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150 |
THE CHIMES. |
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She looked at the child, and shook her head.
"Don't you think you have lived here long enough without paying any rent? Don't you think that, without any money, you've been a pretty constant customer at this shop, now ?" said Mr. Tugby.
She repeated the same mute appeal.
"Suppose you try and deal somewhere else," he said. "And suppose you provide yourself with another lodging. Come ! Don't you think you could manage it ?"
She said, in a low voice, that it was very late. To-morrowr.
"Now I see what you want," said Tngby; "and what you mean. You know there are two parties in this house about you, and you delight in setting 'em by the ears. I don't want any quarrels; I'm speaking softly to avoid a quarrel; but if you don't go away, I'll speak out loud, and you shall cause words high enough to please you. But you shan't come in. That I am determined."
She put her hair back with her hand, and looked in a sudden manner at the sky, and the dark lowering distance.
" This is the last night of an Old Year: and I won't carry ill-blood and quarrellings and disturbances into a New One, to please you nor anybody else," said Tugby, wdio was quite a retail Friend and Father. " I wonder you an't ashamed of yourself, to carry such practices into a New Year. If you haven't any business in the wrorld, but to be always giving way, and always making disturbances between man and wife, you'd be better out of it. Go along with you."
" Follow her ! To desperation ! "
Again the old man heard the voices. Looking up, he saw the figures hovering in the air, and pointing where she went, down the dark street.
" She loves it!" he exclaimed, in agonised entreaty for her. " Chimes ! she loves it still! "
" Follow her ! " The shadows swept upon the track she had taken, like a cloud.
He joined in the pursuit; he kept close to her; he looked into her face. He saw the same fierce and terrible expression mingling with her love, and kindling in her eyes. He heard her say, " Like Lilian ! To be changed like Lilian ! " and her speed redoubled.
Oh, for something to awaken her. For any sight, or sound, or scent, to call up tender recollections in a brain on fire ! For any gentle image of the Past, to rise before her !
" I was her father! I was her father !" cried the old man, |
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