ng inwardly over the
joke of his being there at all, when Kit himself appeared. Watchful as
a lynx, one glance showed the dwarf that he had come on business.
Absorbed in appearance, as we have seen, and feigning a profound
abstraction, he noted every circumstance of his behaviour, and when he
withdrew with his family, shot out after him. In fine, he traced them
to the notary's house; learnt the destination of the carriage from one
of the postilions; and knowing that a fast night-coach started for the
same place, at the very hour which was on the point of striking, from a
street hard by, darted round to the coach-office without more ado, and
took his seat upon the roof. After passing and repassing the carriage
on the road, and being passed and repassed by it sundry times in the
course of the night, according as their stoppages were longer or
shorter; or their rate of travelling varied, they reached the town
almost together. Quilp kept the chaise in sight, mingled with the
crowd, learnt the single gentleman's errand, and its failure, and
having possessed himself of all that it was material to know, hurried
off, reached the inn before him, had the interview just now detailed,
and shut himself up in the little room in which he hastily reviewed all
these occurrences.

'You are there, are you, my friend?' he repeated, greedily biting his
nails. 'I am suspected and thrown aside, and Kit's the confidential
agent, is he? I shall have to dispose of him, I fear. If we had come
up with them this morning,' he continued, after a thoughtful pause, 'I
was ready to prove a pretty good claim. I could have made my profit.
But for these canting hypocrites, the lad and his mother, I could get
this fiery gentleman as comfortably into my net as our old friend--our
mutual friend, ha! ha!--and chubby, rosy Nell. At the worst, it's a
golden opportunity, not to be lost. Let us find them first, and I'll
find means of draining you of some of your superfluous cash, sir, while
there are prison bars, and bolts, and locks, to keep your friend or
kinsman safely. I hate your virtuous people!' said the dwarf, throwing
off a bumper of brandy, and smacking his lips, 'ah! I hate 'em every
one!'

This was not a mere empty vaunt, but a deliberate avowal of his real
sentiments; for Mr Quilp, who loved nobody, had by little and little
come to hate everybody nearly or remotely connected with his ruined
client:--the old man himself, because he had bee