d to her that the painful past was
only an ugly vision. And at night she often dreamed of the roof opening
and a column of bright faces, rising far into the sky, looking down on
her asleep. The quiet spot outside remained the same, save that the air
was full of music and a sound of angels' wings.

So the weeks passed into winter, and though she came soon to know that
she was not long for earth, she thought of death without regret and of
heaven with joy.

III

THE SEARCH

It is not to be supposed, of course, that the flight of little Nell and
her grandfather from the Old Curiosity Shop was not noticed. All the
time, while they were wandering about homeless and wretched, more than
one went searching everywhere for them without success.

One of these was Quilp, the ugly dwarf. He had loaned the grandfather
more money than the shop would bring, and he made up his mind now that
the old man had a secret hoard somewhere, which might be his if he could
find it. He soon learned that if Kit knew anything about it he would
not tell, so he and his lawyer (a sleek, oily rascal named Brass) made
many plans for finding them. But for a long time Quilp could get no
trace.

Another who tried to find them was a curious lodger who roomed in
Brass's house. He seemed to have plenty of money but was very eccentric.
Nobody knew even his name and so they called him The Stranger.

He kept in his room a big box-like trunk, in which was a silver stove
that he used to cook his meals. The stove had a lot of little openings.
In one he would put an egg, in another some coffee, in another a piece
of meat and in the fourth some water. Then he would light a lamp that
stood under it, and in five minutes the egg would be cooked, the coffee
boiled and the meat done--all ready to eat.

He was the queerest sort of boarder! The strangest habit he had was
this: He seemed to be very fond of Punch-and-Judy shows, and whenever he
heard one on the street he would run out without his hat, make the
showmen perform in front of the house and then invite them to his rooms,
where he would question them for a long time. This habit used to puzzle
both Brass and Quilp, the dwarf, and they never could guess why he did
it.

The truth was, the mysterious Stranger was a long-missing brother of
little Nell's grandfather. A misunderstanding had come between them many
years before when both were young men. The younger had become a traveler
in many countries and had n