in the world, and would have given his life to make
little Nell happy.

She was not as happy as she seemed to her grandfather's eyes. There was
some mystery about the old man that she could not understand. Almost
every night he left her to go to bed all alone in the shop, and went
away and did not come back till sunrise, when the door-bell woke her and
she let him in.

And, too, he always talked of the great fortune she was to have
sometime--if only some mysterious plan he was working on turned out
right--the carriages and fine frocks and jewels. But the plan seemed
always to go wrong, and the poor old man grew sadder and sadder as he
grew more feeble.

Often at night little Nell sat at the upper window, watching for him,
crying, and fearing that he might die or lose his mind; she never knew
that Kit used to stand in the shadow of an archway opposite and watch
to see that no harm came to her, till she vanished and he knew she had
gone to bed.

What troubled little Nell most of all was a strange visitor her
grandfather used to have. This was a hideous man named Quilp, with the
body of a dwarf and the head of a giant. His black eyes were sharp and
cunning, his face was always covered with a stubby beard and he had a
cruel smile that made him look like a panting dog. He had grizzled,
tangled hair, crooked finger nails, and wore a dirty handkerchief tied
around his neck, instead of a collar. He used to bring money to her
grandfather, and little Nell more than once saw him look at her and at
the contents of the shop in a gloating way that made her shiver.

Indeed, everybody who ever met Quilp was afraid of him, and most afraid
of all was his wife. He had a habit of drinking scalding tea and of
eating boiled eggs, shell and all, that quite terrified her. Besides, he
treated the poor woman cruelly. Sometimes, for instance, when she
displeased him, he made her sit bolt upright in a chair all night,
without moving or going to bed, while he sat smoking and making faces at
her.

Little Nell often had to carry messages from her grandfather to the
dwarf, and came to know that he had somehow fallen into Quilp's power.

The fact was that the old man had been borrowing money from the dwarf
for a long time, and had spent it on the great plan, which he had
thought sure to succeed, and he now owed the other much more than all
the shop and everything in it was worth.

Quilp had loaned the money because he thought when the wonder