Oh there's no worst in it,' said the small servant. 'It hasn't anything to

do with you.'

Has it anything to do with - is it anything you heard through chinks

or keyholes - and that you were not intended to hear?' asked Dick, in

a breathless state.

Yes,' replied the small servant.

In - in Bevis Marks?' pursued Dick hastily. 'Conversations between

Brass and Sally?'

'Yes,' cried the small servant again.

Richard Swiveller thrust his lank arm out of bed, and, gripping her by

the wrist and drawing her close to him, bade her out with it, and

freely too, or he would not answer for the consequences; being wholly

unable to endure the state of excitement and expectation. She, seeing

that he was greatly agitated, and that the effects of postponing her

revelation might be much more injurious than any that were likely to

ensue from its being made at once, promised compliance, on condition

that the patient kept himself perfectly quiet, and abstained from

starting up or tossing about.

But if you begin to do that,' said the small servant, 'I'll leave off. And

so I tell you.'

You can't leave off, till you have gone on,' said Dick. 'And do go on,

there's a darling. Speak, sister, speak. Pretty Polly say. Oh tell me

when, and tell me where, pray Marchioness, I beseech you!'

Unable to resist these fervent adjurations, which Richard Swiveller

poured out as passionately as if they had been of the most solemn and

tremendous nature, his companion spoke thus:

Well! Before I run away, I used to sleep in the kitchen - where we

played cards, you know. Miss Sally used to keep the key of the kitchen

door in her pocket, and she always come down at night to take away

the candle and rake out the fire. When she had done that, she left me

to go to bed in the dark, locked the door on the outside, put the key in

her pocket again, and kept me locked up till she come down in the

morning - very early I can tell you - and let me out. I was terrible

afraid of being kept like this, because if there was a fire, I thought

they might forget me and only take care of themselves you know. So,

whenever I see an old rusty key anywhere, I picked it up and tried if it

would fit the door, and at last I found in the dust cellar a key that did

fit it.'

The Old Curiosity Shop