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cause of this here?'

'Would these two travellers make much difference to the horses, if we

took them with us?' asked his mistress, offering no reply to the

philosophical inquiry, and pointing to Nell and the old man, who were

painfully preparing to resume their journey on foot.

'They'd make a difference in course,' said George doggedly.

'Would they make much difference?' repeated his mistress. 'They can't

be very heavy.'

'The weight o' the pair, mum,' said George, eyeing them with the look

of a man who was calculating within half an ounce or so, 'would be a

trifle under that of Oliver Cromwell.'

Nell was very much surprised that the man should be so accurately

acquainted with the weight of one whom she had read of in books as

having lived considerably before their time, but speedily forgot the

subject in the joy of hearing that they were to go forward in the

caravan, for which she thanked its lady with unaffected earnestness.

She helped with great readiness and alacrity to put away the tea-things

and other matters that were lying about, and, the horses being by that

time harnessed, mounted into the vehicle, followed by her delighted

grandfather. Their patroness then shut the door and sat herself down

by her drum at an open window; and, the steps being struck by George

and stowed under the carriage, away they went, with a great noise of

flapping and creaking and straining, and the bright brass knocker,

which nobody ever knocked at, knocking one perpetual double knock of

its own accord as they jolted heavily along.

CHAPTER 27

When they had travelled slowly forward for some short distance, Nell

ventured to steal a look round the caravan and observe it more closely.

One half of it--that moiety in which the comfortable proprietress was

then seated--was carpeted, and so partitioned off at the further end as

to accommodate a sleeping-place, constructed after the fashion of a

berth on board ship, which was shaded, like the little windows, with

fair white curtains, and looked comfortable enough, though by what kind

of gymnastic exercise the lady of the caravan ever contrived to get

into it, was an unfathomable mystery. The other half served for a

kitchen, and was fitted up with a stove whose small chimney passed

through the roof. It held also a closet or larder, several chests, a

great pitcher of water, and a few cooking-utensils and articles of

crockery. These latter necessaries hung upon the walls, which, in that

portion of the establishment devoted to the lady of the caravan, were

ornamented with such gayer and lighter decorations as a triangle and a

couple of well-thumbed tambourines.

The lady of the caravan sat at one window in all the pride and poetry

of the musical instruments, and little Nell and her grandfather sat at

the other in all the humility of the kettle and saucepans, while the

machine jogged on and shifted the darkening prospect very slowly. At

first the two travellers spoke little, and only in whispers, but as

they grew more familiar with the place they ventured to converse with

greater freedom, and talked about the country through which they were

passing, and the different objects that presented themselves, until the

old man fell asleep; which the lady of the caravan observing, invited

Nell to come and sit beside her.

'Well, child,' she said, 'how do you like this way of travelling?'

Nell replied that she thought it was very pleasant indeed, to which the

lady assented in the case of people who had their spirits. For

herself, she said, she was troubled with a lowness in that respect

which required a constant stimulant; though whether the aforesaid

stimulant was derived from the suspicious bottle of which mention has

been already made or from other sources, she did not say.

'That's the happiness of you young people,' she continued. 'You don't

know what it is to be low in your feelings. You always have your

appetites too, and what a comfort that is.'

Nell thought that she could sometimes dispense with her own appetite

very conveniently; and thought, moreover, that there was nothing either

in the lady's personal appearance or in her manner of taking tea, to

lead to the conclusion that her natural relish for meat and drink had

at all failed her. She silently assented, however, as in duty bound,

to what the lady had said, and waited until she should speak again.

Instead of speaking, however, she sat looking at the child for a long

time in silence, and then getting up, brought out from a corner a large

roll of canvas about a yard in width, which she laid upon the floor and

spread open with her foot until it nearly reached from one end of the

caravan to the other.

'There, child,' she said, 'read that.'

Nell walked down it, and read aloud, in enormous black letters, the

inscription, 'JARLEY'S WAX-WORK.'

'Read it again,' said the lady, complacently.

'Jarley's Wax-Work,' repeated Nell.

'That's me,' said the lady. 'I am Mrs Jarley.'

Giving the child an encouraging look, intended to reassure her and let

her know, that, although she stood in the presence of the original

Jarley, she must not allow herself to be utterly overwhelmed and borne

down, the lady of the caravan unfolded another scroll, whereon was the

inscription, 'One hundred figures the full size of life,' and then

another scroll, on which was written, 'The only stupendous collection

of real wax-work in the world,' and then several smaller scrolls with

such inscriptions as 'Now exhibiting within'--'The genuine and only

Jarley'--'Jarley's unrivalled collection'--'Jarley is the delight of

the Nobility and Gentry'--'The Royal Family are the patrons of Jarley.'

When she had exhibited these leviathans of public announcement to the

astonished child, she brought forth specimens of the lesser fry in the

shape of hand-bills, some of which were couched in the form of parodies

on popular melodies, as 'Believe me if all Jarley's wax-work so

rare'--'I saw thy show in youthful prime'--'Over the water to Jarley;'

while, to consult all tastes, others were composed with a view to the

lighter and more facetious spirits, as a parody on the favourite air of

'If I had a donkey,' beginning,

If I know'd a donkey wot wouldn't go

To see Mrs JARLEY'S wax-work show,

Do you think I'd acknowledge him? Oh no no!

Then run to Jarley's--

--besides several compositions in prose, purporting to be dialogues

between the Emperor of China and an oyster, or the Archbishop of

Canterbury and a dissenter on the subject of church-rates, but all

having the same moral, namely, that the reader must make haste to

Jarley's, and that children and servants were admitted at half-price.

When she had brought all these testimonials of her important position

in society to bear upon her young companion, Mrs Jarley rolled them up,

and having put them carefully away, sat down again, and looked at the

child in triumph.

'Never go into the company of a filthy Punch any more,' said Mrs

Jarley, 'after this.'

'I never saw any wax-work, ma'am,' said Nell. 'Is it funnier than

Punch?'

'Funnier!' said Mrs Jarley in a shrill voice. 'It is not funny at all.'

'Oh!' said Nell, with all possible humility.

'It isn't funny at all,' repeated Mrs Jarley. 'It's calm and--what's

that word again--critical?--no--classical, that's it--it's calm and

classical. No low beatings and knockings about, no jokings and

squeakings like your precious Punches, but always the same, with a

constantly unchanging air of coldness and gentility; and so like life,

that if wax-work only spoke and walked about, you'd hardly know the

difference. I won't go so far as to say, that, as it is, I've seen

wax-work quite like life, but I've certainly seen some life that was

exactly like wax-work.'

'Is it here, ma'am?' asked Nell, whose curiosity was awakened by this

description.

'Is what here, child?'

'The wax-work, ma'am.'

'Why, bless you, child, what are you thinking of? How could such a

collection be here, where you see everything except the inside of one

little cupboard and a few boxes? It's gone on in the other wans to the

assembly-rooms, and there it'll be exhibited the day after to-morrow.

You are going to the same town, and you'll see it I dare say. It's

natural to expect that you'll see it, and I've no doubt you will. I

suppose you couldn't stop away if you was to try ever so much.'

'I shall not be in the town, I think, ma'am,' said the child.

'Not there!' cried Mrs Jarley. 'Then where will you be?'

'I--I--don't quite know. I am not certain.'

'You don't mean to say that you're travelling about the country without

knowing where you're going to?' said the lady of the caravan. 'What

curious people you are! What line are you in? You looked to me at the

races, child, as if you were quite out of your element, and had got

there by accident.'

'We were there quite by accident,' returned Nell, confused by this

abrupt questioning. 'We are poor people, ma'am, and are only wandering

about. We have nothing to do;--I wish we had.'

'You amaze me more and more,' said Mrs Jarley, after remaining for some

time as mute as one of her own figures. 'Why, what do you call

yourselves? Not beggars?'

'Indeed, ma'am, I don't know what else we are,' returned the child.

'Lord bless me,' said the lady of the caravan. 'I never heard of such

a thing. Who'd have thought it!'

She remained so long silent after this exclamation, that Nell feared

she felt her having been induced to bestow her protection and

conversation upon one so poor, to be an outrage upon her dignity that

nothing could repair. This persuasion was rather confirmed than

otherwise by the tone in which she at length broke silence and said,

'And yet you can read. And write too, I shouldn't wonder?'

'Yes, ma'am,' said the child, fearful of giving new offence by the

confession.

'Well, and what a thing that is,' returned Mrs Jarley. 'I can't!'

Nell said 'indeed' in a tone which might imply, either that she was

reasonably surprised to find the genuine and only Jarley, who was the

delight of the Nobility and Gentry and the peculiar pet of the Royal

Family, destitute of these familiar arts; or that she presumed so great

a lady could scarcely stand in need of such ordinary accomplishments.

In whatever way Mrs Jarley received the response, it did not provoke

her to further questioning, or tempt her into any more remarks at the

time, for she relapsed into a thoughtful silence, and remained in that

state so long that Nell withdrew to the other window and rejoined her

grandfather, who was now awake.

At length the lady of the caravan shook off her fit of meditation, and,

summoning the driver to come under the window at which she was seated,

held a long conversation with him in a low tone of voice, as if she

were asking his advice on an important point, and discussing the pros

and cons of some very weighty matter. This conference at length

concluded, she drew in her head again, and beckoned Nell to approach.

'And the old gentleman too,' said Mrs Jarley; 'for I want to have a

word with him. Do you want a good situation for your grand-daughter,

master? If you do, I can put her in the way of getting one. What do

you say?'

'I can't leave her,' answered the old man. 'We can't separate. What

would become of me without her?'

'I should have thought you were old enough to take care of yourself, if

you ever will be,' retorted Mrs Jarley sharply.

'But he never will be,' said the child in an earnest whisper. 'I fear

he never will be again. Pray do not speak harshly to him. We are very

thankful to you,' she added aloud; 'but neither of us could part from

the other if all the wealth of the world were halved between us.'

Mrs Jarley was a little disconcerted by this reception of her proposal,

and looked at the old man, who tenderly took Nell's hand and detained

it in his own, as if she could have very well dispensed with his

company or even his earthly existence. After an awkward pause, she

thrust her head out of the window again, and had another conference

with the driver upon some point on which they did not seem to agree

quite so readily as on their former topic of discussion; but they

concluded at last, and she addressed the grandfather again.

'If you're really disposed to employ yourself,' said Mrs Jarley, 'there

would be plenty for you to do in the way of helping to dust the

figures, and take the checks, and so forth. What I want your

grand-daughter for, is to point 'em out to the company; they would be

soon learnt, and she has a way with her that people wouldn't think

unpleasant, though she does come after me; for I've been always

accustomed to go round with visitors myself, which I should keep on

doing now, only that my spirits make a little ease absolutely

necessary. It's not a common offer, bear in mind,' said the lady,

rising into the tone and manner in which she was accustomed to address

her audiences; 'it's Jarley's wax-work, remember. The duty's very

light and genteel, the company particularly select, the exhibition

takes place in assembly-rooms, town-halls, large rooms at inns, or

auction galleries. There is none of your open-air wagrancy at