Dombey and Son - Charles Dickens (i love reading .TXT) š
- Author: Charles Dickens
- Performer: -
Book online Ā«Dombey and Son - Charles Dickens (i love reading .TXT) šĀ». Author Charles Dickens
There lived in those days, round the cornerāin Bishopsgate Street Withoutāone Brogley, sworn broker and appraiser, who kept a shop where every description of second-hand furniture was exhibited in the most uncomfortable aspect, and under circumstances and in combinations the most completely foreign to its purpose. Dozens of chairs hooked on to washing-stands, which with difficulty poised themselves on the shoulders of sideboards, which in their turn stood upon the wrong side of dining-tables, gymnastic with their legs upward on the tops of other dining-tables, were among its most reasonable arrangements. A banquet array of dish-covers, wine-glasses, and decanters was generally to be seen, spread forth upon the bosom of a four-post bedstead, for the entertainment of such genial company as half-a-dozen pokers, and a hall lamp. A set of window curtains with no windows belonging to them, would be seen gracefully draping a barricade of chests of drawers, loaded with little jars from chemistsā shops; while a homeless hearthrug severed from its natural companion the fireside, braved the shrewd east wind in its adversity, and trembled in melancholy accord with the shrill complainings of a cabinet piano, wasting away, a string a day, and faintly resounding to the noises of the street in its jangling and distracted brain. Of motionless clocks that never stirred a finger, and seemed as incapable of being successfully wound up, as the pecuniary affairs of their former owners, there was always great choice in Mr Brogleyās shop; and various looking-glasses, accidentally placed at compound interest of reflection and refraction, presented to the eye an eternal perspective of bankruptcy and ruin.
Mr Brogley himself was a moist-eyed, pink-complexioned, crisp-haired man, of a bulky figure and an easy temperāfor that class of Caius Marius who sits upon the ruins of other peopleās Carthages, can keep up his spirits well enough. He had looked in at Solomonās shop sometimes, to ask a question about articles in Solomonās way of business; and Walter knew him sufficiently to give him good day when they met in the street. But as that was the extent of the brokerās acquaintance with Solomon Gills also, Walter was not a little surprised when he came back in the course of the forenoon, agreeably to his promise, to find Mr Brogley sitting in the back parlour with his hands in his pockets, and his hat hanging up behind the door.
āWell, Uncle Sol!ā said Walter. The old man was sitting ruefully on the opposite side of the table, with his spectacles over his eyes, for a wonder, instead of on his forehead. āHow are you now?ā
Solomon shook his head, and waved one hand towards the broker, as introducing him.
āIs there anything the matter?ā asked Walter, with a catching in his breath.
āNo, no. Thereās nothing the matter, said Mr Brogley. āDonāt let it put you out of the way.ā
Walter looked from the broker to his Uncle in mute amazement.
āThe fact is,ā said Mr Brogley, āthereās a little payment on a bond debt āthree hundred and seventy odd, overdue: and Iām in possession.ā
āIn possession!ā cried Walter, looking round at the shop.
āAh!ā said Mr Brogley, in confidential assent, and nodding his head as if he would urge the advisability of their all being comfortable together. āItās an execution. Thatās what it is. Donāt let it put you out of the way. I come myself, because of keeping it quiet and sociable. You know me. Itās quite private.ā
āUncle Sol!ā faltered Walter.
āWally, my boy,ā returned his uncle. āItās the first time. Such a calamity never happened to me before. Iām an old man to begin.ā Pushing up his spectacles again (for they were useless any longer to conceal his emotion), he covered his face with his hand, and sobbed aloud, and his tears fell down upon his coffee-coloured waistcoat.
āUncle Sol! Pray! oh donāt!ā exclaimed Walter, who really felt a thrill of terror in seeing the old man weep. āFor Godās sake donāt do that. Mr Brogley, what shall I do?ā
āI should recommend you looking up a friend or so,ā said Mr Brogley, āand talking it over.ā
āTo be sure!ā cried Walter, catching at anything. āCertainly! Thankee. Captain Cuttleās the man, Uncle. Wait till I run to Captain Cuttle. Keep your eye upon my Uncle, will you, Mr Brogley, and make him as comfortable as you can while I am gone? Donāt despair, Uncle Sol. Try and keep a good heart, thereās a dear fellow!ā
Saying this with great fervour, and disregarding the old manās broken remonstrances, Walter dashed out of the shop again as hard as he could go; and, having hurried round to the office to excuse himself on the plea of his Uncleās sudden illness, set off, full speed, for Captain Cuttleās residence.
Everything seemed altered as he ran along the streets. There were the usual entanglement and noise of carts, drays, omnibuses, waggons, and foot passengers, but the misfortune that had fallen on the wooden Midshipman made it strange and new. Houses and shops were different from what they used to be, and bore Mr Brogleyās warrant on their fronts in large characters. The broker seemed to have got hold of the very churches; for their spires rose into the sky with an unwonted air. Even the sky itself was changed, and had an execution in it plainly.
Captain Cuttle lived on the brink of a little canal near the India Docks, where there was a swivel bridge which opened now and then to let some wandering monster of a ship come roaming up the street like a stranded leviathan. The gradual change from land to water, on the approach to Captain Cuttleās lodgings, was curious. It began with the erection of flagstaffs, as appurtenances to public-houses; then came slop-sellersā shops, with Guernsey shirts, souāwester hats, and canvas pantaloons, at once the tightest and the loosest of their order, hanging up outside. These were succeeded by anchor and chain-cable forges, where sledgehammers were dinging upon iron all day long. Then came rows of houses, with little vane-surmounted masts uprearing themselves from among the scarlet beans. Then, ditches. Then, pollard willows. Then, more ditches. Then, unaccountable patches of dirty water, hardly to be descried, for the ships that covered them. Then, the air was perfumed with chips; and all other trades were swallowed up in mast, oar, and block-making, and boatbuilding. Then, the ground grew marshy and unsettled. Then, there was nothing to be smelt but rum and sugar. Then, Captain Cuttleās lodgingsāat once a first floor and a top storey, in Brig Placeāwere close before you.
The Captain was one of those timber-looking men, suits of oak as well as hearts, whom it is almost impossible for the liveliest imagination to separate from any part of their dress, however insignificant. Accordingly, when Walter knocked at the door, and the Captain instantly poked his head out of one of his little front windows, and hailed him, with the hard glared hat already on it, and the shirt-collar like a sail, and the wide suit of blue, all standing as usual, Walter was as fully persuaded that he was always in that state, as if the Captain had been a bird and those had been his feathers.
āWalār, my lad!ā said Captain Cuttle. āStand by and knock again. Hard! Itās washing day.ā
Walter, in his impatience, gave a prodigious thump with the knocker.
āHard it is!ā said Captain Cuttle, and immediately drew in his head, as if he expected a squall.
Nor was he mistaken: for a widow lady, with her sleeves rolled up to her shoulders, and her arms frothy with soap-suds and smoking with hot water, replied to the summons with startling rapidity. Before she looked at Walter she looked at the knocker, and then, measuring him with her eyes from head to foot, said she wondered he had left any of it.
āCaptain Cuttleās at home, I know,ā said Walter with a conciliatory smile.
āIs he?ā replied the widow lady. āIn-deed!ā
āHe has just been speaking to me,ā said Walter, in breathless explanation.
āHas he?ā replied the widow lady. āThen pāraps youāll give him Mrs MacStingerās respects, and say that the next time he lowers himself and his lodgings by talking out of the winder sheāll thank him to come down and open the door too.ā Mrs MacStinger spoke loud, and listened for any observations that might be offered from the first floor.
āIāll mention it,ā said Walter, āif youāll have the goodness to let me in, Maāam.ā
For he was repelled by a wooden fortification extending across the doorway, and put there to prevent the little MacStingers in their moments of recreation from tumbling down the steps.
āA boy that can knock my door down,ā said Mrs MacStinger, contemptuously, ācan get over that, I should hope!ā But Walter, taking this as a permission to enter, and getting over it, Mrs MacStinger immediately demanded whether an Englishwomanās house was her castle or not; and whether she was to be broke in upon by āraff.ā On these subjects her thirst for information was still very importunate, when Walter, having made his way up the little staircase through an artificial fog occasioned by the washing, which covered the banisters with a clammy perspiration, entered Captain Cuttleās room, and found that gentleman in ambush behind the door.
āNever owed her a penny, Walār,ā said Captain Cuttle, in a low voice, and with visible marks of trepidation on his countenance. āDone her a world of good turns, and the children too. Vixen at times, though. Whew!ā
āI should go away, Captain Cuttle,ā said Walter.
āDursnāt do it, Walār,ā returned the Captain. āSheād find me out, wherever I went. Sit down. Howās Gills?ā
The Captain was dining (in his hat) off cold loin of mutton, porter, and some smoking hot potatoes, which he had cooked himself, and took out of a little saucepan before the fire as he wanted them. He unscrewed his hook at dinner-time, and screwed a knife into its wooden socket instead, with which he had already begun to peel one of these potatoes for Walter. His rooms were very small, and strongly impregnated with tobacco-smoke, but snug enough: everything being stowed away, as if there were an earthquake regularly every half-hour.
āHowās Gills?ā inquired the Captain.
Walter, who had by this time recovered his breath, and lost his spiritsāor such temporary spirits as his rapid journey had given himālooked at his questioner for a moment, said āOh, Captain Cuttle!ā and burst into tears.
No words can describe the Captainās consternation at this sight. Mrs MacStinger faded into nothing before it. He dropped the potato and the forkāand would have dropped the knife too if he couldāand sat gazing at the boy, as if he expected to hear next moment that a gulf had opened in the City, which had swallowed up his old friend, coffee-coloured suit, buttons, chronometer, spectacles, and all.
But when Walter told him what was really the matter, Captain Cuttle, after a momentās reflection, started up into full activity. He emptied out of a little tin canister on the top shelf of the cupboard, his whole stock of ready money (amounting to thirteen pounds and half-a-crown), which he transferred to one of the pockets of his square blue coat; further enriched that repository with the contents of his plate chest, consisting of two withered atomies of tea-spoons, and an obsolete pair of knock-kneeād sugar-tongs; pulled up his immense double-cased silver watch from the depths in which it reposed, to assure himself that that valuable was sound and whole; re-attached the hook to his right wrist; and seizing the stick covered over with knobs, bade Walter come along.
Remembering, however, in the midst of his virtuous excitement, that Mrs MacStinger might be lying in wait below, Captain Cuttle hesitated at last, not without glancing at the window, as if he had some thoughts of escaping by that unusual means of egress, rather than encounter his terrible enemy. He decided, however, in favour of stratagem.
āWalār,ā said the Captain, with a timid wink, āgo afore, my lad. Sing out, āgood-bye, Captain Cuttle,ā when youāre in the passage, and shut the
Comments (0)