Oldal 55 [55]
OCR
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 beadle; “perfectly antimonial, Mr. Sowerberry.” 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 blackingbottle, off-hand.” 6 Ah, there’s promptness,” said the undertaker. 6 Promptness, indeed!" replied the beadle. “ 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, wholesome medicine, as was given with great success to two Irish labourers and a coalheaver 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 functionary 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 legaly 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 appearance would have sufficiently denoted without the concurrent testimony afforded by the squalid looks of the few men and women 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 bellhandle 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, stumbling against a door on the landing, rapped at it with his knuckles. It was opened by a young girl of thir
