'Right again!' exclaimed Quilp, with another contemptuous look at

Sampson, 'always foremost! I say, Sally, he is a yelping, insolent dog

to all besides, and most of all, to me. In short, I owe him a grudge.'

That's enough, sir,' said Sampson.

No, it's not enough, sir,' sneered Quilp; 'will you hear me out? Besides

that I owe him a grudge on that account, he thwarts me at this

minute, and stands between me and an end which might otherwise

prove a golden one to us all. Apart from that, I repeat that he crosses

my humour, and I hate him. Now, you know the lad, and can guess

the rest. Devise your own means of putting him out of my way, and

execute them. Shall it be done?'

It shall, sir,' said Sampson.

Then give me your hand,' retorted Quilp. 'Sally, girl, yours. I rely as

much, or more, on you than him. Tom Scott comes back. Lantern,

pipes, more grog, and a jolly night of it!'

No other word was spoken, no other look exchanged, which had the

slightest reference to this, the real occasion of their meeting. The trio

were well accustomed to act together, and were linked to each other

by ties of mutual interest and advantage, and nothing more was

needed. Resuming his boisterous manner with the same ease with

which he had thrown it off, Quilp was in an instant the same

uproarious, reckless little savage he had been a few seconds before. It

was ten o'clock at night before the amiable Sally supported her

beloved and loving brother from the Wilderness, by which time he

needed the utmost support her tender frame could render; his walk

being from some unknown reason anything but steady, and his legs

constantly doubling up in unexpected places.

Overpowered, notwithstanding his late prolonged slumbers, by the

fatigues of the last few days, the dwarf lost no time in creeping to his

dainty house, and was soon dreaming in his hammock. Leaving him

to visions, in which perhaps the quiet figures we quitted in the old

church porch were not without their share, be it our task to rejoin

them as they sat and watched.

The Old Curiosity Shop