but though the door creaked more than once, Mrs Quilp
said nothing.

'Mind you don't suppose,' said the child earnestly, 'that grandfather
is less kind to me than he was. I think he loves me better every day,
and is kinder and more affectionate than he was the day before. You do
not know how fond he is of me!'

'I am sure he loves you dearly,' said Mrs Quilp.

'Indeed, indeed he does!' cried Nell, 'as dearly as I love him. But I
have not told you the greatest change of all, and this you must never
breathe again to any one. He has no sleep or rest, but that which he
takes by day in his easy chair; for every night and nearly all night
long he is away from home.'

'Nelly!'

'Hush!' said the child, laying her finger on her lip and looking round.
'When he comes home in the morning, which is generally just before day,
I let him in. Last night he was very late, and it was quite light. I
saw that his face was deadly pale, that his eyes were bloodshot, and
that his legs trembled as he walked. When I had gone to bed again, I
heard him groan. I got up and ran back to him, and heard him say,
before he knew that I was there, that he could not bear his life much
longer, and if it was not for the child, would wish to die. What shall
I do! Oh! What shall I do!'

The fountains of her heart were opened; the child, overpowered by the
weight of her sorrows and anxieties, by the first confidence she had
ever shown, and the sympathy with which her little tale had been
received, hid her face in the arms of her helpless friend, and burst
into a passion of tears.

In a few minutes Mr Quilp returned, and expressed the utmost surprise
to find her in this condition, which he did very naturally and with
admirable effect, for that kind of acting had been rendered familiar to
him by long practice, and he was quite at home in it.

'She's tired you see, Mrs Quilp,' said the dwarf, squinting in a
hideous manner to imply that his wife was to follow his lead. 'It's a
long way from her home to the wharf, and then she was alarmed to see a
couple of young scoundrels fighting, and was timorous on the water
besides. All this together has been too much for her. Poor Nell!'

Mr Quilp unintentionally adopted the very best means he could have
devised for the recovery of his young visitor, by patting her on the
head. Such an application from any other hand might not have produced a
remarkable effect, but the child shrank so quickly from his touch and
fe