Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/275

213 THE PICKWICK CLUB. J13

«< Funny I" exclaimed Mr. Pickwick, involuntarily.

"Yes, funny, are they not?" replied the little old man, with u diabolical leer; and then, without pausing for an answer, he continued —

" I knew another man — let me see — it's forty years ago now — who took an old, damp, rotten set of chambers, in one of the most ancient Inns, that had been shut up and empty for years and years before. There were lots of old women's stories about the place, and it certainly was very far from being a cheerful one ; but he was poor, and the rooms were cheap, and that would have been quite a sufficient reason for him, if they had been ten times worse than they really were. He was obliged to take some mouldering fixtures that were on the place, and, among the rest, was a great lumbering wooden press for papers, with large glass doors, and a green curtain inside; a pretty useless thing for him, for he had no papers to put in it ; and as to his clothes, he carried them about with him, and that wasn't very hard work, either. Well, he had moved in all his furniture — it wasn't quite a truck-full— and sprinkled it about the room, so as to make the four chairs look as much like a dozen as possible, and was sitting down before the fire at night, drinking the first glass of two gallons of whiskey he had ordered on credit, wondering whether it would ever be paid for, and if so, in how many years' time, when his eyes encountered the glass doors of the wooden press. * Ah I' says he — * If I hadn't been obliged to take that ugly article at the old broker's valuation, I might have got something comfortable for the money. I'll tell you what it is, old fellow,* he said, speaking aloud to the press, just because he had got nothing else to speak to — * If it wouldn't cost more to break up your old carcase, than it would ever be worth afterwards, I'd have a fire out of you, in less than no time.' He had hardly spoken the words, when a sound resembling a faint groan, appeared to issue from the interior of the case. It startled him at first, but thinking, on a moment's reflection, that 't must be some young fellow in the next chambers, who had been dining out, he put his feet on the fender, and raised the poker to stir the fire. At that moment, the sound was repeated : and one of the glass doors slowly opening, disclosed a pale and emaciated figure in soiled and worn apparel, standing erect in the press. The figure was tall and thir, and the countenance expressive of care and anxiety ; but there was something in th^ hue of the skin, and gaunt and unearthly appearance of the whole form, which no being of this world was ever seen to wear. * Who are you ? ' said the new tenant, turning very pale^ poising the poker in his hand, however, and taking a very decent aim at the countenance of the figure — ' Who are you?' * Don't throw that poker at me,* replied the form — ' If you hurled it with ever so sure an aim, it would pass through me, without resistance, and expend its force on the wood behind. I am a spirit.* * And, pray, what do you want here ? ' faltered the tenant. ' In this room,* replied the apparition, * my worldly ruin was worked, and I f>nd my children beggared. In this press, the papers in a long, long suit, which accumulated for years, were deposited. In this loom, when I had died of griof, and long-deferred hope, two wily harpiea

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