| 160 | 161 | 162 | 163 | 164 |
| 1 | 133 | 265 | 398 | 530 |
|
Chapter XXIII
Mr Richard Swiveller wending homeward from the Wilderness (for
such was the appropriate name of Quilp's choice retreat), after a
sinuous and corkscrew fashion, with many checks and stumbles; after
stopping suddenly and staring about him, then as suddenly running
forward for a few paces, and as suddenly halting again and shaking
his head; doing everything with a jerk and nothing by premeditation; -
Mr Richard Swiveller wending his way homeward after this fashion,
which is considered by evil-minded men to be symbolical of
intoxication, and is not held by such persons to denote that state of
deep wisdom and reflection in which the actor knows himself to be,
began to think that possibly he had misplaced his confidence and that
the dwarf might not be precisely the sort of person to whom to entrust
a secret of such delicacy and importance. And being led and tempted
on by this remorseful thought into a condition which the evil-minded
class before referred to would term the maudlin state or stage of
drunkenness, it occurred to Mr Swiveller to cast his hat upon the
ground, and moan, crying aloud that he was an unhappy orphan, and
that if he had not been an unhappy orphan things had never come to
this.
'Left an infant by my parents, at an early age,' said Mr Swiveller,
bewailing his hard lot, 'cast upon the world in my tenderest period,
and thrown upon the mercies of a deluding dwarf, who can wonder at
my weakness! Here's a miserable orphan for you. Here,' said Mr
Swiveller raising his voice to a high pitch, and looking sleepily round,
'is a miserable orphan!'
'
Then,' said somebody hard by, 'let me be a father to you.'
Mr Swiveller swayed himself to and fro to preserve his balance, and,
looking into a kind of haze which seemed to surround him, at last
perceived two eyes dimly twinkling through the mist, which he
observed after a short time were in the neighbourhood of a nose and
mouth. Casting his eyes down towards that quarter in which, with
reference to a man's face, his legs are usually to be found, he observed
that the face had a body attached; and when he looked more intently
he was satisfied that the person was Mr Quilp, who indeed had been
in his company all the time, but whom he had some vague idea of
having left a mile or two behind.
'
'
'
You have deceived an orphan, Sir,' said Mr Swiveller solemnly.'
I! I'm a second father to you,' replied Quilp.
You my father, Sir!' retorted Dick. 'Being all right myself, Sir, I
request to be left alone - instantly, Sir.'
Page
Quick Jump
|