Oldal 173 [173]
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excess of amazement and indignation;
and, twisting himself dexterously from
the doctor’s grasp, growled forth a volley
of horrid oaths, and retired into the house.
Before he could shut the door, however,
the doctor had passed into the parlour
without a word of parley. He looked
anxiously round: not an article of furni¬
ture, not a vestige of anything, animate
or inanimate, not even the position of the
cupboards, answered Oliver’s description !
“ Now,” said the hump-backed man,
who had watched him keenly, “ what do
you mean by coming into my house in
this violent way? Do you want to rob
me, or to murder me t — which is it?”
s Did you ever know a man come out to
do either in a chariot and pair, you ridicu¬
lous old vampire?" said the irritable doctor.
“ What do you want then?" demanded
the hunchback fiercely.
yourself off before I do you a mischief?
curse you !”
“ As soon as I think proper,” said Mr.
Losberne, looking into the other parlour,
which, like the first, bore no resemblance
whatever to Oliver’s account of it. “I
shal] find you out some day, my friend.”
“Will you?” sneered the ill-favoured
cripple. “If you ever want me, I’m
here. I haven’t lived here mad, and all
alone, for five-and-twenty years, to be
scared by you. You shall pay for this;
you shall pay for this.” And so saying,
the misshapen little demon set up a hide¬
ous yell, and danced upon the ground as
if frantic with rage.
“Stupid enough, this,” muttered the
doctor to himself: “the boy must have
made a mistake. There; put that in your
ket, and shut yourself up again.”
ith these words he flung the hunchback
a piece of money, and returned to the
carriage.
uttering the wildest imprecations and
curses all the way; but as Mr. Losberne
turned to speak to the driver, he looked
into the carriage, and eyed Oliver for an
instant with a glance so sharp and fierce,
and at the same time so furious and vin¬
dictive, that, waking or sleeping, he could
not forget it for months afterwards. He
continued to utter the most fearful impre-.
cations until the driver had resumed his
seat, and when they were once more on
their way, they could see him some dis¬
tance behind, beating his feet upon the
ground, and tearing his hair in transports
of frenzied rage.
“Did you know that be¬
silence.
fore, Oliver ?”’
6 No, sir.”
“Then don’t forget it another time.” |
s An ass,” said the doctor again after a
further silence of some minutes. “ Even
if it had been the right place, and the
right fellows had been there, what could
I have done single-handed? And if I had
had assistance, I see no good that I should
have done except leading to my own ex¬
posure, and an unavoidable statement of
the manner in which I have hushed up
this business. That would have served
me right, though. I am always involving
myself in some scrape or other by acting
upon these impulses, and it might have
done me good.” :
Now the fact was, that the excellent
doctor had never acted upon anything
else but impulse all through his life; and
it was no bad compliment to the nature
of the impulses which governed him, that
so far from being involved in any peculiar
troubles or misfortunes, he had the warm¬
est respect and esteem of all who knew
him. If the truth must be told, he was a
little out of temper for a minute or two
at being disappointed in procuring corro¬
borative evidence of Oliver’s story on the
very first occasion on which he had a
chance of obtaining any. He soon came
round again, however, and finding that
Oliver’s replies to his questions were still
as straight-forward and consistent, and
still delivered with as much apparent sin¬
cerity and truth, as they had ever been,
he made up his mind to attach full cre¬
dence to them from that time forth.
As Oliver knew the name of the street
in which Mr. Brownlow resided, they
were enabled to drive straight. thither.
When the coach turned into it, his heart
beat so violently that he could scarcely
draw his breath.
6 Now, my boy, which house is it ?” in¬
quired Mr. Losberne.
“That, that!” replied Oliver, pointing
eagerly out of the window. “The white
house. Oh! make haste! Pray make
haste! I feel as if J should die: it makes
me tremble so.”
“Come, come!” said the good doctor,
patting him on the shoulder. “ You will
see them directly, and they will be over¬
joyed to find you safe and well."
“Oh! I hope so!” cried Oliver. “ They
were so good to me; so very, very good
to me, sir.”
The coach rolled on. It stopped. No,
that was the wrong house. The next
11"