t had been treading on her toes before. Yet, in the most of all
these distractions, the one eye was upon the old lady always, and if
she so much as stealthily advanced a tea-spoon towards a neighbouring
glass (which she often did), for the purpose of abstracting but one sup
of its sweet contents, Quilp's hand would overset it in the very moment
of her triumph, and Quilp's mocking voice implore her to regard her
precious health. And in any one of these his many cares, from first to
last, Quilp never flagged nor faltered.

At length, when they had played a great many rubbers and drawn pretty
freely upon the case-bottle, Mr Quilp warned his lady to retire to
rest, and that submissive wife complying, and being followed by her
indignant mother, Mr Swiveller fell asleep. The dwarf beckoning his
remaining companion to the other end of the room, held a short
conference with him in whispers.

'It's as well not to say more than one can help before our worthy
friend,' said Quilp, making a grimace towards the slumbering Dick. 'Is
it a bargain between us, Fred? Shall he marry little rosy Nell
by-and-by?'

'You have some end of your own to answer, of course,' returned the
other.

'Of course I have, dear Fred,' said Quilp, grinning to think how little
he suspected what the real end was. 'It's retaliation perhaps; perhaps
whim. I have influence, Fred, to help or oppose. Which way shall I
use it? There are a pair of scales, and it goes into one.'

'Throw it into mine then,' said Trent.

'It's done, Fred,' rejoined Quilp, stretching out his clenched hand and
opening it as if he had let some weight fall out. 'It's in the scale
from this time, and turns it, Fred. Mind that.'

'Where have they gone?' asked Trent.

Quilp shook his head, and said that point remained to be discovered,
which it might be, easily. When it was, they would begin their
preliminary advances. He would visit the old man, or even Richard
Swiveller might visit him, and by affecting a deep concern in his
behalf, and imploring him to settle in some worthy home, lead to the
child's remembering him with gratitude and favour. Once impressed to
this extent, it would be easy, he said, to win her in a year or two,
for she supposed the old man to be poor, as it was a part of his
jealous policy (in common with many other misers) to feign to be so, to
those about him.

'He has feigned it often enough to me, of late,' said Trent.

'Oh! and to me too!' repl