The Old Curiosity Shop

by Dickens, Charles

  company arrived. Her thoughts were not idle while she was thus

  employed; when she returned and was seated beside the old man in

  one corner of the tent, tying her flowers together, while the two

  men lay dozing in another corner, she plucked him by the sleeve,

  and slightly glancing towards them, said, in a low voice--

  'Grandfather, don't look at those I talk of, and don't seem as if

  I spoke of anything but what I am about. What was that you told me

  before we left the old house? That if they knew what we were going

  to do, they would say that you were mad, and part us?'

  The old man turned to her with an aspect of wild terror; but she

  checked him by a look, and bidding him hold some flowers while she

  tied them up, and so bringing her lips closer to his ear, said--

  'I know that was what you told me. You needn't speak, dear. I

  recollect it very well. It was not likely that I should forget it.

  Grandfather, these men suspect that we have secretly left our

  friends, and mean to carry us before some gentleman and have us

  taken care of and sent back. If you let your hand tremble so, we

  can never get away from them, but if you're only quiet now, we

  shall do so, easily.'

  'How?' muttered the old man. 'Dear Nelly, how? They will shut me up

  in a stone room, dark and cold, and chain me up to the wall, Nell--

  flog me with whips, and never let me see thee more!'

  'You're trembling again,' said the child. 'Keep close to me all

  day. Never mind them, don't look at them, but me. I shall find a

  time when we can steal away. When I do, mind you come with me, and

  do not stop or speak a word. Hush! That's all.'

  'Halloa! what are you up to, my dear?' said Mr Codlin, raising his

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  head, and yawning. Then observing that his companion was fast

  asleep, he added in an earnest whisper, 'Codlin's the friend,

  remember--not Short.'

  'Making some nosegays,' the child replied; 'I am going to try and

  sell some, these three days of the races. Will you have one--as a

  present I mean?'

  Mr Codlin would have risen to receive it, but the child hurried

  towards him and placed it in his hand. He stuck it in his

  buttonhole with an air of ineffable complacency for a misanthrope,

  and leering exultingly at the unconscious Short, muttered, as he

  laid himself down again, 'Tom Codlin's the friend, by G--!'

  As the morning wore on, the tents assumed a gayer and more

  brilliant appearance, and long lines of carriages came rolling

  softly on the turf. Men who had lounged about all night in

  smock-frocks and leather leggings, came out in silken vests and

  hats and plumes, as jugglers or mountebanks; or in gorgeous

  liveries as soft-spoken servants at gambling booths; or in sturdy

  yeoman dress as decoys at unlawful games. Black-eyed gipsy girls,

  hooded in showy handkerchiefs, sallied forth to tell fortunes, and

  pale slender women with consumptive faces lingered upon the

  footsteps of ventriloquists and conjurors, and counted the

  sixpences with anxious eyes long before they were gained. As many

  of the children as could be kept within bounds, were stowed away,

  with all the other signs of dirt and poverty, among the donkeys,

  carts, and horses; and as many as could not be thus disposed of ran

  in and out in all intricate spots, crept between people's legs and

  carriage wheels, and came forth unharmed from under horses' hoofs.

  The dancing-dogs, the stilts, the little lady and the tall man, and

  all the other attractions, with organs out of number and bands

  innumerable, emerged from the holes and corners in which they had

  passed the night, and flourished boldly in the sun.

  Along the uncleared course, Short led his party, sounding the

  brazen trumpet and revelling in the voice of Punch; and at his

  heels went Thomas Codlin, bearing the show as usual, and keeping

  his eye on Nelly and her grandfather, as they rather lingered in

  the rear. The child bore upon her arm the little basket with her

  flowers, and sometimes stopped, with timid and modest looks, to

  offer them at some gay carriage; but alas! there were many bolder

  beggars there, gipsies who promised husbands, and other adepts in

  their trade, and although some ladies smiled gently as they shook

  their heads, and others cried to the gentlemen beside them 'See,

  what a pretty face!' they let the pretty face pass on, and never

  thought that it looked tired or hungry.

  There was but one lady who seemed to understand the child, and she

  was one who sat alone in a handsome carriage, while two young men

  in dashing clothes, who had just dismounted from it, talked and

  laughed loudly at a little distance, appearing to forget her,

  quite. There were many ladies all around, but they turned their

  backs, or looked another way, or at the two young men (not

  unfavourably at them), and left her to herself. She motioned away

  a gipsy-woman urgent to tell her fortune, saying that it was told

  already and had been for some years, but called the child towards

  her, and taking her flowers put money into her trembling hand, and

  bade her go home and keep at home for God's sake.

  Many a time they went up and down those long, long lines, seeing

  everything but the horses and the race; when the bell rang to clear

  the course, going back to rest among the carts and donkeys, and not

  coming out again until the heat was over. Many a time, too, was

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  Punch displayed in the full zenith of his humour, but all this

  while the eye of Thomas Codlin was upon them, and to escape without

  notice was impracticable.

  At length, late in the day, Mr Codlin pitched the show in a

  convenient spot, and the spectators were soon in the very triumph

  of the scene. The child, sitting down with the old man close behind

  it, had been thinking how strange it was that horses who were such

  fine honest creatures should seem to make vagabonds of all the men

  they drew about them, when a loud laugh at some extemporaneous

  witticism of Mr Short's, having allusion to the circumstances of

  the day, roused her from her meditation and caused her to look

  around.

  If they were ever to get away unseen, that was the very moment.

  Short was plying the quarter-staves vigorously and knocking the

  characters in the fury of the combat against the sides of the show,

  the people were looking on with laughing faces, and Mr Codlin had

  relaxed into a grim smile as his roving eye detected hands going

  into waistcoat pockets and groping secretly for sixpences. If they

  were ever to get away unseen, that was the very moment. They seized

  it, and fled.

  They made a path through booths and carriages and throngs of

  people, and never once stopped to look behind. The bell was ringing

  and the course was cleared by the time they reached the ropes, but

  they dashed across it insensible to the shouts and screeching that

  assailed them for breaking in upon its
sanctity, and creeping under

  the brow of the hill at a quick pace, made for the open fields.

  CHAPTER 20

  Day after day as he bent his steps homeward, returning from some

  new effort to procure employment, Kit raised his eyes to the window

  of the little room he had so much commended to the child, and hoped

  to see some indication of her presence. His own earnest wish,

  coupled with the assurance he had received from Quilp, filled him

  with the belief that she would yet arrive to claim the humble

  shelter he had offered, and from the death of each day's hope

  another hope sprung up to live to-morrow.

  'I think they must certainly come to-morrow, eh mother?' said Kit,

  laying aside his hat with a weary air and sighing as he spoke.

  'They have been gone a week. They surely couldn't stop away more

  than a week, could they now?'

  The mother shook her head, and reminded him how often he had been

  disappointed already.

  'For the matter of that,' said Kit, 'you speak true and sensible

  enough, as you always do, mother. Still, I do consider that a week

  is quite long enough for 'em to be rambling about; don't you say

  so?'

  'Quite long enough, Kit, longer than enough, but they may not come

  back for all that.'

  Kit was for a moment disposed to be vexed by this contradiction,

  and not the less so from having anticipated it in his own mind and

  knowing how just it was. But the impulse was only momentary, and

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  the vexed look became a kind one before it had crossed the room.

  'Then what do you think, mother, has become of 'em? You don't think

  they've gone to sea, anyhow?'

  'Not gone for sailors, certainly,' returned the mother with a

  smile. 'But I can't help thinking that they have gone to some

  foreign country.'

  'I say,' cried Kit with a rueful face, 'don't talk like that,

  mother.'

  'I am afraid they have, and that's the truth,' she said. 'It's the

  talk of all the neighbours, and there are some even that know of

  their having been seen on board ship, and can tell you the name of

  the place they've gone to, which is more than I can, my dear, for

  it's a very hard one.'

  'I don't believe it,' said Kit. 'Not a word of it. A set of idle

  chatterboxes, how should they know!'

  'They may be wrong of course,' returned the mother, 'I can't tell

  about that, though I don't think it's at all unlikely that they're

  in the right, for the talk is that the old gentleman had put by a

  little money that nobody knew of, not even that ugly little man you

  talk to me about--what's his name--Quilp; and that he and Miss

  Nell have gone to live abroad where it can't be taken from them,

  and they will never be disturbed. That don't seem very far out of

  the way now, do it?'

  Kit scratched his head mournfully, in reluctant admission that it

  did not, and clambering up to the old nail took down the cage and

  set himself to clean it and to feed the bird. His thoughts

  reverting from this occupation to the little old gentleman who had

  given him the shilling, he suddenly recollected that that was the

  very day--nay, nearly the very hour--at which the little old

  gentleman had said he should be at the Notary's house again. He no

  sooner remembered this, than he hung up the cage with great

  precipitation, and hastily explaining the nature of his errand,

  went off at full speed to the appointed place.

  It was some two minutes after the time when he reached the spot,

  which was a considerable distance from his home, but by great good

  luck the little old gentleman had not yet arrived; at least there

  was no pony-chaise to be seen, and it was not likely that he had

  come and gone again in so short a space. Greatly relieved to find

  that he was not too late, Kit leant against a lamp-post to take

  breath, and waited the advent of the pony and his charge.

  Sure enough, before long the pony came trotting round the corner of

  the street, looking as obstinate as pony might, and picking his

  steps as if he were spying about for the cleanest places, and would

  by no means dirty his feet or hurry himself inconveniently. Behind

  the pony sat the little old gentleman, and by the old gentleman's

  side sat the little old lady, carrying just such a nosegay as she

  had brought before.

  The old gentleman, the old lady, the pony, and the chaise, came up

  the street in perfect unanimity, until they arrived within some

  half a dozen doors of the Notary's house, when the pony, deceived

  by a brass-plate beneath a tailor's knocker, came to a halt, and

  maintained by a sturdy silence, that that was the house they

  wanted.

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  'Now, Sir, will you ha' the goodness to go on; this is not the

  place,' said the old gentleman.

  The pony looked with great attention into a fire-plug which was

  near him, and appeared to be quite absorbed in contemplating it.

  'Oh dear, such a naughty Whisker" cried the old lady. 'After being

  so good too, and coming along so well! I am quite ashamed of him.

  I don't know what we are to do with him, I really don't.'

  The pony having thoroughly satisfied himself as to the nature and

  properties of the fire-plug, looked into the air after his old

  enemies the flies, and as there happened to be one of them tickling

  his ear at that moment he shook his head and whisked his tail,

  after which he appeared full of thought but quite comfortable and

  collected. The old gentleman having exhausted his powers of

  persuasion, alighted to lead him; whereupon the pony, perhaps

  because he held this to be a sufficient concession, perhaps because

  he happened to catch sight of the other brass-plate, or perhaps

  because he was in a spiteful humour, darted off with the old lady

  and stopped at the right house, leaving the old gentleman to come

  panting on behind.

  It was then that Kit presented himself at the pony's head, and

  touched his hat with a smile.

  'Why, bless me,' cried the old gentleman, 'the lad is here! My

  dear, do you see?'

  'I said I'd be here, Sir,' said Kit, patting Whisker's neck. 'I

  hope you've had a pleasant ride, sir. He's a very nice little

  pony.'

  'My dear,' said the old gentleman. 'This is an uncommon lad; a good

  lad, I'm sure.'

  'I'm sure he is,' rejoined the old lady. 'A very good lad, and I am

  sure he is a good son.'

  Kit acknowledged these expressions of confidence by touching his

  hat again and blushing very much. The old gentleman then handed the

  old lady out, and after looking at him with an approving smile,

  they went into the house--talking about him as they went, Kit

  could not help feeling. Presently Mr Witherden, smelling very hard

  at the nosegay, came to the window and looked at him, and after

  that Mr Abel came and looked at him, and after that the old

  gentleman and lady came and looked at him again, and after that
>
  they all came and looked at him together, which Kit, feeling very

  much embarrassed by, made a pretence of not observing. Therefore he

  patted the pony more and more; and this liberty the pony most

  handsomely permitted.

  The faces had not disappeared from the window many moments, when Mr

  Chuckster in his official coat, and with his hat hanging on his

  head just as it happened to fall from its peg, appeared upon the

  pavement, and telling him he was wanted inside, bade him go in and

  he would mind the chaise the while. In giving him this direction Mr

  Chuckster remarked that he wished that he might be blessed if he

  could make out whether he (Kit) was 'precious raw' or 'precious

  deep,' but intimated by a distrustful shake of the head, that he

  inclined to the latter opinion.

  Kit entered the office in a great tremor, for he was not used to

  going among strange ladies and gentlemen, and the tin boxes and

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  bundles of dusty papers had in his eyes an awful and venerable air.

  Mr Witherden too was a bustling gentleman who talked loud and fast,

  and all eyes were upon him, and he was very shabby.

  'Well, boy,' said Mr Witherden, 'you came to work out that

  shilling;--not to get another, hey?'

  'No indeed, sir,' replied Kit, taking courage to look up. 'I never

  thought of such a thing.'

  'Father alive?' said the Notary.

  'Dead, sir.'

  'Mother?'

  'Yes, sir.'

  'Married again--eh?'

  Kit made answer, not without some indignation, that she was a widow

  with three children, and that as to her marrying again, if the

  gentleman knew her he wouldn't think of such a thing. At this reply

  Mr Witherden buried his nose in the flowers again, and whispered

  behind the nosegay to the old gentleman that he believed the lad

  was as honest a lad as need be.

  'Now,' said Mr Garland when they had made some further inquiries of

  him, 'I am not going to give you anything--'

  'Thank you, sir,' Kit replied; and quite seriously too, for this

  announcement seemed to free him from the suspicion which the Notary

  had hinted.

  '--But,' resumed the old gentleman, 'perhaps I may want to know

  something more about you, so tell me where you live, and I'll put

  it down in my pocket-book.'

  Kit told him, and the old gentleman wrote down the address with his