Chapter LI

The bland and open-hearted proprietor of Bachelor's Hall slept on

amidst the congenial accompaniments of rain, mud, dirt, damp, fog,

and rats, until late in the day; when, summoning his valet Tom Scott

to assist him to rise, and to prepare breakfast, he quitted his couch,

and made his toilet. This duty performed, and his repast ended, he

again betook himself to Bevis Marks.

This visit was not intended for Mr Swiveller, but for his friend and

employer Mr Sampson Brass. Both gentlemen however were from

home, nor was the life and light of law, Miss Sally, at her post either.

The fact of their joint desertion of the office was made known to all

comers by a scrap of paper in the hand-writing of Mr Swiveller, which

was attached to the bell-handle, and which, giving the reader no clue

to the time of day when it was first posted, furnished him with the

rather vague and unsatisfactory information that that gentleman

would 'return in an hour.'

'There's a servant, I suppose,' said the dwarf, knocking at the house-

door. 'She'll do.'

After a sufficiently long interval, the door was opened, and a small

voice immediately accosted him with, 'Oh please will you leave a card

or message?'

Eh?' said the dwarf, looking down, (it was something quite new to

him) upon the small servant.

To this, the child, conducting her conversation as upon the occasion

of her first interview with Mr Swiveller, again replied, 'Oh please will

you leave a card or message?'

I'll write a note,' said the dwarf, pushing past her into the office; 'and

mind your master has it directly he comes home.' So Mr Quilp climbed

up to the top of a tall stool to write the note, and the small servant,

carefully tutored for such emergencies, looked on with her eyes wide

open, ready, if he so much as abstracted a wafer, to rush into the

street and give the alarm to the police.

As Mr Quilp folded his note (which was soon written: being a very

short one) he encountered the gaze of the small servant. He looked at

her, long and earnestly.

How are you?' said the dwarf, moistening a wafer with horrible

grimaces.

The Old Curiosity Shop