The dwarf said never a word, but watched his companion as he paced

restlessly up and down the room, and presently returned to his seat.

Here he remained, with his head bowed upon his breast for some

time, and then suddenly raising it, said,

Once, and once for all, have you brought me any money?'

No!' returned Quilp.

Then,' said the old man, clenching his hands desperately, and looking

upwards, 'the child and I are lost!'

'Neighbour,' said Quilp glancing sternly at him, and beating his hand

twice or thrice upon the table to attract his wandering attention, 'let

me be plain with you, and play a fairer game than when you held all

the cards, and I saw but the backs and nothing more. You have no

secret from me now.'

The old man looked up, trembling.

'You are surprised,' said Quilp. 'Well, perhaps that's natural. You have

no secret from me now, I say; no, not one. For now, I know, that all

those sums of money, that all those loans, advances, and supplies

that you have had from me, have found their way to - shall I say the

word?'

Aye!' replied the old man, 'say it, if you will.'

To the gaming-table,' rejoined Quilp, 'your nightly haunt. This was

the precious scheme to make your fortune, was it; this was the secret

certain source of wealth in which I was to have sunk my money (if I

had been the fool you took me for); this was your inexhaustible mine

of gold, your El Dorado, eh?'

'Yes,' cried the old man, turning upon him with gleaming eyes, 'it was.

It is. It will be, till I die.'

That I should have been blinded,' said Quilp looking contemptuously

at him, 'by a mere shallow gambler!'

I am no gambler,' cried the old man fiercely. 'I call Heaven to witness

that I never played for gain of mine, or love of play; that at every piece

I staked, I whispered to myself that orphan's name and called on

Heaven to bless the venture; - which it never did. Whom did it

prosper? Who were those with whom I played? Men who lived by

plunder, profligacy, and riot; squandering their gold in doing ill, and

propagating vice and evil. My winnings would have been from them,

my winnings would have been bestowed to the last farthing on a

The Old Curiosity Shop