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Chapter XIII
Daniel Quilp of Tower Hill, and Sampson Brass of Bevis Marks in the
city of London, Gentleman, one of her Majesty's attornies of the
Courts of the King's Bench and Common Pleas at Westminster and a
solicitor of the High Court of Chancery, slumbered on, unconscious
and unsuspicious of any mischance, until a knocking on the street
door, often repeated and gradually mounting up from a modest single
rap to a perfect battery of knocks, fired in long discharges with a very
short interval between, caused the said Daniel Quilp to struggle into a
horizontal position, and to stare at the ceiling with a drowsy
indifference, betokening that he heard the noise and rather wondered
at the same, and couldn't be at the trouble of bestowing any further
thought upon the subject.
As the knocking, however, instead of accommodating itself to his lazy
state, increased in vigour and became more importunate, as if in
earnest remonstrance against his falling asleep again, now that he
had once opened his eyes, Daniel Quilp began by degrees to
comprehend the possibility of there being somebody at the door; and
thus he gradually came to recollect that it was Friday morning, and he
had ordered Mrs Quilp to be in waiting upon him at an early hour.
Mr Brass, after writhing about, in a great many strange attitudes, and
often twisting his face and eyes into an expression like that which is
usually produced by eating gooseberries very early in the season, was
by this time awake also. Seeing that Mr Quilp invested himself in his
every-day garments, he hastened to do the like, putting on his shoes
before his stockings, and thrusting his legs into his coat sleeves, and
making such other small mistakes in his toilet as are not uncommon
to those who dress in a hurry, and labour under the agitation of
having been suddenly roused. While the attorney was thus engaged,
the dwarf was groping under the table, muttering desperate
imprecations on himself, and mankind in general, and all inanimate
objects to boot, which suggested to Mr Brass the question, 'what's the
matter?'
'The key,' said the dwarf, looking viciously about him, 'the door-key -
that's the matter. D'ye know anything of it?'
'
'
How should I know anything of it, sir?' returned Mr Brass.
How should you?' repeated Quilp with a sneer. 'You're a nice lawyer,
an't you? Ugh, you idiot!'
Not caring to represent to the dwarf in his present humour, that the
loss of a key by another person could scarcely be said to affect his
(
Brass's) legal knowledge in any material degree, Mr Brass humbly
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