第 34 页

Jarley's, recollect; there is no tarpaulin and sawdust at Jarley's,

remember. Every expectation held out in the handbills is realised to

the utmost, and the whole forms an effect of imposing brilliancy

hitherto unrivalled in this kingdom. Remember that the price of

admission is only sixpence, and that this is an opportunity which may

never occur again!'

Descending from the sublime when she had reached this point, to the

details of common life, Mrs Jarley remarked that with reference to

salary she could pledge herself to no specific sum until she had

sufficiently tested Nell's abilities, and narrowly watched her in the

performance of her duties. But board and lodging, both for her and her

grandfather, she bound herself to provide, and she furthermore passed

her word that the board should always be good in quality, and in

quantity plentiful.

Nell and her grandfather consulted together, and while they were so

engaged, Mrs Jarley with her hands behind her walked up and down the

caravan, as she had walked after tea on the dull earth, with uncommon

dignity and self-esteem. Nor will this appear so slight a circumstance

as to be unworthy of mention, when it is remembered that the caravan

was in uneasy motion all the time, and that none but a person of great

natural stateliness and acquired grace could have forborne to stagger.

'Now, child?' cried Mrs Jarley, coming to a halt as Nell turned towards

her.

'We are very much obliged to you, ma'am,' said Nell, 'and thankfully

accept your offer.'

'And you'll never be sorry for it,' returned Mrs Jarley. 'I'm pretty

sure of that. So as that's all settled, let us have a bit of supper.'

In the meanwhile, the caravan blundered on as if it too had been

drinking strong beer and was drowsy, and came at last upon the paved

streets of a town which were clear of passengers, and quiet, for it was

by this time near midnight, and the townspeople were all abed. As it

was too late an hour to repair to the exhibition room, they turned

aside into a piece of waste ground that lay just within the old

town-gate, and drew up there for the night, near to another caravan,

which, notwithstanding that it bore on the lawful panel the great name

of Jarley, and was employed besides in conveying from place to place

the wax-work which was its country's pride, was designated by a

grovelling stamp-office as a 'Common Stage Waggon,' and numbered

too--seven thousand odd hundred--as though its precious freight were

mere flour or coals!

This ill-used machine being empty (for it had deposited its burden at

the place of exhibition, and lingered here until its services were

again required) was assigned to the old man as his sleeping-place for

the night; and within its wooden walls, Nell made him up the best bed

she could, from the materials at hand. For herself, she was to sleep

in Mrs Jarley's own travelling-carriage, as a signal mark of that

lady's favour and confidence.

She had taken leave of her grandfather and was returning to the other

waggon, when she was tempted by the coolness of the night to linger for

a little while in the air. The moon was shining down upon the old

gateway of the town, leaving the low archway very black and dark; and

with a mingled sensation of curiosity and fear, she slowly approached

the gate, and stood still to look up at it, wondering to see how dark,

and grim, and old, and cold, it looked.

There was an empty niche from which some old statue had fallen or been

carried away hundreds of years ago, and she was thinking what strange

people it must have looked down upon when it stood there, and how many

hard struggles might have taken place, and how many murders might have

been done, upon that silent spot, when there suddenly emerged from the

black shade of the arch, a man. The instant he appeared, she

recognised him--Who could have failed to recognise, in that instant,

the ugly misshapen Quilp!

The street beyond was so narrow, and the shadow of the houses on one

side of the way so deep, that he seemed to have risen out of the earth.

But there he was. The child withdrew into a dark corner, and saw him

pass close to her. He had a stick in his hand, and, when he had got

clear of the shadow of the gateway, he leant upon it, looked

back--directly, as it seemed, towards where she stood--and beckoned.

To her? oh no, thank God, not to her; for as she stood, in an

extremity of fear, hesitating whether to scream for help, or come from

her hiding-place and fly, before he should draw nearer, there issued

slowly forth from the arch another figure--that of a boy--who carried

on his back a trunk.

'Faster, sirrah!' cried Quilp, looking up at the old gateway, and

showing in the moonlight like some monstrous image that had come down

from its niche and was casting a backward glance at its old house,

'faster!'

'It's a dreadful heavy load, Sir,' the boy pleaded. 'I've come on very

fast, considering.'

'_You_ have come fast, considering!' retorted Quilp; 'you creep, you dog,

you crawl, you measure distance like a worm. There are the chimes now,

half-past twelve.'

He stopped to listen, and then turning upon the boy with a suddenness

and ferocity that made him start, asked at what hour that London coach

passed the corner of the road. The boy replied, at one.

'Come on then,' said Quilp, 'or I shall be too late. Faster--do you

hear me? Faster.'

The boy made all the speed he could, and Quilp led onward, constantly

turning back to threaten him, and urge him to greater haste. Nell did

not dare to move until they were out of sight and hearing, and then

hurried to where she had left her grandfather, feeling as if the very

passing of the dwarf so near him must have filled him with alarm and

terror. But he was sleeping soundly, and she softly withdrew.

As she was making her way to her own bed, she determined to say nothing

of this adventure, as upon whatever errand the dwarf had come (and she

feared it must have been in search of them) it was clear by his inquiry

about the London coach that he was on his way homeward, and as he had

passed through that place, it was but reasonable to suppose that they

were safer from his inquiries there, than they could be elsewhere.

These reflections did not remove her own alarm, for she had been too

much terrified to be easily composed, and felt as if she were hemmed in

by a legion of Quilps, and the very air itself were filled with them.

The delight of the Nobility and Gentry and the patronised of Royalty

had, by some process of self-abridgment known only to herself, got into

her travelling bed, where she was snoring peacefully, while the large

bonnet, carefully disposed upon the drum, was revealing its glories by

the light of a dim lamp that swung from the roof. The child's bed was

already made upon the floor, and it was a great comfort to her to hear

the steps removed as soon as she had entered, and to know that all easy

communication between persons outside and the brass knocker was by this

means effectually prevented. Certain guttural sounds, too, which from

time to time ascended through the floor of the caravan, and a rustling

of straw in the same direction, apprised her that the driver was

couched upon the ground beneath, and gave her an additional feeling of

security.

Notwithstanding these protections, she could get none but broken sleep

by fits and starts all night, for fear of Quilp, who throughout her

uneasy dreams was somehow connected with the wax-work, or was wax-work

himself, or was Mrs Jarley and wax-work too, or was himself, Mrs

Jarley, wax-work, and a barrel organ all in one, and yet not exactly

any of them either. At length, towards break of day, that deep sleep

came upon her which succeeds to weariness and over-watching, and which

has no consciousness but one of overpowering and irresistible enjoyment.

CHAPTER 28

Sleep hung upon the eyelids of the child so long, that, when she awoke,

Mrs Jarley was already decorated with her large bonnet, and actively

engaged in preparing breakfast. She received Nell's apology for being

so late with perfect good humour, and said that she should not have

roused her if she had slept on until noon.

'Because it does you good,' said the lady of the caravan, 'when you're

tired, to sleep as long as ever you can, and get the fatigue quite off;

and that's another blessing of your time of life--you can sleep so very

sound.'

'Have you had a bad night, ma'am?' asked Nell.

'I seldom have anything else, child,' replied Mrs Jarley, with the air

of a martyr. 'I sometimes wonder how I bear it.'

Remembering the snores which had proceeded from that cleft in the

caravan in which the proprietress of the wax-work passed the night,

Nell rather thought she must have been dreaming of lying awake.

However, she expressed herself very sorry to hear such a dismal account

of her state of health, and shortly afterwards sat down with her

grandfather and Mrs Jarley to breakfast. The meal finished, Nell

assisted to wash the cups and saucers, and put them in their proper

places, and these household duties performed, Mrs Jarley arrayed

herself in an exceedingly bright shawl for the purpose of making a

progress through the streets of the town.

'The wan will come on to bring the boxes,' said Mrs Jarley, and you had

better come in it, child. I am obliged to walk, very much against my

will; but the people expect it of me, and public characters can't be

their own masters and mistresses in such matters as these. How do I

look, child?'

Nell returned a satisfactory reply, and Mrs Jarley, after sticking a

great many pins into various parts of her figure, and making several

abortive attempts to obtain a full view of her own back, was at last

satisfied with her appearance, and went forth majestically.

The caravan followed at no great distance. As it went jolting through

the streets, Nell peeped from the window, curious to see in what kind

of place they were, and yet fearful of encountering at every turn the

dreaded face of Quilp. It was a pretty large town, with an open square

which they were crawling slowly across, and in the middle of which was

the Town-Hall, with a clock-tower and a weather-cock. There were

houses of stone, houses of red brick, houses of yellow brick, houses of

lath and plaster; and houses of wood, many of them very old, with

withered faces carved upon the beams, and staring down into the street.

These had very little winking windows, and low-arched doors, and, in

some of the narrower ways, quite overhung the pavement. The streets

were very clean, very sunny, very empty, and very dull. A few idle men

lounged about the two inns, and the empty market-place, and the

tradesmen's doors, and some old people were dozing in chairs outside an

alms-house wall; but scarcely any passengers who seemed bent on going

anywhere, or to have any object in view, went by; and if perchance some

straggler did, his footsteps echoed on the hot bright pavement for

minutes afterwards. Nothing seemed to be going on but the clocks, and

they had such drowzy faces, such heavy lazy hands, and such cracked

voices that they surely must have been too slow. The very dogs were

all asleep, and the flies, drunk with moist sugar in the grocer's shop,

forgot their wings and briskness, and baked to death in dusty corners

of the window.

Rumbling along with most unwonted noise, the caravan stopped at last at

the place of exhibition, where Nell dismounted amidst an admiring group

of children, who evidently supposed her to be an important item of the

curiosities, and were fully impressed with the belief that her

grandfather was a cunning device in wax. The chests were taken out

with all convenient despatch, and taken in to be unlocked by Mrs

Jarley, who, attended by George and another man in velveteen shorts and

a drab hat ornamented with turnpike tickets, were waiting to dispose

their contents (consisting of red festoons and other ornamental devices

in upholstery work) to the best advantage in the decoration of the room.

They all got to work without loss of time, and very busy they were. As

the stupendous collection were yet concealed by cloths, lest the

envious dust should injure their complexions, Nell bestirred herself to

assist in the embellishment of the room, in which her grandfather also

was of great service. The two men being well used to it, did a great

deal in a short time; and Mrs Jarley served out the tin tacks from a

linen pocket like a toll-collector's which she wore for the purpose,

and encouraged her assistants to renewed exertion.

While they were thus employed, a tallish gentleman with a hook nose and

black hair, dressed in a military surtout very short and tight in the

sleeves, and which had once been frogged and braided all over, but was

now sadly shorn of its garniture and quite threadbare--dressed too in

ancient grey pantaloons fitting tight to the leg, and a pair of pumps

in the winter of their existence--looked in at the door and smiled

affably. Mrs Jarley's back being then towards him, the military

gentleman shook his forefinger as a sign that her myrmidons were not to

apprise her of his presence, and stealing up close behind her, tapped

her on the neck, and cried playfully 'Boh!'

'What, Mr Slum!' cried the lady of the wax-work. 'Lot! who'd have

thought of seeing you here!'

''Pon my soul and honour,' said Mr Slum, 'that's a good remark. 'Pon

my soul and honour that's a wise remark. Who would have thought it!

George, my faithful feller, how are you?'

George received this advance with a surly indifference, observing that

he was well enough for the matter of that, and hammering lustily all

the time.

'I came here,' said the military gentleman turning to Mrs Jarley--''pon