| 248 | 249 | 250 | 251 | 252 |
| 1 | 133 | 265 | 398 | 530 |
|
While Mr Brass, with his eye curiously twisted into the keyhole,
uttered these sounds as a means of attracting the lodger's attention,
and while Miss Brass plied the hand-bell, Mr Swiveller put his stool
close against the wall by the side of the door, and mounting on the top
and standing bolt upright, so that if the lodger did make a rush, he
would most probably pass him in its onward fury, began a violent
battery with the ruler upon the upper panels of the door. Captivated
with his own ingenuity, and confident in the strength of his position,
which he had taken up after the method of those hardy individuals
who open the pit and gallery doors of theatres on crowded nights, Mr
Swiveller rained down such a shower of blows, that the noise of the
bell was drowned; and the small servant, who lingered on the stairs
below, ready to fly at a moment's notice, was obliged to hold her ears
lest she should be rendered deaf for life.
Suddenly the door was unlocked on the inside, and flung violently
open. The small servant flew to the coal-cellar; Miss Sally dived into
her own bed-room; Mr Brass, who was not remarkable for personal
courage, ran into the next street, and finding that nobody followed
him, armed with a poker or other offensive weapon, put his hands in
his pockets, walked very slowly all at once, and whistled.
Meanwhile, Mr Swiveller, on the top of the stool, drew himself into as
flat a shape as possible against the wall, and looked, not
unconcernedly, down upon the single gentleman, who appeared at the
door growling and cursing in a very awful manner, and, with the boots
in his hand, seemed to have an intention of hurling them down stairs
on speculation. This idea, however, he abandoned. He was turning
into his room again, still growling vengefully, when his eyes met those
of the watchful Richard.
'
Have YOU been making that horrible noise?' said the single
gentleman.
'
I have been helping, sir,' returned Dick, keeping his eye upon him,
and waving the ruler gently in his right hand, as an indication of what
the single gentleman had to expect if he attempted any violence.
'How dare you then,' said the lodger, 'Eh?'
To this, Dick made no other reply than by inquiring whether the
lodger held it to be consistent with the conduct and character of a
gentleman to go to sleep for six-and-twenty hours at a stretch, and
whether the peace of an amiable and virtuous family was to weigh as
nothing in the balance.
'Is my peace nothing?' said the single gentleman.
Page
Quick Jump
|