet +off.' + +The boy made no answer, but directly Quilp had shut himself in, stood +on his head before the door, then walked on his hands to the back and +stood on his head there, and then to the opposite side and repeated the +performance. There were indeed four sides to the counting-house, but he +avoided that one where the window was, deeming it probable that Quilp +would be looking out of it. This was prudent, for in point of fact, the +dwarf, knowing his disposition, was lying in wait at a little distance +from the sash armed with a large piece of wood, which, being rough and +jagged and studded in many parts with broken nails, might possibly have +hurt him. + +It was a dirty little box, this counting-house, with nothing in it but +an old ricketty desk and two stools, a hat-peg, an ancient almanack, an +inkstand with no ink, and the stump of one pen, and an eight-day clock +which hadn't gone
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