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a A “No, no,”- cried Montague;
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- ‘-3 JIIARTIN ‘OHUZZLEWIZN
v . ‘,‘ You’d get there in a few minutes, and be able to send
assistance to meet us, if ‘ you went forward, post-boy,”
saidJonas.1r"‘Troton!’.’ i’ i - =' ‘ '
“ we’ll keep together.”
"Why, what achicken you arel You are not afraid
of being robbed ;'ure you?” said Jonas. ‘
‘ ‘.‘ I am not afraid of anything,” replied the other, whose
-looks and manner were in fiat contradiction to his words.
1‘ But we'll keep together.” 0 , i '
“You were mighty anxious about the boy, a minute
zi‘go,”, said Jonas. “ I suppose you know that he may die
intherneau time?” 9- :1 I I "
3‘ ‘.‘ Aye, aye. , I know. .=Bnt we'll keep together.”
1 = As it was clear that he was not to be moved from this
-determination,‘ Jonas made no other rejoinder than such
. as his face expressed ; and they proceeded in company.
iTliey had three or four-good miles to travel; and the
:way was not made easier by the state of the road, the
burden"by which they were embarrassed, or their own
fstifi and sore condition. A After a sufficiently long and
painful walk, they arrived at the Inn : and having knocked
ithe people up (it being yet very early in the morning),
-sent out messengers to see, to the carriage and its con-
tents, and roused a surgeon from his bed to tend the
'chief sufferer. mAl1 the service he could render, he ren-
dered promptly and skilfully. But he gave it as his
opinion that the boy was labouring under a severe con-
cussion of the brain, and that Mr. Bailey’s mortal course
wasrun.' ' U I r 7 -
If Montague’s strong interest in the announcement
could have been considered as unselfish, in any degree,
"it might have been a redeeming trait in a character that
had no such lineaments to spare. But it was not difficult
to see’ that, for some unexpressed reason best appreciated
by himself, he attached a strange value to the company
and presence of this mere child.’ XVhen, after receiving
-. some assistance from the surgeon himselfghe retired to
‘the bedroom‘ prepared-for himyand it was broad day,
his mind was still dwelling on this theme.‘ i ‘
w ‘.‘I would vrathernhave lost,” he said, “a thousand
pounds than lost the boy just now. But I'll return home
alone. I am resolved upon that. Chuzzlewit shall go
forward first, and I will follow in my own time. I'll
-have no more of this,” he added, wiping his damp fore-
head. “ Twenty-four hours of this would turn my hair
gray!” ,-.' ., , v '
::’After exainininghis chamber, and looking under the
‘bed, and in the cupboards, and even’ behind the curtains.
iwith unusual caution (although it was, as has been said,
vbroad day) he double-locked the door by which he had
entered, and retired to rest. There was another door in
'.the room, but it was locked on the outer side ; and with
what place it communicated, he knew not. . I
5 A‘ is fears or evil conscience reproduced this door in all
his dreams. He dreamed that a dreadful secret was con-
nected with it : a secret which he knew, and yet did not
know, for although he was heavily responsible for it, and
:1 party to it, he was harassed even in his vision by a dis-
-tracting uncertainty in reference to its import. Incohe-
irentlyn entwined with ’this dream was another. W111011
frepresented it as the liidin -place of an enemy, a slmdow.
ia phantom ; and made it t e business of his life ‘to keep
the terrible creature closed up, and , prevent it from
zforcing its way in upon him. VVith this View Nadgett,
5 and he, and a strange man with a bloody smell!‘ “P011 m5
head (who told him that he had been his playfel10W,‘ ‘md
told him, too, the real name of 'an old schoolmatq. f01”'
Kottcn until then), workedwith iron plates and nails to
make the door secure ; but though they worked never so
hard, it was all in‘vain,'for the nails broke.01‘ changed
.10 soft twins, or what was worse, to ‘V0“P5:’ b‘%"""99“
their finger; ; that wood of the door splintered and
crumbled, so that even inails would not remain in it;
and the iron plates curled up like hot P3P‘3"- A11 ‘M5
.time the creature on t
the shape of man, or beast, he neither knew nor sollght
tto know‘-was gaining on them. ‘ But 1115 greatest. terror
lwas when the man with the bloody smear “P0” 1"5 head
demanded of him if he knew this creature s name, and
said that he would whisper it. ‘At thistho dreamer fell
be other side-whether it was in -
1131
lips, he saw that they formed the utterance of the letter
“ J ;” and crying out aloud that the secret was discovered,
and they wereall lost, he awoke.’ . ‘ . '
Awake to find Jonas standing at hisbedside watching
him. And that very door wide open.” ‘
As their eyes inet, J ouas retreated a ' few ‘ paces, and
Montague sprang out of bed. ‘ ‘ ’ .
' “ Heyday !” said Jonas. “ You’re'all alive this morn-.
rope violently : “ What are you doing here?"
“It's your room to be sure,” said Jonas; “but rm
almost inclined to ask you what‘gou are doing here‘!
My room is on the other side of that door. No one told
me last night not to open it. I thought it led into a
passage, and was coming out to order breakfast. There's
-tliere’s no bell in my room.”
Montague had in the mean time admitted the man
with his hot water and boots, who hearing this, said,
yes, there was; and passed into the adjoining room to
point it out, at the head of the bed. ‘
“I conldn’t find it, then,” said Jonas: “it’s all the
same. Shall I order breakfast?”
Montague answered in the nfiirmativc. ‘Vhen Jonas
had retired, whistling, though his own room, he opened
the door of communication, to take out the key and
fasten it on the inner side. But it was taken out
already. '
He dragged a table against the door and sat down to
collect himself, as if his dreams still had some influence
upon his mind.
“An evil journey,” he repeated several times. “An
evil journey. But I’ll travel home alone. I’ll have no
more of this 1” ‘ '
His presentiment, or superstition, that it was an evil
journey, did not at all deter him from doing the evil for
which’the journey was undertaken. VVith this in view,
he dressed himself more carefully than usual to make a
favourable impression on Mr. Pecksniff: and, reassured
by his own appearance, the beauty of the morning, and
the flashing of the wet boughs outside his window in the
merry sunshine, was soon sufliciently inspirited to swear
a few round oaths, and hum the fag-end of a song. ‘
But he still muttered to himself at intervals, for all
that : “ I’ll travel home alone I”
.m..-.
CHAPTER XLIII.
II F t me: 0 several Piople. Mr. Prckmif is
Ilagrhibifzliufdcfhglkliiilifdelof Pbfwer; andtwiefds the wine irillz
Fortitude and illzzyzirznimilv . ,
,. ON the night of the storm, Mrs. Lupin, hostess of the
Blue Dragon, sat by herself in her little bar. Her soli-
tarv condition, or the bad weather, or both united, made
Mrs. Lupin thoughtful, not to say sorrowful. As she
sat with her chin upon her hand, looking 0I1t‘l.hI'O1lgll a
low back lattice, rendered dim in the brightest day-time
by clustering vine-leaves, she shook her head very often,
and said, “ Dear me 1 Ah, dear, dear me I’’ '
It was a melancholy time, even in the snugncss of the
Dragon bar. The rich expanse of corn-field, pasture-
land, green slope, and gentle undulatir-in, with its
sparkling brooks, its many hedgerows, and its clumps of
beautiful trees, was black and dreary, from the diamond
panes of the lattice away to the far horizon, where the
thunder seemed to roll along the hills. . .
beat down the tender branches of vine and Jessamine,
and trampled on them ‘in its fury; and wheii the light-
ning gleanied, it showed the tearful leaves shivering and
cowering togetlier at the window, and tapping at ‘it
urgently. as if bcseeching to be sheltered from the dis-
mal night. , ,
As a mark of her respect for the liglitning, Mrs. Lu-
pin had removed licr candle to the chimney-piece. Her
basket of needlework stood unlieeded at her elbow ; her
supper, spread on a round table not far off, was untested ;
and the knives had been removed for fear of attraction.
She had sat for a long time with her chin upon her hand,
saying to herself atintervals, “Dear niol Ah, dear,
-upo 11' 1; ,h' h le‘blood thrilling with inexpli-
cabf; felzfr, :I:gsl1elllfll‘lv$ eoars. But looking at the speaker S
dear mo l ’.’
‘:Alive l” the other stamniered, as he pulled the bell- I
The heavy rain '