第286章

`It's a large sum to Mr Nickleby,' he said, in a dolorous voice. `Debt to be paid in full, nine hundred and seventy-five, four, three. Additional sum as per bond, five hundred pound. One thousand, four hundred and seventy-five pounds, four shillings, and threepence, tomorrow at twelve o'clock. On the other side, though, there's the per contra , by means of this pretty chick. But, again, there's the question whether I mightn't have brought all this about, myself. "Faint heart never won fair lady." Why was my heart so faint? Why didn't I boldly open it to Bray myself, and save one thousand four hundred and seventy-five, four, three?'

These reflections depressed the old usurer so much, as to wring a feeble groan or two from his breast, and cause him to declare, with uplifted hands, that he would die in a workhouse. Remembering on further cogitation, however, that under any circumstances he must have paid, or handsomely compounded for, Ralph's debt, and being by no means confident that he would have succeeded had he undertaken his enterprise alone, he regained his equanimity, and chattered and mowed over more satisfactory items, until the entrance of Peg Sliderskew interrupted him.

`Aha, Peg!' said Arthur, `what is it? What is it now, Peg?'

`It's the fowl,' replied Peg, holding up a plate containing a little--a very little one--quite a phenomenon of a fowl--so very small and skinny.

`A beautiful bird!' said Arthur, after inquiring the price, and finding it proportionate to the size. `With a rasher of ham, and an egg made into sauce, and potatoes, and greens, and an apple pudding, Peg, and a little bit of cheese, we shall have a dinner for an emperor. There'll only be she and me--and you, Peg, when we've done.'

`Don't you complain of the expense afterwards,' said Mrs Sliderskew, sulkily.

`I am afraid we must live expensively for the first week,' returned Arthur, with a groan, `and then we must make up for it. I won't eat more than I can help, and I know you love your old master too much to eat more than you can help, don't you, Peg?'

`Don't I what?' said Peg.

`Love your old master too much--'

`No, not a bit too much,' said Peg.

`Oh, dear, I wish the devil had this woman!' cried Arthur--`love him too much to eat more than you can help at his expense.'

`At his what?' said Peg.

`Oh dear! she can never hear the most important word, and hears all the others!' whined Gride. `At his expense--you catamaran!'

The last-mentioned tribute to the charms of Mrs Sliderskew being uttered in a whisper, that lady assented to the general proposition by a harsh growl, which was accompanied by a ring at the street-door.

`There's the bell,' said Arthur.

`Ay, ay; I know that,' rejoined Peg.

`Then why don't you go?' bawled Arthur.

`Go where?' retorted Peg. `I ain't doing any harm here, am I?'

Arthur Gride in reply repeated the word `bell' as loud as he could roar;and, his meaning being rendered further intelligible to Mrs Sliderskew's dull sense of hearing by pantomime expressive of ringing at a street-door, Peg hobbled out, after sharply demanding why he hadn't said there was a ring before, instead of talking about all manner of things that had nothing to do with it, and keeping her half-pint of beer waiting on the steps.

`There's a change come over you, Mrs Peg,' said Arthur, following her out with his eyes. `What it means I don't quite know; but, if it lasts, we shan't agree together long I see. You are turning crazy, I think. If you are, you must take yourself off, Mrs Peg--or be taken off. All's one to me.' Turning over the leaves of his book as he muttered this, he soon lighted upon something which attracted his attention, and forgot Peg Sliderskew and everything else in the engrossing interest of its pages.

The room had no other light than that which it derived from a dim and dirt-clogged lamp, whose lazy wick, being still further obscured by a dark shade, cast its feeble rays over a very little space, and left all beyond in heavy shadow. This lamp the money-lender had drawn so close to him, that there was only room between it and himself for the book over which he bent; and as he sat, with his elbows on the desk, and his sharp cheek-bones resting on his hands, it only served to bring out his ugly features in strong relief, together with the little table at which he sat, and to shroud all the rest of the chamber in a deep sullen gloom. Raising his eyes, and looking vacantly into this gloom as he made some mental calculation, Arthur Gride suddenly met the fixed gaze of a man.

`Thieves! thieves!' shrieked the usurer, starting up and folding his book to his breast, `robbers! murder!'

`What is the matter?' said the form, advancing.

`Keep off!' cried the trembling wretch. `Is it a man or a--a--'

`For what do you take me, if not for a man?' was the inquiry.

`Yes, yes,' cried Arthur Gride, shading his eyes with his hand, `it is a man, and not a spirit. It is a man. Robbers! robbers!'

`For what are these cries raised--unless indeed you know me, and have some purpose in your brain?' said the stranger, coming close up to him.

`I am no thief.'

`What then, and how come you here?' cried Gride, somewhat reassured, but still retreating from his visitor: `what is your name, and what do you want?'

`My name you need not know,' was the reply. `I came here, because Iwas shown the way by your servant. I have addressed you twice or thrice, but you were too profoundly engaged with your book to hear me, and I have been silently waiting until you should be less abstracted. What I want I will tell you, when you can summon up courage enough to hear and understand me.'

Arthur Gride, venturing to regard his visitor more attentively, and perceiving that he was a young man of good mien and bearing, returned to his seat, and muttering that there were bad characters about, and that this, with former attempts upon his house, had made him nervous, requested his visitor to sit down. This, however, he declined.