Stranica 55 [55]
OLIVER
from the scrap of paper to Mr. Bumble ;
6 T never heard the name before."
Bumble shook his head as he replied,
tc Obstinate 2649 Mr. Sowerberry, very
obstinate ; proud, too, I’m afraid, sir." —
“Proud, eh?’ exclaimed Mr. Sower¬
" with a sneer.—‘* Come, that’s too
much.”
6 Oh, it’s sickening,” replied the bea¬
dle; “perfectly antimonial, Mr. Sower¬
berry.”
c So it is," acquiesced the undertaker.
“We only heard of them the night
before last,” said the beadle; “and we
shouldn’t have known anything about them
then, only a woman who lodges in the
game house made an application to the
porochial committee for them to send the
porochial surgeon to see a woman as was
very bad. He had gone out to dinner;
but his ’prentice, which .is a ses clever
lad, sent tem some medicine in a blacking¬
bottle, off-hand.”
6 Ah, there’s promptness,” said the un¬
dertaker.
6 Promptness, indeed!" replied the bea¬
dle. “ But what "s the consequence; what’s
the ungrateful behaviour of these rebels,
sir? y, the husband sends back word
that the medicine won’t suit his wife’s
complaint, and so she shan’t take it—says
she shan’t take it, sir. Good, strong, whole¬
some medicine, as was given with great
success to two Irish labourers and a coal¬
heaver only a week before—sent ’em for
nothing, with a blacking-bottle in, and he
sends back word that she shan’t take it,
sir.’
As the flagrant atrocity presented itself
to Mr. Bumble’s mind in full force, he
struck the counter sharply with his cane,
and became flushed with indignation.
66 |
“ Well,” said the undertaker,
ne—ver—did [a
“ Never did, sir!” ejaculated the beadle,
—t no, nor nobody never did; but, now
she’s dead, we’ve got to bury her, and
that’s the direction, and the sooner it’s
done, the better.”
Thus saying, Mr. Bumble put on his
cocked-hat wrong side first, in a fever of
parochial excitement, and flounced out
of the shop.
“ Why, he was so angry, Oliver, that
. he forgot even to ask after you,” said Mr.
. Sowerberry, looking after the beadle as he
strode down the street.
“ Yes, sir,” replied Oliver, who had
. carefully kept himself out of sight during
the interview, and who was shaking from
head to foot at the mere recollection of the
sound . Mr. Bumble’s voice. He needn’t
kk
29
have taken the trouble to shrink from Mr.
Bumble glance, however; for that func¬
tionary on whom the prediction of the
gentleman in the white waistcoat had
made a very strong impression, thought
that now the undertaker had got Oliver
upon trial, the subject was better avoided,
until such time as he should be firmly
bound for seven years, and all danger of
his being returned upon the hands of the
arish should be thus effectually and legal¬
y overcome.
c Well,” said Mr. Sowerberry, taking
up his hat, “the sooner this job is done,
the better. Noah, look after the shop.
Oliver, put on your cap, and come with
me.” Oliver obeyed, and followed his
master on his professional mission. }
They walked on for some time through
the most crowded and densely inhabited
part of the town, and then striking down
a narrow street more dirty and miserable
than any they had yet passed through,
paused to look for the house which was
the object of their search. ‘The houses
on either side were high and large, but
very old; and tenanted by people of the
poorest class, as their neglected appear¬
ance would have sufficiently denoted with¬
out the concurrent testimony afforded by
the squalid looks of the few men and wo¬
men who, with folded arms and bodies
half doubled, occasionally skulked like
shadows along. A great many of the
* 3 hop-fronts ; but they were
TWIST.
tenements had s
fast closed, and mouldering away: only
the upper rooms being imhabited. Others,
which had become insecure from age and
decay, were prevented from falling into
the street by the huge beams of wood
which were reared against the tottering
walls, and firmly planted in the read; but
even these erazy dens seemed to have been
selected as the nightly haunts of some
houseless wretches, for many of the rough
boards which supplied the place of door
and window, were wrenched from their
positions to afford an aperture wide enough
for the passage of a human body. The
kennel was stagnant and filthy; the very
rats that here and there lay putrefying
in its rottenness, were hideous with famine.
There was neither knocker nor bell¬
handle at the open door where Oliver and
his master stopped; so, groping his way
cautiously through the dark e, and
bidding Oliver keep close to him and not
top of the first flight of stairs, and, stum¬
bling against a door on the landing, rapped
at it with his knuckles.
It was opened by a young girl of thir¬