The Old Curiosity Shop


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the crowd and hurry of this place, and if any cruel people should  
pursue us, they could surely never trace us further. There's comfort in  
that. And here's a deep old doorway - very dark, but quite dry, and  
warm too, for the wind don't blow in here - What's that!'  
Uttering a half shriek, she recoiled from a black figure which came  
suddenly out of the dark recess in which they were about to take  
refuge, and stood still, looking at them.  
'
'
Speak again,' it said; 'do I know the voice?'  
No,' replied the child timidly; 'we are strangers, and having no money  
for a night's lodging, were going to rest here.'  
There was a feeble lamp at no great distance; the only one in the  
place, which was a kind of square yard, but sufficient to show how  
poor and mean it was. To this, the figure beckoned them; at the same  
time drawing within its rays, as if to show that it had no desire to  
conceal itself or take them at an advantage. The form was that of a  
man, miserably clad and begrimed with smoke, which, perhaps by its  
contrast with the natural colour of his skin, made him look paler than  
he really was. That he was naturally of a very wan and pallid aspect,  
however, his hollow cheeks, sharp features, and sunken eyes, no less  
than a certain look of patient endurance, sufficiently testified. His  
voice was harsh by nature, but not brutal; and though his face,  
besides possessing the characteristics already mentioned, was  
overshadowed by a quantity of long dark hair, its expression was  
neither ferocious nor bad. 'How came you to think of resting there?' he  
said. 'Or how,' he added, looking more attentively at the child, 'do you  
come to want a place of rest at this time of night?'  
'Our misfortunes,' the grandfather answered, 'are the cause.'  
'Do you know,' said the man, looking still more earnestly at Nell, 'how  
wet she is, and that the damp streets are not a place for her?'  
'I know it well, God help me,' he replied. 'What can I do!'  
The man looked at Nell again, and gently touched her garments, from  
which the rain was running off in little streams. 'I can give you  
warmth,' he said, after a pause; 'nothing else. Such lodging as I have,  
is in that house,' pointing to the doorway from which he had emerged,  
'
but she is safer and better there than here. The fire is in a rough  
place, but you can pass the night beside it safely, if you'll trust  
yourselves to me. You see that red light yonder?'  
They raised their eyes, and saw a lurid glare hanging in the dark sky;  
the dull reflection of some distant fire.  


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310 311 312 313 314

Quick Jump
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