Here, Mr Swiveller made a violent demonstration with his legs. But the

small servant immediately pausing in her talk, he subsided again, and

pleading a momentary forgetfulness of their compact, entreated her to

proceed.

They kept me very short,' said the small servant. 'Oh! you can't think

how short they kept me! So I used to come out at night after they'd

gone to bed, and feel about in the dark for bits of biscuit, or

sangwitches that you'd left in the office, or even pieces of orange peel

to put into cold water and make believe it was wine. Did you ever taste

orange peel and water?'

Mr Swiveller replied that he had never tasted that ardent liquor; and

once more urged his friend to resume the thread of her narrative.

If you make believe very much, it's quite nice,' said the small servant,

but if you don't, you know, it seems as if it would bear a little more

seasoning, certainly. Well, sometimes I used to come out after they'd

gone to bed, and sometimes before, you know; and one or two nights

before there was all that precious noise in the office - when the young

man was took, I mean - I come upstairs while Mr Brass and Miss Sally

was a-sittin' at the office fire; and I tell you the truth, that I come to

listen again, about the key of the safe.'

Mr Swiveller gathered up his knees so as to make a great cone of the

bedclothes, and conveyed into his countenance an expression of the

utmost concern. But the small servant pausing, and holding up her

finger, the cone gently disappeared, though the look of concern did

not.

'There was him and her,' said the small servant, 'a-sittin' by the fire,

and talking softly together. Mr Brass says to Miss Sally, ‘Upon my

word,’ he says ‘it's a dangerous thing, and it might get us into a world

of trouble, and I don't half like it.’ She says - you know her way - she

says, ‘You're the chickenest-hearted, feeblest, faintest man I ever see,

and I think,’ she says, ‘that I ought to have been the brother, and you

the sister. Isn't Quilp,’ she says, ‘our principal support?’ ‘He certainly

is,’ says Mr Brass, ‘And an't we,’ she says, ‘constantly ruining

somebody or other in the way of business?’ ‘We certainly are,’ says Mr

Brass. ‘Then does it signify,’ she says, ‘about ruining this Kit when

Quilp desires it?’ ‘It certainly does not signify,’ says Mr Brass. Then

they whispered and laughed for a long time about there being no

danger if it was well done, and then Mr Brass pulls out his pocket-

book, and says, ‘Well,’ he says, 'here it is - Quilp's own five-pound

note. We'll agree that way, then,’ he says. ‘Kit's coming to-morrow

morning, I know. While he's up-stairs, you'll get out of the way, and

I'll clear off Mr Richard. Having Kit alone, I'll hold him in conversation,

and put this property in his hat. I'll manage so, besides,’ he says, 'that

The Old Curiosity Shop