"I speak; as I find, Mr Sweedlepipes," said Mrs Gamp. "Forbid it should be otherways! But we never knows wot"s hidden in each other"s hearts; and if we had gla.s.s winders there, we"d need keep the shetters up, some on us, I do a.s.sure you!"
"But you don"t mean to say--" Poll Sweedlepipe began.
"No," said Mrs Gamp, cutting him very short, "I don"t. Don"t think I do.
The torters of the Imposition shouldn"t make me own I did. All I says is," added the good woman, rising and folding her shawl about her, "that the Bull"s a-waitin, and the precious moments is a-flyin" fast."
The little barber having in his eager curiosity a great desire to see Mrs Gamp"s patient, proposed to Mr Bailey that they should accompany her to the Bull, and witness the departure of the coach. That young gentleman a.s.senting, they all went out together.
Arriving at the tavern, Mrs Gamp (who was full-dressed for the journey, in her latest suit of mourning) left her friends to entertain themselves in the yard, while she ascended to the sick room, where her fellow-labourer Mrs Prig was dressing the invalid.
He was so wasted, that it seemed as if his bones would rattle when they moved him. His cheeks were sunken, and his eyes unnaturally large. He lay back in the easy-chair like one more dead than living; and rolled his languid eyes towards the door when Mrs Gamp appeared, as painfully as if their weight alone were burdensome to move.
"And how are we by this time?" Mrs Gamp observed. "We looks charming."
"We looks a deal charminger than we are, then," returned Mrs Prig, a little chafed in her temper. "We got out of bed back"ards, I think, for we"re as cross as two sticks. I never see sich a man. He wouldn"t have been washed, if he"d had his own way."
"She put the soap in my mouth," said the unfortunate patient feebly.
"Couldn"t you keep it shut then?" retorted Mrs Prig. "Who do you think"s to wash one feater, and miss another, and wear one"s eyes out with all manner of fine work of that description, for half-a-crown a day! If you wants to be t.i.ttivated, you must pay accordin"."
"Oh dear me!" cried the patient, "oh dear, dear!"
"There!" said Mrs Prig, "that"s the way he"s been a-conductin of himself, Sarah, ever since I got him out of bed, if you"ll believe it."
"Instead of being grateful," Mrs Gamp observed, "for all our little ways. Oh, fie for shame, sir, fie for shame!"
Here Mrs Prig seized the patient by the chin, and began to rasp his unhappy head with a hair-brush.
"I suppose you don"t like that, neither!" she observed, stopping to look at him.
It was just possible that he didn"t for the brush was a specimen of the hardest kind of instrument producible by modern art; and his very eyelids were red with the friction. Mrs Prig was gratified to observe the correctness of her supposition, and said triumphantly "she know"d as much."
When his hair was smoothed down comfortably into his eyes, Mrs Prig and Mrs Gamp put on his neckerchief; adjusting his shirt collar with great nicety, so that the starched points should also invade those organs, and afflict them with an artificial ophthalmia. His waistcoat and coat were next arranged; and as every b.u.t.ton was wrenched into a wrong b.u.t.ton-hole, and the order of his boots was reversed, he presented on the whole rather a melancholy appearance.
"I don"t think it"s right," said the poor weak invalid. "I feel as if I was in somebody else"s clothes. I"m all on one side; and you"ve made one of my legs shorter than the other. There"s a bottle in my pocket too.
What do you make me sit upon a bottle for?"
"Deuce take the man!" cried Mrs Gamp, drawing it forth. "If he ain"t been and got my night-bottle here. I made a little cupboard of his coat when it hung behind the door, and quite forgot it, Betsey. You"ll find a ingun or two, and a little tea and sugar in his t"other pocket, my dear, if you"ll just be good enough to take "em out."
Betsey produced the property in question, together with some other articles of general chandlery; and Mrs Gamp transferred them to her own pocket, which was a species of nankeen pannier. Refreshment then arrived in the form of chops and strong ale for the ladies, and a basin of beef-tea for the patient; which refection was barely at an end when John Westlock appeared.
"Up and dressed!" cried John, sitting down beside him. "That"s brave.
How do you feel?"
"Much better. But very weak."
"No wonder. You have had a hard bout of it. But country air, and change of scene," said John, "will make another man of you! Why, Mrs Gamp,"
he added, laughing, as he kindly arranged the sick man"s garments, "you have odd notions of a gentleman"s dress!"
"Mr Lewsome an"t a easy gent to get into his clothes, sir," Mrs Gamp replied with dignity; "as me and Betsey Prig can certify afore the Lord Mayor and Uncommon Counsellors, if needful!"
John at that moment was standing close in front of the sick man, in the act of releasing him from the torture of the collars before mentioned, when he said in a whisper:
"Mr Westlock! I don"t wish to be overheard. I have something very particular and strange to say to you; something that has been a dreadful weight on my mind, through this long illness."
Quick in all his motions, John was turning round to desire the women to leave the room; when the sick man held him by the sleeve.
"Not now. I"ve not the strength. I"ve not the courage. May I tell it when I have? May I write it, if I find that easier and better?"
"May you!" cried John. "Why, Lewsome, what is this!"
"Don"t ask me what it is. It"s unnatural and cruel. Frightful to think of. Frightful to tell. Frightful to know. Frightful to have helped in.
Let me kiss your hand for all your goodness to me. Be kinder still, and don"t ask me what it is!"
At first, John gazed at him in great surprise; but remembering how very much reduced he was, and how recently his brain had been on fire with fever, believed that he was labouring under some imaginary horror or despondent fancy. For farther information on this point, he took an opportunity of drawing Mrs Gamp aside, while Betsey Prig was wrapping him in cloaks and shawls, and asked her whether he was quite collected in his mind.
"Oh bless you, no!" said Mrs Gamp. "He hates his nusses to this hour.
They always does it, sir. It"s a certain sign. If you could have heerd the poor dear soul a-findin fault with me and Betsey Prig, not half an hour ago, you would have wondered how it is we don"t get fretted to the tomb."
This almost confirmed John in his suspicion; so, not taking what had pa.s.sed into any serious account, he resumed his former cheerful manner, and a.s.sisted by Mrs Gamp and Betsey Prig, conducted Lewsome downstairs to the coach; just then upon the point of starting. Poll Sweedlepipe was at the door with his arms tight folded and his eyes wide open, and looked on with absorbing interest, while the sick man was slowly moved into the vehicle. His bony hands and haggard face impressed Poll wonderfully; and he informed Mr Bailey in confidence, that he wouldn"t have missed seeing him for a pound. Mr Bailey, who was of a different const.i.tution, remarked that he would have stayed away for five shillings.
It was a troublesome matter to adjust Mrs Gamp"s luggage to her satisfaction; for every package belonging to that lady had the inconvenient property of requiring to be put in a boot by itself, and to have no other luggage near it, on pain of actions at law for heavy damages against the proprietors of the coach. The umbrella with the circular patch was particularly hard to be got rid of, and several times thrust out its battered bra.s.s nozzle from improper crevices and c.h.i.n.ks, to the great terror of the other pa.s.sengers. Indeed, in her intense anxiety to find a haven of refuge for this chattel, Mrs Gamp so often moved it, in the course of five minutes, that it seemed not one umbrella but fifty. At length it was lost, or said to be; and for the next five minutes she was face to face with the coachman, go wherever he might, protesting that it should be "made good," though she took the question to the House of Commons.
At last, her bundle, and her pattens, and her basket, and everything else, being disposed of, she took a friendly leave of Poll and Mr Bailey, dropped a curtsey to John Westlock, and parted as from a cherished member of the sisterhood with Betsey Prig.
"Wishin you lots of sickness, my darlin creetur," Mrs Gamp observed, "and good places. It won"t be long, I hope, afore we works together, off and on, again, Betsey; and may our next meetin" be at a large family"s, where they all takes it reg"lar, one from another, turn and turn about, and has it business-like."
"I don"t care how soon it is," said Mrs Prig; "nor how many weeks it lasts."
Mrs Gamp with a reply in a congenial spirit was backing to the coach, when she came in contact with a lady and gentleman who were pa.s.sing along the footway.
"Take care, take care here!" cried the gentleman. "Halloo! My dear! Why, it"s Mrs Gamp!"
"What, Mr Mould!" exclaimed the nurse. "And Mrs Mould! who would have thought as we should ever have a meetin" here, I"m sure!"
"Going out of town, Mrs Gamp?" cried Mould. "That"s unusual, isn"t it?"
"It IS unusual, sir," said Mrs Gamp. "But only for a day or two at most.
The gent," she whispered, "as I spoke about."
"What, in the coach!" cried Mould. "The one you thought of recommending?
Very odd. My dear, this will interest you. The gentleman that Mrs Gamp thought likely to suit us is in the coach, my love."
Mrs Mould was greatly interested.
"Here, my dear. You can stand upon the door-step," said Mould, "and take a look at him. Ha! There he is. Where"s my gla.s.s? Oh! all right. I"ve got it. Do you see him, my dear?"
"Quite plain," said Mrs Mould.