ree chapters, when the capability
of the subject for more extended treatment than he had at first proposed
to give to it pressed itself upon him, and he resolved to throw
everything else aside, devoting himself to the one story only. There
were other strong reasons for this. Of the first number of the _Clock_
nearly seventy thousand were sold; but with the discovery that there was
no continuous tale the orders at once diminished, and a change must have
been made even if the material and means for it had not been ready.
There had been an interval of three numbers between the first and second
chapters, which the society of Mr. Pickwick and the two Wellers made
pleasant enough; but after the introduction of Dick Swiveller there were
three consecutive chapters; and in the continued progress of the tale
to its close there were only two more breaks, one between the fourth and
fifth chapters and one between the eighth and ninth, pardonable and
enjoyable now for the sake of Sam and his father. The reintroduction of
these old favorites, it will have been seen, formed part of his original
plan; of his abandonment of which his own description may be added, from
his preface to the collected edition: "The first chapter of this tale
appeared in the fourth number of _Master Humphrey's Clock_, when I had
already been made uneasy by the desultory character of that work, and
when, I believe, my readers had thoroughly participated in the feeling.
The commencement of a story was a great satisfaction to me, and I had
reason to believe that my readers participated in this feeling too.
Hence, being pledged to some interruptions and some pursuit of the
original design, I set cheerfully about disentangling myself from those
impediments as fast as I could; and, this done, from that time until its
completion _The Old Curiosity Shop_ was written and published from week
to week, in weekly parts."

He had very early himself become greatly taken with it. "I am very glad
indeed," he wrote to me after the first half-dozen chapters, "that you
think so well of the _Curiosity Shop_, and especially that what may be
got out of Dick strikes you. I _mean_ to make much of him. I feel the
story extremely myself, which I take to be a good sign; and am already
warmly interested in it. I shall run it on now for four whole numbers
together, to give it a fair chance." Every step lightened the road as it
became more and more real with each character that appeared in i