บทที่ บทที่ 20 · 第20章

Day after day as he bent his steps homeward, returning from some new

effort to procure employment, Kit raised his eyes to the window of the

little room he had so much commended to the child, and hoped to see

some indication of her presence. His own earnest wish, coupled with

the assurance he had received from Quilp, filled him with the belief

that she would yet arrive to claim the humble shelter he had offered,

and from the death of each day’s hope another hope sprung up to live

to-morrow.

‘I think they must certainly come to-morrow, eh mother?’ said Kit,

laying aside his hat with a weary air and sighing as he spoke. ‘They

have been gone a week. They surely couldn’t stop away more than a

week, could they now?’

The mother shook her head, and reminded him how often he had been

disappointed already.

‘For the matter of that,’ said Kit, ‘you speak true and sensible

enough, as you always do, mother. Still, I do consider that a week is

quite long enough for ‘em to be rambling about; don’t you say so?’

‘Quite long enough, Kit, longer than enough, but they may not come back

for all that.’

Kit was for a moment disposed to be vexed by this contradiction, and

not the less so from having anticipated it in his own mind and knowing

how just it was. But the impulse was only momentary, and the vexed

look became a kind one before it had crossed the room.

‘Then what do you think, mother, has become of ‘em? You don’t think

they’ve gone to sea, anyhow?’

‘Not gone for sailors, certainly,’ returned the mother with a smile.

‘But I can’t help thinking that they have gone to some foreign country.’

‘I say,’ cried Kit with a rueful face, ‘don’t talk like that, mother.’

‘I am afraid they have, and that’s the truth,’ she said. ‘It’s the

talk of all the neighbours, and there are some even that know of their

having been seen on board ship, and can tell you the name of the place

they’ve gone to, which is more than I can, my dear, for it’s a very

hard one.’

‘I don’t believe it,’ said Kit. ‘Not a word of it. A set of idle

chatterboxes, how should they know!’

‘They may be wrong of course,’ returned the mother, ‘I can’t tell about

that, though I don’t think it’s at all unlikely that they’re in the

right, for the talk is that the old gentleman had put by a little money

that nobody knew of, not even that ugly little man you talk to me

about--what’s his name--Quilp; and that he and Miss Nell have gone to

live abroad where it can’t be taken from them, and they will never be

disturbed. That don’t seem very far out of the way now, do it?’

Kit scratched his head mournfully, in reluctant admission that it did

not, and clambering up to the old nail took down the cage and set

himself to clean it and to feed the bird. His thoughts reverting from

this occupation to the little old gentleman who had given him the

shilling, he suddenly recollected that that was the very day--nay,

nearly the very hour--at which the little old gentleman had said he

should be at the Notary’s house again. He no sooner remembered this,

than he hung up the cage with great precipitation, and hastily

explaining the nature of his errand, went off at full speed to the

appointed place.

It was some two minutes after the time when he reached the spot, which

was a considerable distance from his home, but by great good luck the

little old gentleman had not yet arrived; at least there was no

pony-chaise to be seen, and it was not likely that he had come and gone

again in so short a space. Greatly relieved to find that he was not

too late, Kit leant against a lamp-post to take breath, and waited the

advent of the pony and his charge.

Sure enough, before long the pony came trotting round the corner of the

street, looking as obstinate as pony might, and picking his steps as if

he were spying about for the cleanest places, and would by no means

dirty his feet or hurry himself inconveniently. Behind the pony sat

the little old gentleman, and by the old gentleman’s side sat the

little old lady, carrying just such a nosegay as she had brought before.

The old gentleman, the old lady, the pony, and the chaise, came up the

street in perfect unanimity, until they arrived within some half a

dozen doors of the Notary’s house, when the pony, deceived by a

brass-plate beneath a tailor’s knocker, came to a halt, and maintained

by a sturdy silence, that that was the house they wanted.

‘Now, Sir, will you ha’ the goodness to go on; this is not the place,’

said the old gentleman.

The pony looked with great attention into a fire-plug which was near

him, and appeared to be quite absorbed in contemplating it.

‘Oh dear, such a naughty Whisker!’ cried the old lady. ‘After being so

good too, and coming along so well! I am quite ashamed of him. I

don’t know what we are to do with him, I really don’t.’

The pony having thoroughly satisfied himself as to the nature and

properties of the fire-plug, looked into the air after his old enemies

the flies, and as there happened to be one of them tickling his ear at

that moment he shook his head and whisked his tail, after which he

appeared full of thought but quite comfortable and collected. The old

gentleman having exhausted his powers of persuasion, alighted to lead

him; whereupon the pony, perhaps because he held this to be a

sufficient concession, perhaps because he happened to catch sight of

the other brass-plate, or perhaps because he was in a spiteful humour,

darted off with the old lady and stopped at the right house, leaving

the old gentleman to come panting on behind.

It was then that Kit presented himself at the pony’s head, and touched

his hat with a smile.

‘Why, bless me,’ cried the old gentleman, ‘the lad is here! My dear,

do you see?’

‘I said I’d be here, Sir,’ said Kit, patting Whisker’s neck. ‘I hope

you’ve had a pleasant ride, sir. He’s a very nice little pony.’

‘My dear,’ said the old gentleman. ‘This is an uncommon lad; a good

lad, I’m sure.’

‘I’m sure he is,’ rejoined the old lady. ‘A very good lad, and I am

sure he is a good son.’

Kit acknowledged these expressions of confidence by touching his hat

again and blushing very much. The old gentleman then handed the old

lady out, and after looking at him with an approving smile, they went

into the house--talking about him as they went, Kit could not help

feeling. Presently Mr Witherden, smelling very hard at the nosegay,

came to the window and looked at him, and after that Mr Abel came and

looked at him, and after that the old gentleman and lady came and

looked at him again, and after that they all came and looked at him

together, which Kit, feeling very much embarrassed by, made a pretence

of not observing. Therefore he patted the pony more and more; and this

liberty the pony most handsomely permitted.

The faces had not disappeared from the window many moments, when Mr

Chuckster in his official coat, and with his hat hanging on his head

just as it happened to fall from its peg, appeared upon the pavement,

and telling him he was wanted inside, bade him go in and he would mind

the chaise the while. In giving him this direction Mr Chuckster

remarked that he wished that he might be blessed if he could make out

whether he (Kit) was ‘precious raw’ or ‘precious deep,’ but intimated

by a distrustful shake of the head, that he inclined to the latter

opinion.

Kit entered the office in a great tremor, for he was not used to going

among strange ladies and gentlemen, and the tin boxes and bundles of

dusty papers had in his eyes an awful and venerable air. Mr Witherden

too was a bustling gentleman who talked loud and fast, and all eyes

were upon him, and he was very shabby.

‘Well, boy,’ said Mr Witherden, ‘you came to work out that

shilling;--not to get another, hey?’

‘No indeed, sir,’ replied Kit, taking courage to look up. ‘I never

thought of such a thing.’

‘Father alive?’ said the Notary.

‘Dead, sir.’

‘Mother?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Married again--eh?’

Kit made answer, not without some indignation, that she was a widow

with three children, and that as to her marrying again, if the

gentleman knew her he wouldn’t think of such a thing. At this reply Mr

Witherden buried his nose in the flowers again, and whispered behind

the nosegay to the old gentleman that he believed the lad was as honest

a lad as need be.

‘Now,’ said Mr Garland when they had made some further inquiries of

him, ‘I am not going to give you anything--’

‘Thank you, sir,’ Kit replied; and quite seriously too, for this

announcement seemed to free him from the suspicion which the Notary had

hinted.

‘--But,’ resumed the old gentleman, ‘perhaps I may want to know

something more about you, so tell me where you live, and I’ll put it

down in my pocket-book.’

Kit told him, and the old gentleman wrote down the address with his

pencil. He had scarcely done so, when there was a great uproar in the

street, and the old lady hurrying to the window cried that Whisker had

run away, upon which Kit darted out to the rescue, and the others

followed.

It seemed that Mr Chuckster had been standing with his hands in his

pockets looking carelessly at the pony, and occasionally insulting him

with such admonitions as ‘Stand still,’--‘Be quiet,’--‘Woa-a-a,’ and the

like, which by a pony of spirit cannot be borne. Consequently, the

pony being deterred by no considerations of duty or obedience, and not

having before him the slightest fear of the human eye, had at length

started off, and was at that moment rattling down the street--Mr

Chuckster, with his hat off and a pen behind his ear, hanging on in the

rear of the chaise and making futile attempts to draw it the other way,

to the unspeakable admiration of all beholders. Even in running away,

however, Whisker was perverse, for he had not gone very far when he

suddenly stopped, and before assistance could be rendered, commenced

backing at nearly as quick a pace as he had gone forward. By these

means Mr Chuckster was pushed and hustled to the office again, in a

most inglorious manner, and arrived in a state of great exhaustion and

discomfiture.

The old lady then stepped into her seat, and Mr Abel (whom they had

come to fetch) into his. The old gentleman, after reasoning with the

pony on the extreme impropriety of his conduct, and making the best

amends in his power to Mr Chuckster, took his place also, and they

drove away, waving a farewell to the Notary and his clerk, and more

than once turning to nod kindly to Kit as he watched them from the road.