‘It’s your fancy,’ said the Jew,
taking up the light and turning to his companion.
‘I’ll swear I saw it!’ replied Monks,
trembling. ’It was bending forward when
I saw it first; and when I spoke, it darted away.’
The Jew glanced contemptuously at the pale face of
his associate, and, telling him he could follow, if
he pleased, ascended the stairs. They looked
into all the rooms; they were cold, bare, and empty.
They descended into the passage, and thence into the
cellars below. The green damp hung upon the low
walls; the tracks of the snail and slug glistened
in the light of the candle; but all was still as death.
‘What do you think now?’ said the Jew,
when they had regained the passage. ’Besides
ourselves, there’s not a creature in the house
except Toby and the boys; and they’re safe enough.
See here!’
As a proof of the fact, the Jew drew forth two keys
from his pocket; and explained, that when he first
went downstairs, he had locked them in, to prevent
any intrusion on the conference.
This accumulated testimony effectually staggered Mr.
Monks. His protestations had gradually become
less and less vehement as they proceeded in their
search without making any discovery; and, now, he
gave vent to several very grim laughs, and confessed
it could only have been his excited imagination.
He declined any renewal of the conversation, however,
for that night: suddenly remembering that it
was past one o’clock. And so the amiable
couple parted.
ATONES FOR THE UNPOLITENESS OF A FORMER CHAPTER; WHICH
DESERTED A LADY, MOST UNCEREMONIOUSLY
As it would be, by no means, seemly in a humble author
to keep so mighty a personage as a beadle waiting,
with his back to the fire, and the skirts of his coat
gathered up under his arms, until such time as it
might suit his pleasure to relieve him; and as it
would still less become his station, or his gallantry
to involve in the same neglect a lady on whom that
beadle had looked with an eye of tenderness and affection,
and in whose ear he had whispered sweet words, which,
coming from such a quarter, might well thrill the
bosom of maid or matron of whatsoever degree; the
historian whose pen traces these words—trusting
that he knows his place, and that he entertains a
becoming reverence for those upon earth to whom high
and important authority is delegated—hastens
to pay them that respect which their position demands,
and to treat them with all that duteous ceremony which
their exalted rank, and (by consequence) great virtues,
imperatively claim at his hands. Towards this
end, indeed, he had purposed to introduce, in this
place, a dissertation touching the divine right of
beadles, and elucidative of the position, that a beadle
can do no wrong: which could not fail to have
been both pleasurable and profitable to the right-minded
reader but which he is unfortunately compelled, by
