第 29 页

said and did confirmed him in the impression he had formed, to let him

share the labour of their plan, but not the profit.

Having revolved these things in his mind and arrived at this

conclusion, he communicated to Mr Swiveller as much of his meditations

as he thought proper (Dick would have been perfectly satisfied with

less), and giving him the day to recover himself from his late

salamandering, accompanied him at evening to Mr Quilp's house.

Mighty glad Mr Quilp was to see them, or mightily glad he seemed to be;

and fearfully polite Mr Quilp was to Mrs Quilp and Mrs Jiniwin; and

very sharp was the look he cast on his wife to observe how she was

affected by the recognition of young Trent. Mrs Quilp was as innocent

as her own mother of any emotion, painful or pleasant, which the sight

of him awakened, but as her husband's glance made her timid and

confused, and uncertain what to do or what was required of her, Mr

Quilp did not fail to assign her embarrassment to the cause he had in

his mind, and while he chuckled at his penetration was secretly

exasperated by his jealousy.

Nothing of this appeared, however. On the contrary, Mr Quilp was all

blandness and suavity, and presided over the case-bottle of rum with

extraordinary open-heartedness.

'Why, let me see,' said Quilp. 'It must be a matter of nearly two

years since we were first acquainted.'

'Nearer three, I think,' said Trent.

'Nearer three!' cried Quilp. 'How fast time flies. Does it seem as

long as that to you, Mrs Quilp?'

'Yes, I think it seems full three years, Quilp,' was the unfortunate

reply.

'Oh indeed, ma'am,' thought Quilp, 'you have been pining, have you?

Very good, ma'am.'

'It seems to me but yesterday that you went out to Demerara in the Mary

Anne,' said Quilp; 'but yesterday, I declare. Well, I like a little

wildness. I was wild myself once.'

Mr Quilp accompanied this admission with such an awful wink, indicative

of old rovings and backslidings, that Mrs Jiniwin was indignant, and

could not forbear from remarking under her breath that he might at

least put off his confessions until his wife was absent; for which act

of boldness and insubordination Mr Quilp first stared her out of

countenance and then drank her health ceremoniously.

'I thought you'd come back directly, Fred. I always thought that,'

said Quilp setting down his glass. 'And when the Mary Anne returned

with you on board, instead of a letter to say what a contrite heart you

had, and how happy you were in the situation that had been provided for

you, I was amused--exceedingly amused. Ha ha ha!'

The young man smiled, but not as though the theme was the most

agreeable one that could have been selected for his entertainment; and

for that reason Quilp pursued it.

'I always will say,' he resumed, 'that when a rich relation having two

young people--sisters or brothers, or brother and sister--dependent on

him, attaches himself exclusively to one, and casts off the other, he

does wrong.'

The young man made a movement of impatience, but Quilp went on as

calmly as if he were discussing some abstract question in which nobody

present had the slightest personal interest.

'It's very true,' said Quilp, 'that your grandfather urged repeated

forgiveness, ingratitude, riot, and extravagance, and all that; but as

I told him "these are common faults." "But he's a scoundrel," said he.

"Granting that," said I (for the sake of argument of course), "a great

many young noblemen and gentlemen are scoundrels too!" But he wouldn't

be convinced.'

'I wonder at that, Mr Quilp,' said the young man sarcastically.

'Well, so did I at the time,' returned Quilp, 'but he was always

obstinate. He was in a manner a friend of mine, but he was always

obstinate and wrong-headed. Little Nell is a nice girl, a charming

girl, but you're her brother, Frederick. You're her brother after all;

as you told him the last time you met, he can't alter that.'

'He would if he could, confound him for that and all other kindnesses,'

said the young man impatiently. 'But nothing can come of this subject

now, and let us have done with it in the Devil's name.'

'Agreed,' returned Quilp, 'agreed on my part readily. Why have I

alluded to it? Just to show you, Frederick, that I have always stood

your friend. You little knew who was your friend, and who your foe;

now did you? You thought I was against you, and so there has been a

coolness between us; but it was all on your side, entirely on your

side. Let's shake hands again, Fred.'

With his head sunk down between his shoulders, and a hideous grin

over-spreading his face, the dwarf stood up and stretched his short arm

across the table. After a moment's hesitation, the young man stretched

out his to meet it; Quilp clutched his fingers in a grip that for the

moment stopped the current of the blood within them, and pressing his

other hand upon his lip and frowning towards the unsuspicious Richard,

released them and sat down.

This action was not lost upon Trent, who, knowing that Richard

Swiveller was a mere tool in his hands and knew no more of his designs

than he thought proper to communicate, saw that the dwarf perfectly

understood their relative position, and fully entered into the

character of his friend. It is something to be appreciated, even in

knavery. This silent homage to his superior abilities, no less than a

sense of the power with which the dwarf's quick perception had already

invested him, inclined the young man towards that ugly worthy, and

determined him to profit by his aid.

It being now Mr Quilp's cue to change the subject with all convenient

expedition, lest Richard Swiveller in his heedlessness should reveal

anything which it was inexpedient for the women to know, he proposed a

game at four-handed cribbage, and partners being cut for, Mrs Quilp

fell to Frederick Trent, and Dick himself to Quilp. Mrs Jiniwin being

very fond of cards was carefully excluded by her son-in-law from any

participation in the game, and had assigned to her the duty of

occasionally replenishing the glasses from the case-bottle; Mr Quilp

from that moment keeping one eye constantly upon her, lest she should

by any means procure a taste of the same, and thereby tantalising the

wretched old lady (who was as much attached to the case-bottle as the

cards) in a double degree and most ingenious manner.

But it was not to Mrs Jiniwin alone that Mr Quilp's attention was

restricted, as several other matters required his constant vigilance.

Among his various eccentric habits he had a humorous one of always

cheating at cards, which rendered necessary on his part, not only a

close observance of the game, and a sleight-of-hand in counting and

scoring, but also involved the constant correction, by looks, and

frowns, and kicks under the table, of Richard Swiveller, who being

bewildered by the rapidity with which his cards were told, and the rate

at which the pegs travelled down the board, could not be prevented from

sometimes expressing his surprise and incredulity. Mrs Quilp too was

the partner of young Trent, and for every look that passed between

them, and every word they spoke, and every card they played, the dwarf

had eyes and ears; not occupied alone with what was passing above the

table, but with signals that might be exchanging beneath it, which he

laid all kinds of traps to detect; besides often treading on his wife's

toes to see whether she cried out or remained silent under the

infliction, in which latter case it would have been quite clear that

Trent had been treading on her toes before. Yet, in the most of all

these distractions, the one eye was upon the old lady always, and if

she so much as stealthily advanced a tea-spoon towards a neighbouring

glass (which she often did), for the purpose of abstracting but one sup

of its sweet contents, Quilp's hand would overset it in the very moment

of her triumph, and Quilp's mocking voice implore her to regard her

precious health. And in any one of these his many cares, from first to

last, Quilp never flagged nor faltered.

At length, when they had played a great many rubbers and drawn pretty

freely upon the case-bottle, Mr Quilp warned his lady to retire to

rest, and that submissive wife complying, and being followed by her

indignant mother, Mr Swiveller fell asleep. The dwarf beckoning his

remaining companion to the other end of the room, held a short

conference with him in whispers.

'It's as well not to say more than one can help before our worthy

friend,' said Quilp, making a grimace towards the slumbering Dick. 'Is

it a bargain between us, Fred? Shall he marry little rosy Nell

by-and-by?'

'You have some end of your own to answer, of course,' returned the

other.

'Of course I have, dear Fred,' said Quilp, grinning to think how little

he suspected what the real end was. 'It's retaliation perhaps; perhaps

whim. I have influence, Fred, to help or oppose. Which way shall I

use it? There are a pair of scales, and it goes into one.'

'Throw it into mine then,' said Trent.

'It's done, Fred,' rejoined Quilp, stretching out his clenched hand and

opening it as if he had let some weight fall out. 'It's in the scale

from this time, and turns it, Fred. Mind that.'

'Where have they gone?' asked Trent.

Quilp shook his head, and said that point remained to be discovered,

which it might be, easily. When it was, they would begin their

preliminary advances. He would visit the old man, or even Richard

Swiveller might visit him, and by affecting a deep concern in his

behalf, and imploring him to settle in some worthy home, lead to the

child's remembering him with gratitude and favour. Once impressed to

this extent, it would be easy, he said, to win her in a year or two,

for she supposed the old man to be poor, as it was a part of his

jealous policy (in common with many other misers) to feign to be so, to

those about him.

'He has feigned it often enough to me, of late,' said Trent.

'Oh! and to me too!' replied the dwarf. 'Which is more extraordinary,

as I know how rich he really is.'

'I suppose you should,' said Trent.

'I think I should indeed,' rejoined the dwarf; and in that, at least,

he spoke the truth.

After a few more whispered words, they returned to the table, and the

young man rousing Richard Swiveller informed him that he was waiting to

depart. This was welcome news to Dick, who started up directly. After

a few words of confidence in the result of their project had been

exchanged, they bade the grinning Quilp good night.

Quilp crept to the window as they passed in the street below, and

listened. Trent was pronouncing an encomium upon his wife, and they

were both wondering by what enchantment she had been brought to marry

such a misshapen wretch as he. The dwarf after watching their

retreating shadows with a wider grin than his face had yet displayed,

stole softly in the dark to bed.

In this hatching of their scheme, neither Trent nor Quilp had had one

thought about the happiness or misery of poor innocent Nell. It would

have been strange if the careless profligate, who was the butt of both,

had been harassed by any such consideration; for his high opinion of

his own merits and deserts rendered the project rather a laudable one

than otherwise; and if he had been visited by so unwonted a guest as

reflection, he would--being a brute only in the gratification of his

appetites--have soothed his conscience with the plea that he did not

mean to beat or kill his wife, and would therefore, after all said and

done, be a very tolerable, average husband.

CHAPTER 24

It was not until they were quite exhausted and could no longer maintain

the pace at which they had fled from the race-ground, that the old man

and the child ventured to stop, and sit down to rest upon the borders

of a little wood. Here, though the course was hidden from their view,

they could yet faintly distinguish the noise of distant shouts, the hum

of voices, and the beating of drums. Climbing the eminence which lay

between them and the spot they had left, the child could even discern

the fluttering flags and white tops of booths; but no person was

approaching towards them, and their resting-place was solitary and

still.

Some time elapsed before she could reassure her trembling companion, or

restore him to a state of moderate tranquillity. His disordered

imagination represented to him a crowd of persons stealing towards them

beneath the cover of the bushes, lurking in every ditch, and peeping

from the boughs of every rustling tree. He was haunted by

apprehensions of being led captive to some gloomy place where he would

be chained and scourged, and worse than all, where Nell could never

come to see him, save through iron bars and gratings in the wall. His

terrors affected the child. Separation from her grandfather was the

greatest evil she could dread; and feeling for the time as though, go

where they would, they were to be hunted down, and could never be safe

but in hiding, her heart failed her, and her courage drooped.

In one so young, and so unused to the scenes in which she had lately

moved, this sinking of the spirit was not surprising. But, Nature

often enshrines gallant and noble hearts in weak bosoms--oftenest, God

bless her, in female breasts--and when the child, casting her tearful

eyes upon the old man, remembered how weak he was, and how destitute

and helpless he would be if she failed him, her heart swelled within

her, and animated her with new strength and fortitude.

'We are quite safe now, and have nothing to fear indeed, dear