скачать книгу бесплатно
Short shook his head.
“Don’t you know?” asked the host, turning to Mr. Codlin.
“Not I,” he replied. “They’re no good, I suppose.”
“They’re no harm,” said Short. “And I tell you: the old man isn’t in his right mind[54 - isn’t in his right mind – не в своём уме]. They’re not used to this way of life. Don’t tell me that that handsome child has been in the habit of prowling about[55 - in the habit of prowling about – привыкла бродить по дорогам].”
“Well, who does tell you she has?” growled Mr. Codlin.
“Hear me out, the old man ran away from his relatives and took this delicate young creature to be his guide and companion. Now I’m not a going to stand that[56 - I’m not a going to stand that – я этого не потерплю].”
“You’re not a going to stand that!” cried Mr. Codlin, pulling his hair with both hands.
“I,” repeated Short emphatically and slowly, “am not a going to stand it. I am not a going to see this fair young child in an inappropriate company. Therefore I shall take measures for detaining of them, and restoring them to their relatives.”
“Short,” said Mr. Codlin, “it’s possible that there may be good sense in what you’ve said. If there is, and there can be a reward, Short, remember that we’re partners in everything!”
His companion nodded, and the child awoke at the instant.
18
The next day, after bidding the old man goodnight, Nell retired to her poor garret, but had scarcely closed the door, when it gently opened. She was a little startled by the sight of Mr. Thomas Codlin, whom she had left down-stairs.
“What is the matter?” said the child.
“Nothing’s the matter, my dear,” returned her visitor. “I’m your friend. Perhaps you haven’t thought so, but it’s me that’s your friend not him.”
“Not who?” the child inquired.
“Short, my dear. I tell you what,” said Codlin, “You see, I’m the real, open-hearted man. I don’t look it, but I am indeed. Short’s very well, and seems kind, but he overdoes it[57 - he overdoes it – он переигрывает]. Now I don’t.”
The child was puzzled, and did not know not tell what to say.
“Take my advice,” said Codlin: “don’t ask me why, but take it. As long as you travel with us, keep as near me as you can. Don’t offer to leave us but always stick to me and say that I’m your friend. Will you bear that in mind, my dear, and always say that it was me that was your friend?”
“Say so where, and when?” inquired the child innocently.
“O, nowhere in particular,” replied Codlin; “I’m only worried about you. Why didn’t you tell me your little history that about you and the poor old gentleman? I’m the best adviser that ever was, and so interested in you so much more interested than Short. And you needn’t tell Short, you know, that we’ve had this little talk together. God bless you. Recollect the friend. Codlin’s the friend, not Short. Your real friend is Codlin, not Short.”
Thomas Codlin stole away on tip-toe[58 - on tip-toe – на цыпочках], leaving the child in a state of extreme surprise. And suddenly somebody knocked at hers.
“Yes,” said the child.
“It’s me, Short” a voice called through the key-hole. “I only wanted to say that we must be off early tomorrow morning, my dear. Will you go with us? I’ll call you.”
The child answered “Yes”. She felt some uneasiness at the anxiety of these men.
19
Very early next morning, Short fulfilled his promise, and knocked softly at her door. Nell started from her bed without delay, and roused the old man.
It was dark before they reached the town. Here all was tumult and confusion; the streets were filled with throngs of people. At length they passed through the town and made for the race-course[59 - race-course – ипподром], which was upon an open heath. They saw a big tent.
After a scanty supper, Nell and the old man lay down to rest in a corner of a tent, and slept, despite the busy preparations that were going on around them all night long.
And now they had come to the time when they must beg their bread. Soon after sunrise in the morning the child, while the two men lay dozing in another corner, plucked grandfather by the sleeve, and slightly glancing towards them, said, in a low voice
“Grandfather, these men suspect that we have secretly left our relatives, and I think, they want to sent us back. We must get away from them.”
“How?” muttered the old man. “Dear Nelly, how? They will easily catch me, and never let me see you anymore!”
“You’re trembling,” said the child. “Keep close to me all day. Never mind them, don’t look at them, but me. I shall find a time when we can go away. When I do, come with me, and do not stop or speak a word. Hush! That’s all.”
“Halloa! what are you doing, my dear?” said Mr. Codlin, raising his head, and yawning. Then observing that his companion was asleep, he added in an earnest whisper, “Codlin’s the friend, remember not Short.”
Late in the day, Mr. Codlin pitched the show in a convenient spot, and the spectators were soon in the very triumph of the scene. That was the very moment. They seized it, and fled.
They made a path through booths and carriages and throngs of people, and never once stopped to look behind. They made for the open fields.
20
Kit raised his eyes to the window of Nell’s little room, 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 arrive.
“I think they must certainly come tomorrow, eh mother?” said Kit, laying aside his hat 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.
“I consider,” said Kit, “that a week is quite long enough for them 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 thought she was right.
“Then what do you think, mother, has become of them? You don’t think they’ve gone to sea, anyhow?”
“Not gone for sailors, certainly,” returned the mother with a smile. “But I think 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.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Kit. “Not a word of it. How should they know!”
“They may be wrong of course,” returned the mother, “but the people say that the old gentleman and Miss Nell have gone to live abroad where they will never be disturbed.”
Kit scratched his head mournfully. Suddenly a knock at the door was heard. Kit opened the door and saw a little old gentleman and a little old lady.
“Why, bless me,” cried the old gentleman, “the lad is here! My dear, do you see? This is a very 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.”
The old gentleman then handed the old lady out, and after looking at him with an approving smile, they went into the house.
“Well, boy,” said the old gentleman, smiling; “We are here before you, you see, Christopher[60 - Christopher – Кристофер].”
“Yes, sir,” said Kit; and as he said it, he looked towards his mother for an explanation of the visit.
“This gentleman, Mr. Garland[61 - Garland – Гарленд], was kind enough, my dear,” said she, in reply to this mute interrogation, “to ask me yesterday whether you were in a good place, or in any place at all, and when I told him no, you were not in any, he was so good as to say that…”
“That we wanted a good lad in our house,” said the old gentleman and the old lady both together.
“You see, my good woman,” said Mrs. Garland to Kit’s mother, “that it’s necessary to be very careful and particular in such a matter as this, for we’re only three in family, and are very quiet people, and it would be a sad thing if we made any kind of mistake, and found things different from what we hoped and expected.”
To this, Kit’s mother replied, that certainly it was quite true, and quite right, and quite proper and her son was a very good son though she was his mother, in which respect, she was bold to say, he took after his father, who was not only a good son to his mother, but the best of husbands and the best of fathers besides. After this long story she wiped her eyes with her apron, and patted her little son’s head, who was staring at the strange lady and gentleman.
Mr. Garland put some questions to Kit respecting his qualifications and general acquirements. It was settled that Kit would start to work on the next day, and the money is six pound a year. Finally, the little old couple took their leaves; being escorted by their new attendant.
“Well, mother,” said Kit, hurrying back into the house, “I think my fortune’s about made now.”
“I should think it was indeed, Kit,” rejoined his mother. “Six pound a year! Only think!”
“Ah!” said Kit. “There’s a property!”
21
“Hem!” croaked a strange voice. “What’s that about six pound a year? What about six pound a year?” And as the voice made this inquiry, Daniel Quilp walked in with Richard Swiveller at his heels.
“Who said he would have six pound a year?” said Quilp, looking sharply round. “Did the old man say it, or did little Nell say it? And what’s he to have it for, and where are they, eh?”
The good woman was so much alarmed by the sudden apparition of this unknown ugly dwarf, that she hastily caught the baby from its cradle and retreated into the furthest corner of the room.
“Don’t be frightened, mistress,” said Quilp, after a pause. “Your son knows me; I don’t eat babies; I don’t like them. Now you Kit, why haven’t you come to me as you promised?”
“What should I come for?” retorted Kit. “I hadn’t any business with you, no more than you had with me.”
“Here, mistress,” said Quilp, turning quickly away, and appealing from Kit to his mother. “When did his old master come or send here last? Is he here now? If not, where’s he gone?”
“He has not been here at all,” she replied. “We don’t know where they have gone.”
Quilp glanced at Richard Swiveller, and assumed that he had come in search of some information of the fugitives. He supposed he was right?
“Yes,” said Dick, “that was the object of the present expedition.”
“You seem disappointed,” observed Quilp.
“It baffles description[62 - it baffles description – это не поддаётся описанию], sir, that’s all,” returned Dick.
The dwarf looked at Richard with a sarcastic smile, but Richard continued to deplore his fate with mournful and despondent looks.
“I am disappointed myself,” said Quilp, “I have friendly feeling for them; but you have real reasons, private reasons I have no doubt, for your disappointment, and therefore it comes heavier than mine.”
“Why, of course it does,” Dick observed, testily.
“Upon my word, I’m very sorry, very sorry. But as we are companions in adversity[63 - companions in adversity – товарищи по несчастью], shall we be companions in the surest way of forgetting it? If you had no particular business, now, to lead you in another direction,” urged Quilp, plucking him by the sleeve and looking slyly up into his face out of the corners of his eyes, “there is a house by the water-side where they have excellent gin. The landlord knows me. There’s a little summer-house[64 - summer-house – беседка] overlooking the river, where we might take a glass of this delicious liquor, Mr. Swiveller, eh?”
As the dwarf spoke, Dick’s face relaxed into a compliant smile, and his brows slowly unbent. Off they went.
The summer-house of which Mr. Quilp had spoken was a rugged wooden box, rotten and bare to see, which overhung the river’s mud, and threatened to slide down into it. The tavern to which it belonged was a crazy building, undermined by the rats. The rooms were low and damp, the clammy walls were pierced with chinks and holes. To this inviting spot Mr. Quilp led Richard Swiveller.
22
Roads stretch a long, long way. The old man and the child passed, without stopping, two or three inconsiderable clusters of cottages, a public-house where they had some bread and cheese, and they were very weary and fatigued.
In the evening they arrived at a point where the road made a sharp turn and struck across a common[65 - struck across a common – круто сворачивала через выгон]. On the border of this common, and close to the hedge which divided it from the cultivated fields, a caravan was drawn up to rest.
It was not a shabby, dingy, dusty cart, but a smart little house upon wheels, with white dimity curtains festooning the windows. Neither was it a gypsy caravan, for at the open door sat a Christian lady, stout and comfortable to look upon, who wore a large bonnet trembling with bows. This lady was drinking tea. The tea-things, including a bottle and a cold knuckle of ham, were set forth upon a drum, covered with a white napkin.
It happened that at that moment the lady beheld an old man and a young child walking slowly by.
“Hey!” cried the lady of the caravan. “Yes, to be sure, who won the prize, child?”
“Won what, ma’am?” asked Nell.
“The prize, at the races, child.”
“I don’t know, ma’am.”
“Don’t know!” repeated the lady of the caravan; “why, you were there. I saw you with my own eyes.”
Nell was not a little alarmed to hear this.
“And very sorry I was,” said the lady of the caravan, “to see you in company with a Punch; a low, practical, vulgar wretch.”
“I was there by chance,” returned the child; “we didn’t know our way, and the two men were very kind to us, and let us travel with them. Do you do you know them, ma’am?”
“Know them, child!” cried the lady of the caravan in a sort of shriek. “Know them! But you’re young and inexperienced, and that’s your excuse for asking such a question.”
“Oh ma’am,” said the child, fearing she had committed some grievous fault. “I beg your pardon.”
It was granted immediately. The child then explained that they had left the races, and were travelling to the next town on that road, where they purposed to spend the night.
“Come nearer, nearer still,” said the lady of the caravan, “Are you hungry, child?”
“Not very, but we are tired, and it is a long way “
“Well, hungry or not, you had better have some tea,” rejoined her new acquaintance. “I suppose you are agreeable to that, old gentleman?”
The grandfather humbly pulled off his hat and thanked her. She handed down to them the tea-tray, the bread and butter, and the knuckle of ham. So they made a hearty meal and enjoyed it to the utmost.
