set me upon thinking whether there was any harm in
telling him, and while I was thinking, screwed it out of me. If you
had seen him drink and smoke, as I did, you couldn't have kept anything
from him. He's a Salamander you know, that's what he is.'

Without inquiring whether Salamanders were of necessity good
confidential agents, or whether a fire-proof man was as a matter of
course trustworthy, Frederick Trent threw himself into a chair, and,
burying his head in his hands, endeavoured to fathom the motives which
had led Quilp to insinuate himself into Richard Swiveller's
confidence;--for that the disclosure was of his seeking, and had not
been spontaneously revealed by Dick, was sufficiently plain from
Quilp's seeking his company and enticing him away.

The dwarf had twice encountered him when he was endeavouring to obtain
intelligence of the fugitives. This, perhaps, as he had not shown any
previous anxiety about them, was enough to awaken suspicion in the
breast of a creature so jealous and distrustful by nature, setting
aside any additional impulse to curiosity that he might have derived
from Dick's incautious manner. But knowing the scheme they had
planned, why should he offer to assist it? This was a question more
difficult of solution; but as knaves generally overreach themselves by
imputing their own designs to others, the idea immediately presented
itself that some circumstances of irritation between Quilp and the old
man, arising out of their secret transactions and not unconnected
perhaps with his sudden disappearance, now rendered the former desirous
of revenging himself upon him by seeking to entrap the sole object of
his love and anxiety into a connexion of which he knew he had a dread
and hatred. As Frederick Trent himself, utterly regardless of his
sister, had this object at heart, only second to the hope of gain, it
seemed to him the more likely to be Quilp's main principle of action.
Once investing the dwarf with a design of his own in abetting them,
which the attainment of their purpose would serve, it was easy to
believe him sincere and hearty in the cause; and as there could be no
doubt of his proving a powerful and useful auxiliary, Trent determined
to accept his invitation and go to his house that night, and if what he
said and did confirmed him in the impression he had formed, to let him
share the labour of their plan, but not the profit.

Having revolved these things in his mind and arr