The friendly movers made such an obvious effort not
to look at one another, that they might as well have
stared at one another with all their might.
‘Have you parted with them, Mr Boffin?’
asked Silas.
‘Yes; they’re going. Mine’s
as good as gone already.’
‘You mean the little one of the three, with
the pole atop, sir.’
‘Yes,’ said Mr Boffin, rubbing his ear
in his old way, with that new touch of craftiness
added to it. ’It has fetched a penny.
It’ll begin to be carted off to-morrow.’
‘Have you been out to take leave of your old
friend, sir?’ asked Silas, jocosely.
‘No,’ said Mr Boffin. ‘What
the devil put that in your head?’
He was so sudden and rough, that Wegg, who had been
hovering closer and closer to his skirts, despatching
the back of his hand on exploring expeditions in search
of the bottle’s surface, retired two or three
paces.
‘No offence, sir,’ said Wegg, humbly.
‘No offence.’
Mr Boffin eyed him as a dog might eye another dog
who wanted his bone; and actually retorted with a
low growl, as the dog might have retorted.
‘Good-night,’ he said, after having sunk
into a moody silence, with his hands clasped behind
him, and his eyes suspiciously wandering about Wegg.—’No!
stop there. I know the way out, and I want no
light.’
Avarice, and the evening’s legends of avarice,
and the inflammatory effect of what he had seen, and
perhaps the rush of his ill-conditioned blood to his
brain in his descent, wrought Silas Wegg to such a
pitch of insatiable appetite, that when the door closed
he made a swoop at it and drew Venus along with him.
‘He mustn’t go,’ he cried.
’We mustn’t let him go? He has got
that bottle about him. We must have that bottle.’
‘Why, you wouldn’t take it by force?’
said Venus, restraining him.
’Wouldn’t I? Yes I would. I’d
take it by any force, I’d have it at any price!
Are you so afraid of one old man as to let him go,
you coward?’
‘I am so afraid of you, as not to let you
go,’ muttered Venus, sturdily, clasping him
in his arms.
‘Did you hear him?’ retorted Wegg.
’Did you hear him say that he was resolved to
disappoint us? Did you hear him say, you cur,
that he was going to have the Mounds cleared off,
when no doubt the whole place will be rummaged?
If you haven’t the spirit of a mouse to defend
your rights, I have. Let me go after him.’
As in his wildness he was making a strong struggle
for it, Mr Venus deemed it expedient to lift him,
throw him, and fall with him; well knowing that, once
down, he would not be up again easily with his wooden
leg. So they both rolled on the floor, and, as
they did so, Mr Boffin shut the gate.
THE FRIENDLY MOVE TAKES UP A STRONG POSITION
