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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.
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