Barnaby Rudge: a tale of the Riots of 'eighty eBook

‘I’m glad Miss Dolly can laugh,’ cried Miggs with a feeble titter.  ’I like to see folks a-laughing—­so do you, mim, don’t you?  You was always glad to see people in spirits, wasn’t you, mim?  And you always did your best to keep ’em cheerful, didn’t you, mim?  Though there an’t such a great deal to laugh at now either; is there, mim?  It an’t so much of a catch, after looking out so sharp ever since she was a little chit, and costing such a deal in dress and show, to get a poor, common soldier, with one arm, is it, mim?  He he!  I wouldn’t have a husband with one arm, anyways.  I would have two arms.  I would have two arms, if it was me, though instead of hands they’d only got hooks at the end, like our dustman!’

Miss Miggs was about to add, and had, indeed, begun to add, that, taking them in the abstract, dustmen were far more eligible matches than soldiers, though, to be sure, when people were past choosing they must take the best they could get, and think themselves well off too; but her vexation and chagrin being of that internally bitter sort which finds no relief in words, and is aggravated to madness by want of contradiction, she could hold out no longer, and burst into a storm of sobs and tears.

In this extremity she fell on the unlucky nephew, tooth and nail, and plucking a handful of hair from his head, demanded to know how long she was to stand there to be insulted, and whether or no he meant to help her to carry out the box again, and if he took a pleasure in hearing his family reviled:  with other inquiries of that nature; at which disgrace and provocation, the small boy, who had been all this time gradually lashed into rebellion by the sight of unattainable pastry, walked off indignant, leaving his aunt and the box to follow at their leisure.  Somehow or other, by dint of pushing and pulling, they did attain the street at last; where Miss Miggs, all blowzed with the exertion of getting there, and with her sobs and tears, sat down upon her property to rest and grieve, until she could ensnare some other youth to help her home.

‘It’s a thing to laugh at, Martha, not to care for,’ whispered the locksmith, as he followed his wife to the window, and good-humouredly dried her eyes.  ’What does it matter?  You had seen your fault before.  Come!  Bring up Toby again, my dear; Dolly shall sing us a song; and we’ll be all the merrier for this interruption!’

Chapter 81

Another month had passed, and the end of August had nearly come, when Mr Haredale stood alone in the mail-coach office at Bristol.  Although but a few weeks had intervened since his conversation with Edward Chester and his niece, in the locksmith’s house, and he had made no change, in the mean time, in his accustomed style of dress, his appearance was greatly altered.  He looked much older, and more care-worn.  Agitation and anxiety of mind scatter wrinkles and grey hairs with no unsparing hand; but deeper traces follow on the silent uprooting of old habits, and severing of dear, familiar ties.  The affections may not be so easily wounded as the passions, but their hurts are deeper, and more lasting.  He was now a solitary man, and the heart within him was dreary and lonesome.