Brass got upon the box, and made the coachman drive
on.

Still completely stunned by the sudden and terrible
change which had taken place in his affairs, Kit sat gazing
out of the coach window, almost hoping to see some mon-
strous phenomenon in the streets which might give him
reason to believe he was in a dream. Alas! Everything
was too real and familiar: the same succession of turn-
ings, the same houses, the same streams of people running
side by side in different directions upon the pavement, the
same bustle of carts and carriages in the road, the same
well-remembered objects in the shop windows: a regularity
in the very noise and hurry which no dream ever mirrored.
Dreamlike as the story was, it was true. He stood charged
with robbery; the note had been found upon him, though
he was innocent in thought and deed; and they were
carrying him back, a prisoner.

Absorbed in these painful ruminations, thinking with a
drooping heart of his mother and little Jacob, feeling as
though even the consciousness of innocence would be in-
sufficient to support him in the presence of his friends if
they believed him guilty, and sinking in hope and courage
more and more as they drew nearer to the notary's, poor
Kit was looking earnestly out of the window, observant
of nothing,--when all at once, as though it had been
conjured up by magic, he became aware of the face of
Quilp.

And what a leer there was upon the face! It was from
the open window of a tavern that it looked out; and the
dwarf had so spread himself over it, with his elbows on
the window-sill and his head resting on both his hands,
that what between this attitude and his being swoln with
suppressed laughter, he looked puffed and bloated into
twice his usual breadth. Mr. Brass on recognising him
immediately stopped the coach. As it came to a halt
directly opposite to where he stood, the dwarf pulled off
his hat, and saluted the party with a hideous and grotesque
politeness.

"Aha!" he cried. "Where now, Brass? where now?
Sally with you too? Sweet Sally! And Dick? Pleasant
Dick! And Kit? Honest Kit!"

"He's extremely cheerful!" said Brass to the coach-
man. "Very much so! Ah, sir--a sad business! Never
believe in honesty any more, sir."

-434-