chance, until a knocking on the street door, often repeated
and gradually mounting up from a modest single rap to a perfect battery
of knocks, fired in long discharges with a very short interval between,
caused the said Daniel Quilp to struggle into a horizontal position,
and to stare at the ceiling with a drowsy indifference, betokening that
he heard the noise and rather wondered at the same, and couldn't be at
the trouble of bestowing any further thought upon the subject.

As the knocking, however, instead of accommodating itself to his lazy
state, increased in vigour and became more importunate, as if in
earnest remonstrance against his falling asleep again, now that he had
once opened his eyes, Daniel Quilp began by degrees to comprehend the
possibility of there being somebody at the door; and thus he gradually
came to recollect that it was Friday morning, and he had ordered Mrs
Quilp to be in waiting upon him at an early hour.

Mr Brass, after writhing about, in a great many strange attitudes, and
often twisting his face and eyes into an expression like that which is
usually produced by eating gooseberries very early in the season, was
by this time awake also. Seeing that Mr Quilp invested himself in his
every-day garments, he hastened to do the like, putting on his shoes
before his stockings, and thrusting his legs into his coat sleeves, and
making such other small mistakes in his toilet as are not uncommon to
those who dress in a hurry, and labour under the agitation of having
been suddenly roused. While the attorney was thus engaged, the dwarf
was groping under the table, muttering desperate imprecations on
himself, and mankind in general, and all inanimate objects to boot,
which suggested to Mr Brass the question, 'what's the matter?'

'The key,' said the dwarf, looking viciously about him, 'the
door-key--that's the matter. D'ye know anything of it?'

'How should I know anything of it, sir?' returned Mr Brass.

'How should you?' repeated Quilp with a sneer. 'You're a nice lawyer,
an't you? Ugh, you idiot!'

Not caring to represent to the dwarf in his present humour, that the
loss of a key by another person could scarcely be said to affect his
(Brass's) legal knowledge in any material degree, Mr Brass humbly
suggested that it must have been forgotten over night, and was,
doubtless, at that moment in its native key-hole. Notwithstanding that
Mr Quilp had a strong conviction to the contrary, founded on