第 7 页

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 for eighteen years at least, and of which the

minute-hand had been twisted off for a tooth-pick. Daniel Quilp pulled

his hat over his brows, climbed on to the desk (which had a flat top)

and stretching his short length upon it went to sleep with ease of an

old practitioner; intending, no doubt, to compensate himself for the

deprivation of last night's rest, by a long and sound nap.

Sound it might have been, but long it was not, for he had not been

asleep a quarter of an hour when the boy opened the door and thrust in

his head, which was like a bundle of badly-picked oakum. Quilp was a

light sleeper and started up directly.

'Here's somebody for you,' said the boy.

'Who?'

'I don't know.'

'Ask!' said Quilp, seizing the trifle of wood before mentioned and

throwing it at him with such dexterity that it was well the boy

disappeared before it reached the spot on which he had stood. 'Ask, you

dog.'

Not caring to venture within range of such missles again, the boy

discreetly sent in his stead the first cause of the interruption, who

now presented herself at the door.

'What, Nelly!' cried Quilp.

'Yes,' said the child, hesitating whether to enter or retreat, for the

dwarf just roused, with his dishevelled hair hanging all about him and

a yellow handkerchief over his head, was something fearful to behold;

it's only me, sir.'

'Come in,' said Quilp, without getting off the desk. 'Come in. Stay.

Just look out into the yard, and see whether there's a boy standing on

his head.'

'No, sir,' replied Nell. 'He's on his feet.'

'You're sure he is?' said Quilp. 'Well. Now, come in and shut the door.

What's your message, Nelly?'

The child handed him a letter. Mr Quilp, without changing his position

further than to turn over a little more on his side and rest his chin

on his hand, proceeded to make himself acquainted with its contents.

CHAPTER 6

Little Nell stood timidly by, with her eyes raised to the countenance

of Mr Quilp as he read the letter, plainly showing by her looks that

while she entertained some fear and distrust of the little man, she was

much inclined to laugh at his uncouth appearance and grotesque

attitude. And yet there was visible on the part of the child a painful

anxiety for his reply, and consciousness of his power to render it

disagreeable or distressing, which was strongly at variance with this

impulse and restrained it more effectually than she could possibly have

done by any efforts of her own.

That Mr Quilp was himself perplexed, and that in no small degree, by

the contents of the letter, was sufficiently obvious. Before he had got

through the first two or three lines he began to open his eyes very

wide and to frown most horribly, the next two or three caused him to

scratch his head in an uncommonly vicious manner, and when he came to

the conclusion he gave a long dismal whistle indicative of surprise and

dismay. After folding and laying it down beside him, he bit the nails

of all of his ten fingers with extreme voracity; and taking it up

sharply, read it again. The second perusal was to all appearance as

unsatisfactory as the first, and plunged him into a profound reverie

from which he awakened to another assault upon his nails and a long

stare at the child, who with her eyes turned towards the ground awaited

his further pleasure.

'Halloa here!' he said at length, in a voice, and with a suddenness,

which made the child start as though a gun had been fired off at her

ear. 'Nelly!'

'Yes, sir.'

'Do you know what's inside this letter, Nell?'

'No, sir!'

'Are you sure, quite sure, quite certain, upon your soul?'

'Quite sure, sir.'

'Do you wish you may die if you do know, hey?' said the dwarf.

'Indeed I don't know,' returned the child.

'Well!' muttered Quilp as he marked her earnest look. 'I believe you.

Humph! Gone already? Gone in four-and-twenty hours! What the devil has

he done with it, that's the mystery!'

This reflection set him scratching his head and biting his nails once

more. While he was thus employed his features gradually relaxed into

what was with him a cheerful smile, but which in any other man would

have been a ghastly grin of pain, and when the child looked up again

she found that he was regarding her with extraordinary favour and

complacency.

'You look very pretty to-day, Nelly, charmingly pretty. Are you tired,

Nelly?'

'No, sir. I'm in a hurry to get back, for he will be anxious while I am

away.'

'There's no hurry, little Nell, no hurry at all,' said Quilp. 'How

should you like to be my number two, Nelly?'

'To be what, sir?'

'My number two, Nelly, my second, my Mrs Quilp,' said the dwarf.

The child looked frightened, but seemed not to understand him, which Mr

Quilp observing, hastened to make his meaning more distinctly.

'To be Mrs Quilp the second, when Mrs Quilp the first is dead, sweet

Nell,' said Quilp, wrinkling up his eyes and luring her towards him

with his bent forefinger, 'to be my wife, my little cherry-cheeked,

red-lipped wife. Say that Mrs Quilp lives five year, or only four,

you'll be just the proper age for me. Ha ha! Be a good girl, Nelly, a

very good girl, and see if one of these days you don't come to be Mrs

Quilp of Tower Hill.'

So far from being sustained and stimulated by this delightful prospect,

the child shrank from him in great agitation, and trembled violently.

Mr Quilp, either because frightening anybody afforded him a

constitutional delight, or because it was pleasant to contemplate the

death of Mrs Quilp number one, and the elevation of Mrs Quilp number

two to her post and title, or because he was determined from purposes

of his own to be agreeable and good-humoured at that particular time,

only laughed and feigned to take no heed of her alarm.

'You shall come with me to Tower Hill and see Mrs Quilp that is,

directly,' said the dwarf. 'She's very fond of you, Nell, though not so

fond as I am. You shall come home with me.'

'I must go back indeed,' said the child. 'He told me to return directly

I had the answer.'

'But you haven't it, Nelly,' retorted the dwarf, 'and won't have it,

and can't have it, until I have been home, so you see that to do your

errand, you must go with me. Reach me yonder hat, my dear, and we'll go

directly.' With that, Mr Quilp suffered himself to roll gradually off

the desk until his short legs touched the ground, when he got upon them

and led the way from the counting-house to the wharf outside, when the

first objects that presented themselves were the boy who had stood on

his head and another young gentleman of about his own stature, rolling

in the mud together, locked in a tight embrace, and cuffing each other

with mutual heartiness.

'It's Kit!' cried Nelly, clasping her hand, 'poor Kit who came with me!

Oh, pray stop them, Mr Quilp!'

'I'll stop 'em,' cried Quilp, diving into the little counting-house and

returning with a thick stick, 'I'll stop 'em. Now, my boys, fight away.