and, all invented and
arranged, and only to be enjoyed. It was this shallow-pated fellow who
made my bones ache t'other day, was it? It was his friend and
fellow-plotter, Mr Trent, that once made eyes at Mrs Quilp, and leered
and looked, was it? After labouring for two or three years in their
precious scheme, to find that they've got a beggar at last, and one of
them tied for life. Ha ha ha! He shall marry Nell. He shall have
her, and I'll be the first man, when the knot's tied hard and fast, to
tell 'em what they've gained and what I've helped 'em to. Here will be
a clearing of old scores, here will be a time to remind 'em what a
capital friend I was, and how I helped them to the heiress. Ha ha ha!'

In the height of his ecstasy, Mr Quilp had like to have met with a
disagreeable check, for rolling very near a broken dog-kennel, there
leapt forth a large fierce dog, who, but that his chain was of the
shortest, would have given him a disagreeable salute. As it was, the
dwarf remained upon his back in perfect safety, taunting the dog with
hideous faces, and triumphing over him in his inability to advance
another inch, though there were not a couple of feet between them.

'Why don't you come and bite me, why don't you come and tear me to
pieces, you coward?' said Quilp, hissing and worrying the animal till
he was nearly mad. 'You're afraid, you bully, you're afraid, you know
you are.'

The dog tore and strained at his chain with starting eyes and furious
bark, but there the dwarf lay, snapping his fingers with gestures of
defiance and contempt. When he had sufficiently recovered from his
delight, he rose, and with his arms a-kimbo, achieved a kind of
demon-dance round the kennel, just without the limits of the chain,
driving the dog quite wild. Having by this means composed his spirits
and put himself in a pleasant train, he returned to his unsuspicious
companion, whom he found looking at the tide with exceeding gravity,
and thinking of that same gold and silver which Mr Quilp had mentioned.

CHAPTER 22

The remainder of that day and the whole of the next were a busy time
for the Nubbles family, to whom everything connected with Kit's outfit
and departure was matter of as great moment as if he had been about to
penetrate into the interior of Africa, or to take a cruise round the
world. It would be difficult to suppose that there ever was a box
which was opened and shut so many times within four-and-