In which the Wooden Midshipman gets into Trouble
That spice of romance and love of the marvellous, of which there was a pretty strong infusion in the nature of young Walter Gay, and which the guardianship of his Uncle, old Solomon Gills, had not very much weakened by the waters of stern practical experience, was the occasion of his attaching an uncommon and delightful interest to the adventure of Florence with Good Mrs Brown. He pampered and cherished it in his memory, especially that part of it with which he had been associated: until it became the spoiled child of his fancy, and took its own way, and did what it liked with it.
The recollection of those incidents, and his own share in them, may have been made the more captivating, perhaps, by the weekly dreamings of old Sol and Captain Cuttle on Sundays. Hardly a Sunday passed, without mysterious references being made by one or other of those worthy chums to Richard Whittington; and the latter gentleman had even gone so far as to purchase a ballad of considerable antiquity, that had long fluttered among many others, chiefly expressive of maritime sentiments, on a dead wall in the Commercial Road: which poetical performance set forth the courtship and nuptials of a promising young coal-whipper with a certain 'lovely Peg,' the accomplished daughter of the master and part-owner of a Newcastle collier. In this stirring legend, Captain Cuttle descried a profound metaphysical bearing on the case of Walter and Florence; and it excited him so much, that on very festive occasions, as birthdays and a few other non-Dominical holidays, he would roar through the whole song in the little back parlour; making an amazing shake on the word Pe-e-eg, with which every verse concluded, in compliment to the heroine of the piece.
But a frank, free-spirited, open-hearted boy, is not much given to analysing the nature of his own feelings, however strong their hold upon him: and Walter would have found it difficult to decide this point. He had a great affection for the wharf where he had encountered Florence, and for the streets (albeit not enchanting in themselves) by which they had come home. The shoes that had so often tumbled off by the way, he preserved in his own room; and, sitting in the little back parlour of an evening, he had drawn a whole gallery of fancy portraits of Good Mrs Brown. It may be that he became a little smarter in his dress after that memorable occasion; and he certainly liked in his leisure time to walk towards that quarter of the town where Mr Dombey's house was situated, on the vague chance of passing little Florence in the street. But the sentiment of all this was as boyish and innocent as could be. Florence was very pretty, and it is pleasant to admire a pretty face. Florence was defenceless and weak, and it was a proud thought that he had been able to render her any protection and assistance. Florence was the most grateful little creature in the world, and it was delightful to see her bright gratitude beaming in her face. Florence was neglected and coldly looked upon, and his breast was full of youthful interest for the slighted child in her dull, stately home.
Thus it came about that, perhaps some half-a-dozen times in the course of the year, Walter pulled off his hat to Florence in the street, and Florence would stop to shake hands. Mrs Wickam (who, with a characteristic alteration of his name, invariably spoke of him as 'Young Graves') was so well used to this, knowing the story of their acquaintance, that she took no heed of it at all. Miss Nipper, on the other hand, rather looked out for these occasions: her sensitive young heart being secretly propitiated by Walter's good looks, and inclining to the belief that its sentiments were responded to.
In this way, Walter, so far from forgetting or losing sight of his acquaintance with Florence, only remembered it better and better. As to its adventurous beginning, and all those little circumstances which gave it a distinctive character and relish, he took them into account, more as a pleasant story very agreeable to his imagination, and not to be dismissed from it, than as a part of any matter of fact with which he was concerned. They set off Florence very much, to his fancy; but not himself. Sometimes he thought (and then he walked very fast) what a grand thing it would have been for him to have been going to sea on the day after that first meeting, and to have gone, and to have done wonders there, and to have stopped away a long time, and to have come back an Admiral of all the colours of the dolphin, or at least a Post-Captain with epaulettes of insupportable brightness, and have married Florence (then a beautiful young woman) in spite of Mr Dombey's teeth, cravat, and watch-chain, and borne her away to the blue shores of somewhere or other, triumphantly. But these flights of fancy seldom burnished the brass plate of Dombey and Son's Offices into a tablet of golden hope, or shed a brilliant lustre on their dirty skylights; and when the Captain and Uncle Sol talked about Richard Whittington and masters' daughters, Walter felt that he understood his true position at Dombey and Son's, much better than they did.
So it was that he went on doing what he had to do from day to day, in a cheerful, pains-taking, merry spirit; and saw through the sanguine complexion of Uncle Sol and Captain Cuttle; and yet entertained a thousand indistinct and visionary fancies of his own, to which theirs were work-a-day probabilities. Such was his condition at the Pipchin period, when he looked a little older than of yore, but not much; and was the same light-footed, light-hearted, light-headed lad, as when he charged into the parlour at the head of Uncle Sol and the imaginary boarders, and lighted him to bring up the Madeira.
'Uncle Sol,' said Walter, 'I don't think you're well. You haven't eaten any breakfast. I shall bring a doctor to you, if you go on like this.'
'He can't give me what I want, my boy,' said Uncle Sol. 'At least he is in good practice if he can - and then he wouldn't.'
'What is it, Uncle? Customers?'
'Ay,' returned Solomon, with a sigh. 'Customers would do.'
'Confound it, Uncle!' said Walter, putting down his breakfast cup with a clatter, and striking his hand on the table: 'when I see the people going up and down the street in shoals all day, and passing and re-passing the shop every minute, by scores, I feel half tempted to rush out, collar somebody, bring him in, and make him buy fifty pounds' worth of instruments for ready money. What are you looking in at the door for? - ' continued Walter, apostrophizing an old gentleman with a powdered head (inaudibly to him of course), who was staring at a ship's telescope with all his might and main. 'That's no use. I could do that. Come in and buy it!'
The old gentleman, however, having satiated his curiosity, walked calmly away.
'There he goes!' said Walter. 'That's the way with 'em all. But, Uncle - I say, Uncle Sol' - for the old man was meditating and had not responded to his first appeal. 'Don't be cast down. Don't be out of spirits, Uncle. When orders do come, they'll come in such a crowd, you won't be able to execute 'em.'
'I shall be past executing 'em, whenever they come, my boy,' returned Solomon Gills. 'They'll never come to this shop again, till I am out of t.'
'I say, Uncle! You musn't really, you know!' urged Walter. 'Don't!'
Old Sol endeavoured to assume a cheery look, and smiled across the little table at him as pleasantly as he could.
'There's nothing more than usual the matter; is there, Uncle?' said Walter, leaning his elbows on the tea tray, and bending over, to speak the more confidentially and kindly. 'Be open with me, Uncle, if there is, and tell me all about it.'
'No, no, no,' returned Old Sol. 'More than usual? No, no. What should there be the matter more than usual?'
Walter answered with an incredulous shake of his head. 'That's what I want to know,' he said, 'and you ask me! I'll tell you what, Uncle, when I see you like this, I am quite sorry that I live with you.'
Old Sol opened his eyes involuntarily.
'Yes. Though nobody ever was happier than I am and always have been with you, I am quite sorry that I live with you, when I see you with anything in your mind.'
'I am a little dull at such times, I know,' observed Solomon, meekly rubbing his hands.
'What I mean, Uncle Sol,' pursued Walter, bending over a little more to pat him on the shoulder, 'is, that then I feel you ought to have, sitting here and pouring out the tea instead of me, a nice little dumpling of a wife, you know, - a comfortable, capital, cosy old lady, who was just a match for you, and knew how to manage you, and keep you in good heart. Here am I, as loving a nephew as ever was (I am sure I ought to be!) but I am only a nephew, and I can't be such a companion to you when you're low and out of sorts as she would have made herself, years ago, though I'm sure I'd give any money if I could cheer you up. And so I say, when I see you with anything on your mind, that I feel quite sorry you haven't got somebody better about you than a blundering young rough-and-tough boy like me, who has got the will to console you, Uncle, but hasn't got the way - hasn't got the way,' repeated Walter, reaching over further yet, to shake his Uncle by the hand.
'Wally, my dear boy,' said Solomon, 'if the cosy little old lady had taken her place in this parlour five and forty years ago, I never could have been fonder of her than I am of you.'
'I know that, Uncle Sol,' returned Walter. 'Lord bless you, I know that. But you wouldn't have had the whole weight of any uncomfortable secrets if she had been with you, because she would have known how to relieve you of 'em, and I don't.'
'Yes, yes, you do,' returned the Instrument-maker.
'Well then, what's the matter, Uncle Sol?' said Walter, coaxingly. 'Come! What's the matter?'
Solomon Gills persisted that there was nothing the matter; and maintained it so resolutely, that his nephew had no resource but to make a very indifferent imitation of believing him.
'All I can say is, Uncle Sol, that if there is - '
'But there isn't,' said Solomon.
'Very well,, said Walter. 'Then I've no more to say; and that's lucky, for my time's up for going to business. I shall look in by-and-by when I'm out, to see how you get on, Uncle. And mind, Uncle! I'll never believe you again, and never tell you anything more about Mr Carker the Junior, if I find out that you have been deceiving me!'
Solomon Gills laughingly defied him to find out anything of the kind; and Walter, revolving in his thoughts all sorts of impracticable ways of making fortunes and placing the wooden Midshipman in a position of independence, betook himself to the offices of Dombey and Son with a heavier countenance than he usually carried there.
There lived in those days, round the corner - in Bishopsgate Street Without - one Brogley, sworn broker and appraiser, who kept a shop where every description of second-hand furniture was exhibited in the most uncomfortable aspect, and under circumstances and in combinations the most completely foreign to its purpose. Dozens of chairs hooked on to washing-stands, which with difficulty poised themselves on the shoulders of sideboards, which in their turn stood upon the wrong side of dining-tables, gymnastic with their legs upward on the tops of other dining-tables, were among its most reasonable arrangements. A banquet array of dish-covers, wine-glasses, and decanters was generally to be seen, spread forth upon the bosom of a four-post bedstead, for the entertainment of such genial company as half-a-dozen pokers, and a hall lamp. A set of window curtains with no windows belonging to them, would be seen gracefully draping a barricade of chests of drawers, loaded with little jars from chemists' shops; while a homeless hearthrug severed from its natural companion the fireside, braved the shrewd east wind in its adversity, and trembled in melancholy accord with the shrill complainings of a cabinet piano, wasting away, a string a day, and faintly resounding to the noises of the street in its jangling and distracted brain. Of motionless clocks that never stirred a finger, and seemed as incapable of being successfully wound up, as the pecuniary affairs of their former owners, there was always great choice in Mr Brogley's shop; and various looking-glasses, accidentally placed at compound interest of reflection and refraction, presented to the eye an eternal perspective of bankruptcy and ruin.
Mr Brogley himself was a moist-eyed, pink-complexioned, crisp-haired man, of a bulky figure and an easy temper - for that class of Caius Marius who sits upon the ruins of other people's Carthages, can keep up his spirits well enough. He had looked in at Solomon's shop sometimes, to ask a question about articles in Solomon's way of business; and Walter knew him sufficiently to give him good day when they met in the street. But as that was the extent of the broker's acquaintance with Solomon Gills also, Walter was not a little surprised when he came back in the course of the forenoon, agreeably to his promise, to find Mr Brogley sitting in the back parlour with his hands in his pockets, and his hat hanging up behind the door.
'Well, Uncle Sol!' said Walter. The old man was sitting ruefully on the opposite side of the table, with his spectacles over his eyes, for a wonder, instead of on his forehead. 'How are you now?'
Solomon shook his head, and waved one hand towards the broker, as introducing him.
'Is there anything the matter?' asked Walter, with a catching in his breath.
'No, no. There's nothing the matter, said Mr Brogley. 'Don't let it put you out of the way.' Walter looked from the broker to his Uncle in mute amazement. 'The fact is,' said Mr Brogley, 'there's a little payment on a bond debt - three hundred and seventy odd, overdue: and I'm in possession.'
'In possession!' cried Walter, looking round at the shop.
'Ah!' said Mr Brogley, in confidential assent, and nodding his head as if he would urge the advisability of their all being comfortable together. 'It's an execution. That's what it is. Don't let it put you out of the way. I come myself, because of keeping it quiet and sociable. You know me. It's quite private.'
'Uncle Sol!' faltered Walter.
'Wally, my boy,' returned his uncle. 'It's the first time. Such a calamity never happened to me before. I'm an old man to begin.' Pushing up his spectacles again (for they were useless any longer to conceal his emotion), he covered his face with his hand, and sobbed aloud, and his tears fell down upon his coffee-coloured waistcoat.
'Uncle Sol! Pray! oh don't!' exclaimed Walter, who really felt a thrill of terror in seeing the old man weep. 'For God's sake don't do that. Mr Brogley, what shall I do?'
'I should recommend you looking up a friend or so,' said Mr Brogley, 'and talking it over.'
'To be sure!' cried Walter, catching at anything. 'Certainly! Thankee. Captain Cuttle's the man, Uncle. Wait till I run to Captain Cuttle. Keep your eye upon my Uncle, will you, Mr Brogley, and make him as comfortable as you can while I am gone? Don't despair, Uncle Sol. Try and keep a good heart, there's a dear fellow!'
Saying this with great fervour, and disregarding the old man's broken remonstrances, Walter dashed out of the shop again as hard as he could go; and, having hurried round to the office to excuse himself on the plea of his Uncle's sudden illness, set off, full speed, for Captain Cuttle's residence.
Everything seemed altered as he ran along the streets. There were the usual entanglement and noise of carts, drays, omnibuses, waggons, and foot passengers, but the misfortune that had fallen on the wooden Midshipman made it strange and new. Houses and shops were different from what they used to be, and bore Mr Brogley's warrant on their fronts in large characters. The broker seemed to have got hold of the very churches; for their spires rose into the sky with an unwonted air. Even the sky itself was changed, and had an execution in it plainly.
Captain Cuttle lived on the brink of a little canal near the India Docks, where there was a swivel bridge which opened now and then to let some wandering monster of a ship come roamIng up the street like a stranded leviathan. The gradual change from land to water, on the approach to Captain Cuttle's lodgings, was curious. It began with the erection of flagstaffs, as appurtenances to public-houses; then came slop-sellers' shops, with Guernsey shirts, sou'wester hats, and canvas pantaloons, at once the tightest and the loosest of their order, hanging up outside. These were succeeded by anchor and chain-cable forges, where sledgehammers were dinging upon iron all day long. Then came rows of houses, with little vane-surmounted masts uprearing themselves from among the scarlet beans. Then, ditches. Then, pollard willows. Then, more ditches. Then, unaccountable patches of dirty water, hardly to be descried, for the ships that covered them. Then, the air was perfumed with chips; and all other trades were swallowed up in mast, oar, and block-making, and boatbuilding. Then, the ground grew marshy and unsettled. Then, there was nothing to be smelt but rum and sugar. Then, Captain Cuttle's lodgings - at once a first floor and a top storey, in Brig Place - were close before you.
The Captain was one of those timber-looking men, suits of oak as well as hearts, whom it is almost impossible for the liveliest imagination to separate from any part of their dress, however insignificant. Accordingly, when Walter knocked at the door, and the Captain instantly poked his head out of one of his little front windows, and hailed him, with the hard glared hat already on it, and the shirt-collar like a sail, and the wide suit of blue, all standing as usual, Walter was as fully persuaded that he was always in that state, as if the Captain had been a bird and those had been his feathers.
'Wal'r, my lad!'said Captain Cuttle. 'Stand by and knock again. Hard! It's washing day.'
Walter, in his impatience, gave a prodigious thump with the knocker.
'Hard it is!' said Captain Cuttle, and immediately drew in his head, as if he expected a squall.
Nor was he mistaken: for a widow lady, with her sleeves rolled up to her shoulders, and her arms frothy with soap-suds and smoking with hot water, replied to the summons with startling rapidity. Before she looked at Walter she looked at the knocker, and then, measuring him with her eyes from head to foot, said she wondered he had left any of it.
'Captain Cuttle's at home, I know,' said Walter with a conciliatory smile.
'Is he?' replied the widow lady. 'In-deed!'
'He has just been speaking to me,' said Walter, in breathless explanation.
'Has he?' replied the widow lady. 'Then p'raps you'll give him Mrs MacStinger's respects, and say that the next time he lowers himself and his lodgings by talking out of the winder she'll thank him to come down and open the door too.' Mrs MacStinger spoke loud, and listened for any observations that might be offered from the first floor.
'I'll mention it,' said Walter, 'if you'll have the goodness to let me in, Ma'am.'
For he was repelled by a wooden fortification extending across the doorway, and put there to prevent the little MacStingers in their moments of recreation from tumbling down the steps.
'A boy that can knock my door down,' said Mrs MacStinger, contemptuously, 'can get over that, I should hope!' But Walter, taking this as a permission to enter, and getting over it, Mrs MacStinger immediately demanded whether an Englishwoman's house was her castle or not; and whether she was to be broke in upon by 'raff.' On these subjects her thirst for information was still very importunate, when Walter, having made his way up the little staircase through an artificial fog occasioned by the washing, which covered the banisters with a clammy perspiration, entered Captain Cuttle's room, and found that gentleman in ambush behind the door.
'Never owed her a penny, Wal'r,' said Captain Cuttle, in a low voice, and with visible marks of trepidation on his countenance. 'Done her a world of good turns, and the children too. Vixen at times, though. Whew!'
'I should go away, Captain Cuttle,' said Walter.
'Dursn't do it, Wal'r,' returned the Captain. 'She'd find me out, wherever I went. Sit down. How's Gills?'
The Captain was dining (in his hat) off cold loin of mutton, porter, and some smoking hot potatoes, which he had cooked himself, and took out of a little saucepan before the fire as he wanted them. He unscrewed his hook at dinner-time, and screwed a knife into its wooden socket instead, with which he had already begun to peel one of these potatoes for Walter. His rooms were very small, and strongly impregnated with tobacco-smoke, but snug enough: everything being stowed away, as if there were an earthquake regularly every half-hour.
'How's Gills?' inquired the Captain.
Walter, who had by this time recovered his breath, and lost his spirits - or such temporary spirits as his rapid journey had given him - looked at his questioner for a moment, said 'Oh, Captain Cuttle!' and burst into tears.
No words can describe the Captain's consternation at this sight Mrs MacStinger faded into nothing before it. He dropped the potato and the fork - and would have dropped the knife too if he could - and sat gazing at the boy, as if he expected to hear next moment that a gulf had opened in the City, which had swallowed up his old friend, coffee-coloured suit, buttons, chronometer, spectacles, and all.
But when Walter told him what was really the matter, Captain Cuttle, after a moment's reflection, started up into full activity. He emptied out of a little tin canister on the top shelf of the cupboard, his whole stock of ready money (amounting to thirteen pounds and half-a-crown), which he transferred to one of the pockets of his square blue coat; further enriched that repository with the contents of his plate chest, consisting of two withered atomies of tea-spoons, and an obsolete pair of knock-knee'd sugar-tongs; pulled up his immense double-cased silver watch from the depths in which it reposed, to assure himself that that valuable was sound and whole; re-attached the hook to his right wrist; and seizing the stick covered over with knobs, bade Walter come along.
Remembering, however, in the midst of his virtuous excitement, that Mrs MacStinger might be lying in wait below, Captain Cuttle hesitated at last, not without glancing at the window, as if he had some thoughts of escaping by that unusual means of egress, rather than encounter his terrible enemy. He decided, however, in favour of stratagem.
'Wal'r,' said the Captain, with a timid wink, 'go afore, my lad. Sing out, "good-bye, Captain Cuttle," when you're in the passage, and shut the door. Then wait at the corner of the street 'till you see me.
These directions were not issued without a previous knowledge of the enemy's tactics, for when Walter got downstairs, Mrs MacStinger glided out of the little back kitchen, like an avenging spirit. But not gliding out upon the Captain, as she had expected, she merely made a further allusion to the knocker, and glided in again.
Some five minutes elapsed before Captain Cuttle could summon courage to attempt his escape; for Walter waited so long at the street corner, looking back at the house, before there were any symptoms of the hard glazed hat. At length the Captain burst out of the door with the suddenness of an explosion, and coming towards him at a great pace, and never once looking over his shoulder, pretended, as soon as they were well out of the street, to whistle a tune.
'Uncle much hove down, Wal'r?' inquired the Captain, as they were walking along.
'I am afraid so. If you had seen him this morning, you would never have forgotten it.'
'Walk fast, Wal'r, my lad,' returned the Captain, mending his pace; 'and walk the same all the days of your life. Overhaul the catechism for that advice, and keep it!'
The Captain was too busy with his own thoughts of Solomon Gills, mingled perhaps with some reflections on his late escape from Mrs MacStinger, to offer any further quotations on the way for Walter's moral improvement They interchanged no other word until they arrived at old Sol's door, where the unfortunate wooden Midshipman, with his instrument at his eye, seemed to be surveying the whole horizon in search of some friend to help him out of his difficulty.
'Gills!' said the Captain, hurrying into the back parlour, and taking him by the hand quite tenderly. 'Lay your head well to the wind, and we'll fight through it. All you've got to do,' said the Captain, with the solemnity of a man who was delivering himself of one of the most precious practical tenets ever discovered by human wisdom, 'is to lay your head well to the wind, and we'll fight through it!'
Old Sol returned the pressure of his hand, and thanked him.
Captain Cuttle, then, with a gravity suitable to the nature of the occasion, put down upon the table the two tea-spoons and the sugar-tongs, the silver watch, and the ready money; and asked Mr Brogley, the broker, what the damage was.
'Come! What do you make of it?' said Captain Cuttle.
'Why, Lord help you!' returned the broker; 'you don't suppose that property's of any use, do you?'
'Why not?' inquired the Captain.
'Why? The amount's three hundred and seventy, odd,' replied the broker.
'Never mind,' returned the Captain, though he was evidently dismayed by the figures: 'all's fish that comes to your net, I suppose?'
'Certainly,' said Mr Brogley. 'But sprats ain't whales, you know.'
The philosophy of this observation seemed to strike the Captain. He ruminated for a minute; eyeing the broker, meanwhile, as a deep genius; and then called the Instrument-maker aside.
'Gills,' said Captain Cuttle, 'what's the bearings of this business? Who's the creditor?'
'Hush!' returned the old man. 'Come away. Don't speak before Wally. It's a matter of security for Wally's father - an old bond. I've paid a good deal of it, Ned, but the times are so bad with me that I can't do more just now. I've foreseen it, but I couldn't help it. Not a word before Wally, for all the world.'
'You've got some money, haven't you?' whispered the Captain.
'Yes, yes - oh yes- I've got some,' returned old Sol, first putting his hands into his empty pockets, and then squeezing his Welsh wig between them, as if he thought he might wring some gold out of it; 'but I - the little I have got, isn't convertible, Ned; it can't be got at. I have been trying to do something with it for Wally, and I'm old fashioned, and behind the time. It's here and there, and - and, in short, it's as good as nowhere,' said the old man, looking in bewilderment about him.
He had so much the air of a half-witted person who had been hiding his money in a variety of places, and had forgotten where, that the Captain followed his eyes, not without a faint hope that he might remember some few hundred pounds concealed up the chimney, or down in the cellar. But Solomon Gills knew better than that.
'I'm behind the time altogether, my dear Ned,' said Sol, in resigned despair, 'a long way. It's no use my lagging on so far behind it. The stock had better be sold - it's worth more than this debt - and I had better go and die somewhere, on the balance. I haven't any energy left. I don't understand things. This had better be the end of it. Let 'em sell the stock and take him down,' said the old man, pointing feebly to the wooden Midshipman, 'and let us both be broken up together.'
'And what d'ye mean to do with Wal'r?'said the Captain. 'There, there! Sit ye down, Gills, sit ye down, and let me think o' this. If I warn't a man on a small annuity, that was large enough till to-day, I hadn't need to think of it. But you only lay your head well to the wind,' said the Captain, again administering that unanswerable piece of consolation, 'and you're all right!'
Old Sol thanked him from his heart, and went and laid it against the back parlour fire-place instead.
Captain Cuttle walked up and down the shop for some time, cogitating profoundly, and bringing his bushy black eyebrows to bear so heavily on his nose, like clouds setting on a mountain, that Walter was afraid to offer any interruption to the current of his reflections. Mr Brogley, who was averse to being any constraint upon the party, and who had an ingenious cast of mind, went, softly whistling, among the stock; rattling weather-glasses, shaking compasses as if they were physic, catching up keys with loadstones, looking through telescopes, endeavouring to make himself acquainted with the use of the globes, setting parallel rulers astride on to his nose, and amusing himself with other philosophical transactions.
'Wal'r!' said the Captain at last. 'I've got it.'
'Have you, Captain Cuttle?' cried Walter, with great animation.
'Come this way, my lad,' said the Captain. 'The stock's the security. I'm another. Your governor's the man to advance money.'
'Mr Dombey!' faltered Walter.
The Captain nodded gravely. 'Look at him,' he said. 'Look at Gills. If they was to sell off these things now, he'd die of it. You know he would. We mustn't leave a stone unturned - and there's a stone for you.'
'A stone! - Mr Dombey!' faltered Walter.
'You run round to the office, first of all, and see if he's there,' said Captain Cuttle, clapping him on the back. 'Quick!'
Walter felt he must not dispute the command - a glance at his Uncle would have determined him if he had felt otherwise - and disappeared to execute it. He soon returned, out of breath, to say that Mr Dombey was not there. It was Saturday, and he had gone to Brighton.
'I tell you what, Wal'r!' said the Captain, who seemed to have prepared himself for this contingency in his absence. 'We'll go to Brighton. I'll back you, my boy. I'll back you, Wal'r. We'll go to Brighton by the afternoon's coach.'
If the application must be made to Mr Dombey at all, which was awful to think of, Walter felt that he would rather prefer it alone and unassisted, than backed by the personal influence of Captain Cuttle, to which he hardly thought Mr Dombey would attach much weight. But as the Captain appeared to be of quite another opinion, and was bent upon it, and as his friendship was too zealous and serious to be trifled with by one so much younger than himself, he forbore to hint the least objection. Cuttle, therefore, taking a hurried leave of Solomon Gills, and returning the ready money, the teaspoons, the sugar-tongs, and the silver watch, to his pocket - with a view, as Walter thought, with horror, to making a gorgeous impression on Mr Dombey - bore him off to the coach-office, with- out a minute's delay, and repeatedly assured him, on the road, that he would stick by him to the last.
就年輕的沃爾特·蓋伊的性格來說，他原本強烈地喜愛浪漫的情趣和向往奇異的事跡；在舅舅老所羅門·吉爾斯的監(jiān)護(hù)下，嚴(yán)酷的生活經(jīng)驗的水流并沒有把他的這種性格沖淡多少；這就是他對弗洛倫斯跟善良的布朗太太的奇遇興致勃勃地懷著異乎尋常的興趣的原因。他在記憶中縱容它，珍惜它，特別是與他有關(guān)的那一部分，后來它終于成了他想象中的一個慣壞了的孩子，可以自行其是，隨心所欲了。
老所爾與卡特爾船長每個星期天聚會時都要做一次他們的美夢，這樣一來，這些事情和他本人在其中的參與就更具有一種令人神魂顛倒的魅力。很少有哪一個星期天，這兩位高尚的朋友中的這一位或那一位不神秘地提到理查德·惠廷頓的?？ㄌ貭柎L甚至還買了一本相當(dāng)古老的敘事曲，它主要是反映海員們的思想感情的，它和許多其他的歌曲書籍一起，掛在商業(yè)路上的冷清的墻上，飄動著書頁，已經(jīng)好久了；這本詩歌作品敘述了一位有出息的給船上裝煤的年輕人跟一位“可愛的佩格姑娘”之間求愛與結(jié)婚的故事；這位佩格姑娘是紐卡斯?fàn)枹僖凰颐捍拇L（他同時也是船主之一）的有才能的女兒，卡特爾船長從這個激動人心的傳說中，看到它與沃爾特和弗洛倫斯的情況有一種意味深長的、形而上學(xué)的相似關(guān)系；它使他感到十分興奮，每逢生日或其他非宗教節(jié)日的喜慶日子，他都會在小后客廳里放開嗓子，把這首歌從頭到尾唱完。在唱到“佩——格”這個詞的時候，他還發(fā)出了令人驚奇的顫音；每個詩句都是用這個贊美女主人公的詞來結(jié)尾的。
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①紐卡斯?fàn)枺∟ewcastle）：英國港市。
可是一位胸懷坦率、豁達(dá)大度、光明磊落的孩子并不很喜愛分析自己感情的性質(zhì)，不論這種感情是多么強烈地支配著他；沃爾特要作出這樣的判斷也是困難的。他對他跟弗洛倫斯相遇的碼頭，對他們回家時經(jīng)過的街道（雖然它們本身并沒有令人銷魂的地方）都懷著深厚的感情。他把那雙在路上不時脫落的鞋子保存在他自己的房間里；有一天晚上他坐在小后客廳里，給想象中的善良的布朗太太畫了肖像，畫了整整一走廊。在那次值得紀(jì)念的事件發(fā)生以后，他的衣著也可能變得稍稍漂亮起來了；他在閑暇的時候，的確喜歡朝著董貝先生公館坐落的那個市區(qū)走去，模模糊糊地希望在街上遇到小弗洛倫斯?？墒撬羞@些思想感情都是孩子氣的，天真爛漫的。弗洛倫斯是很漂亮的，愛慕漂亮的臉孔是件愉快的事情；弗洛倫斯是軟弱無力，沒有人保衛(wèi)她的，想到他向她提供了保護(hù)與幫助是值得自豪的。弗洛倫斯是這世界上最感恩的小人兒，看到她臉上閃耀著熱烈感激的光彩是使人高興的。弗洛倫斯是被輕視和冷落的，他在心中對這位在她那沉悶、莊嚴(yán)的家中被看不起的孩子滿懷著年輕人的興趣。
沃爾特在街上脫下帽子向弗洛倫斯致意，弗洛倫斯則會停下來跟他握手，這樣在一年當(dāng)中發(fā)生過六、七次。威肯姆大嫂（她按照她悲觀的性格來改變他的姓名，始終不變地把他叫做“年輕的格萊夫斯①”）知道他們相識的經(jīng)歷，對于這種情形已經(jīng)十分習(xí)慣了，所以她對它絲毫也不注意。另一方面，尼珀姑娘是很盼望遇到這樣的機(jī)會的，因為在她敏感的年輕的心靈中已對沃爾特英俊的外貌暗暗地產(chǎn)生了好感；她總愛相信，這種感情總是會得到回答的。
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①年輕的格萊夫斯（youngGraves）：在英文中，Graves一詞的意義是墳?zāi)埂?BR> 因此，沃爾特非但沒有忘記他跟弗洛倫斯的相識或模糊了它的印象，相反地，他記得愈來愈清楚了。至于它那傳奇性的開始以及那些給予它別具一格的特色與興味的細(xì)微情節(jié)，與其說他把它看成是與他有關(guān)的事實的一部分，倒不如說他把它們看成是很合乎他想象、決不會從他腦子中消失的有趣故事。在他看來，這些情節(jié)突出地襯托出弗洛倫斯，而不是他自己。有時他想（這時候他就走得很快），如果在他們第一次相遇之后的第二天他出去航海，在海上創(chuàng)造出奇跡，長久離別后回來的時候成了一位海軍上將，全身服裝像海豚那樣閃耀著各種色彩，或者至少成了一位郵船船長，佩戴著閃閃發(fā)光、令人承受不住的肩章，然后不顧董貝先生的牙齒、領(lǐng)帶和表鏈，與弗洛倫斯結(jié)婚（那時候她是一位美麗的年輕女人了），得意洋洋地把她帶到某個有著藍(lán)色海岸的地方去，那該是件多么美妙的事啊！可是這些奔放的幻想并沒有把董貝父子公司營業(yè)所的銅牌擦亮成為一塊金色希望的牌子或把燦爛的光輝照射到他們的骯臟的天窗上；當(dāng)卡特爾船長與所爾舅舅談?wù)摾聿榈隆せ萃㈩D和他主人的女兒時，沃爾特覺得，他對他自己在董貝父子公司中真正的地位要比他們明白得多。
所以他一天天繼續(xù)興致勃勃、不辭勞苦、歡樂愉快地做著他應(yīng)該做的事情，清楚地看到所爾舅舅和卡特爾船長充滿希望的臉色，然而他自己卻懷著上千種模糊不清、虛無縹緲的幻想；跟他的這些幻想相比，他們的幻想倒還存在著一些實現(xiàn)的可能性。這就是弗洛倫斯陪伴保羅到皮普欽那里去那段時間中他的情況；這時候他看上去比過去歲數(shù)大了一些，但大得不多，仍然是一位走路輕快、無憂無慮、不多思索的小伙子，就像他過去有一天在所爾舅舅和想象中的攻入敵船的船員們的前面，沖進(jìn)客廳里的時候，以及當(dāng)他給所爾舅舅照明去取那瓶馬德拉白葡萄酒的時候一樣。
“所爾舅舅，”沃爾特說道，“我覺得你身體不大好，你沒有吃早飯。如果你再這樣下去的話，那么我將給你請一位醫(yī)生來。”
“他不能給我所需要的東西，我的孩子，”所爾舅舅說道，“如果他能的話，那么他至少有很好的經(jīng)驗——但他畢竟是不能給的。”
“你指什么，舅舅？是指顧客嗎？”
“是的，”所羅門嘆了一口氣，回答道?！邦櫩途托小！?BR> “真見鬼，舅舅！”沃爾特把他的早餐杯子卡嗒一聲放下，在桌子上敲了一拳，說道，“當(dāng)我看到人們整天一群群在街上走來走去，每分鐘都有幾十個人經(jīng)過這個店鋪的時候，我真想沖出去，扭住一個人的領(lǐng)口，拉他到店里來，一定讓他拿出現(xiàn)錢，購買值五十鎊的儀器。喂，您在門口看什
么？——”沃爾特繼續(xù)說道，一邊向一位頭上撒了白粉的老先生喊道（他當(dāng)然聽不見），那老先生正在聚精會神地注視著一架船上用的望遠(yuǎn)鏡?！澳菦]有用，我也能那樣看，進(jìn)來把它買去吧！”
可是那位老先生滿足了好奇心之后，不聲不響地走開了。
“他走了！”沃爾特說道。“他們?nèi)际沁@樣?？墒牵司恕艺f，所爾舅舅”——因為老人正在沉思，沒有回答他第一次對他的招呼——“別垂頭喪氣，別沒精打采，舅舅。當(dāng)訂貨真來的時候，它們會大批大批地來，那時候你都沒辦法去完成它們的呢?！?BR> “不論它們什么時候來，我都能全部完成的，我的孩子，”所羅門·吉爾斯回答道?！霸谖覜]有離開店鋪之前，它們永遠(yuǎn)也不會到這里來了?！?BR> “我說，舅舅！你真不應(yīng)該這么說，你知道！”沃爾特勸說道?！皠e那么說了！”
老所爾努力裝出一副高興的神色，向桌子對面的他盡量愉快地微笑著。
“沒有發(fā)生跟往常不同的什么事吧，是不是，舅舅？”沃爾特把兩只胳膊肘支在茶盤上，身子向前彎過去，更加親密、更加親切地說道：“別對我瞞什么，舅舅，如果發(fā)生了什么事情，那么請把一切都告訴我?！?BR> “沒有，沒有，沒有，”老所爾回答道?！案Ｓ惺裁床煌氖聠?？沒有，沒有，會發(fā)生跟往常不同的什么事情呢？”
沃爾特表示不大相信地?fù)u搖頭，作為回答?！斑@就是我想要知道的，”他說道，“可是你卻問我！我將告訴你，舅舅，當(dāng)我看到你這種樣子的時候，我就會因為跟你住在一起而感到十分遺憾。”
老所爾不自覺地張開了眼睛。
“是的，雖然沒有什么人能比我現(xiàn)在更幸福，而且我跟你在一起一直是幸福的，可是每當(dāng)我看到你有什么心事的時候，我就會因為和你住在一起而感到十分遺憾。”
“我知道，我在這種時候有些沉悶，”所羅門溫和地搓著手，說道。
“我想要說的是，所爾舅舅，”沃爾特把身子往前再彎過去一點，好拍拍他的肩膀，“這種時候我就覺得你應(yīng)當(dāng)有一位和善的、矮小的、胖乎乎的妻子，而不是我跟你坐在一起，給你倒茶；你知道，——她是一位賢惠的、能使你感到愉快的、和你情投意合的老太太，跟你正好相配；她知道怎樣照顧你，讓你心情舒暢?？墒乾F(xiàn)在卻是我在這里；我是一個很愛你的外甥（我相信我應(yīng)當(dāng)是?。?，可是我只是一個外甥；當(dāng)你悶悶不樂，心緒不佳的時候，我就不能成為像她那樣幾年前就知道怎么做的伴侶了，雖然我相信，如果我能使你高興起來，那么要我拿出多少錢來我都是愿意的。所以我說，每當(dāng)我看到你有什么心事，而除了像我這樣一個常常出漏子的粗魯小伙子外，你沒有一個更好的人在身旁的時候，我就感到很遺憾。我倒有意安慰安慰你，舅舅，可是我不知道該怎么辦才好——不知道怎么辦才好。”沃爾特重復(fù)說了一句，一邊把身子向前再彎過去一些，好和他的舅舅握握手。
“沃利，我親愛的孩子，”所羅門說道，“如果那位和我情投意合的、矮小的老太太在四十五年前就在這客廳里占據(jù)了她的位置，那么我也決不會像我現(xiàn)在這樣喜歡你一樣地喜歡她的?！?BR> “我知道這一點，所爾舅舅，”沃爾特回答道?！吧系郾Ｓ幽?，我知道這一點?？墒侨绻阍谝黄?，那么你有了不好對外人說的不稱心的事情，你就不會承擔(dān)它的全部負(fù)擔(dān)了，因為她知道怎樣讓你把它們解脫掉的，而我就不知道了?！?BR> “不，不，你知道的！”儀器制造商回答道。
“唔，那么發(fā)生了什么事情了呢，所爾舅舅？”沃爾特哄騙地說道?！罢f吧！發(fā)生了什么事情？”
所羅門·吉爾斯堅持說，沒有發(fā)生什么事情，而且態(tài)度堅決，毫不改變，所以他的外甥沒有法子，只好不太高明地假裝相信他。
“我只想說一點，所爾舅舅，如果發(fā)生了什么——”
“可是沒有發(fā)生什么，”所羅門說道。
“很好，”沃爾特說道?！澳俏揖驮僖矝]有什么要說的了；巧得很，因為現(xiàn)在是我該去上班的時候了。我路過這里的時候，會順便來看你的，看看你過得怎么樣，舅舅。記住，舅舅！如果我發(fā)現(xiàn)你欺騙了我，那么我就再也不相信你了，再也不跟你講低級職員卡克先生的事情了！”
所羅門·吉爾斯大笑著否認(rèn)他能發(fā)現(xiàn)這樣的事情；沃爾特腦子里盤旋著各種不切實際的發(fā)財致富的辦法，好使木制海軍軍官候補生處于獨立的地位，一邊露出比平時更沉重的神色，向董貝父子公司的營業(yè)所走去。
在那些日子里，在比曉普斯蓋特街的拐角上住著一位布羅格利先生，他是一位有許可證的經(jīng)紀(jì)人和估價人，開設(shè)了一個店鋪，店鋪里離奇古怪地擺放著各種各樣的舊家具，擺放和組合的方式都跟這些家具的用途完全不相稱。幾十張椅子鉤掛在臉盆架上；臉盆架為難地在餐具柜的兩側(cè)保持住重心，以免倒下；餐具柜又支立在餐桌的不是恰當(dāng)?shù)囊贿?；這些餐桌像做體操似地用腳頂住另一些餐桌的桌面；這些就是這些家具的最合理的安排。由盤蓋、酒杯、圓酒瓶組成的宴席餐具通常散放在四柱的床架上，供它們的親朋好友（如三、四副火鉗和過道里的一盞燈）來享用。沒有任何窗子屬于它們的窗簾懸掛著，成了一張塞滿小藥瓶的五屜柜的遮護(hù)物；一塊無家可歸的爐邊地毯離開它天然的伴侶爐子，在逆境中英勇地抵抗著刺骨的東風(fēng)，它渾身哆嗦著，那憂傷的情調(diào)與一架鋼琴的尖聲怨訴倒很一致；那鋼琴一天損失一根弦，正在消瘦下去，它那吵吵鬧鬧、精神錯亂的腦袋對街上的喧聲正作出微弱的反響。至于那指針永遠(yuǎn)停在一個地方、不會走動的鐘表，似乎像他過去的主人的金錢狀況一樣，已經(jīng)不能正常地運轉(zhuǎn)了；這種鐘表在布羅格利先生的店中經(jīng)常是很多的，可以隨意挑選；還有各種各樣的鏡子有時擺放得能使反映與折射出的形象比原形增大幾倍，它們送入眼睛來的永遠(yuǎn)是一片破產(chǎn)與沒落的景象。
布羅格利先生本人的眼睛經(jīng)常是水汪汪的，臉孔是粉紅色的，頭發(fā)卷曲，塊頭很大，性格隨和——因為凱烏斯·馬略這樣一類人是能夠精神振作地坐在其他民族的迦太基的廢墟上的①。他有時曾順道到所羅門的店里來看看，問一問所羅門所經(jīng)營的儀器方面的問題；沃爾特跟他熟了，在街上遇見時總要向他寒暄問好，然而這位經(jīng)紀(jì)人與所羅門·吉爾斯也僅僅熟悉到這樣的程度罷了，所以當(dāng)沃爾特那天午前信守諾言，回到家中，看見布羅格利先生坐在后客廳里，雙手插在衣袋中，帽子掛在門后的時候，感到相當(dāng)驚奇。
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①凱烏斯·馬略（CaiusMarius，公元前157—86年），曾七次當(dāng)選為古羅馬的執(zhí)政官，他指揮非洲的戰(zhàn)爭時，勇猛頑強，用兵如神。公元前88年，他被迫逃出羅馬，歷經(jīng)艱險，逃到非洲，曾在迦太基的廢墟中避難。迦太基（Carthage）為古代大城市之一，相傳為腓尼基人于公元前814年所建，今為突尼斯市郊區(qū)。
“唔，所爾舅舅！”沃爾特說道。那老人正沮喪地坐在桌子的另一邊，眼鏡居然很難得地戴在眼睛前面，而不是架在前額上。“你現(xiàn)在好嗎？”
所羅門搖搖頭，一只手向經(jīng)紀(jì)人揮了揮，作為介紹他。
“發(fā)生什么事情了嗎？”沃爾特屏息地問道。
“沒有，沒有，沒有發(fā)生什么事情，”布羅格利先生說道。
“您別為這憂慮?！?BR> 沃爾特沉默而驚奇地把眼光從經(jīng)紀(jì)人身上轉(zhuǎn)移到他舅舅身上。
“事情是，”布羅格利先生說道，“這里有一張沒有支付的票據(jù)。三百七十多鎊，已經(jīng)過期了?，F(xiàn)在票據(jù)在我手里?！?BR> “在您手里！”沃爾特往店鋪里環(huán)視了一下，喊道。
“是的，”布羅格利先生用一種講機(jī)密話的語氣說道，同時點點頭，仿佛他想勸告大家，每個人都應(yīng)當(dāng)覺得自己很好。“這是執(zhí)行一件該辦的事。事情僅僅如此而已。你別為這憂慮。我親自到這里來，是因為我想悄悄地、和和氣氣地把這件事情了結(jié)了。您知道我，完全是私下的，一點也沒有聲張?！?BR> “所爾舅舅！”沃爾特結(jié)結(jié)巴巴地說道。
“沃利，我的孩子，”他的舅舅回答道。“這是第一次。我從前從沒有遇到過這樣的不幸。我太老了，沒法從頭開始了?！彼蜒坨R又推到額上去（因為它已不能再掩蓋他的情緒了），用一只手捂住臉孔，大聲抽泣著，眼淚掉落在他的咖啡色的背心上。
“所爾舅舅！??！請別這樣！”沃爾特高聲喊道；他看到老人哭泣，確實感到一陣恐怖?！翱丛谏系鄣姆稚?，別這樣！
布羅格利先生，我該怎么辦？”
“我想建議您去找位朋友，”布羅格利先生說道，“跟他談?wù)勥@件事情。”
“完全正確！”沃爾特急忙抓住一切機(jī)會，喊道?！爱?dāng)然該這么辦！謝謝您?？ㄌ貭柎L就是我們所需要的人，舅舅。等著我，等我跑去找卡特爾船長。布羅格利先生，當(dāng)我不在家的時候，請您照看一下我的舅舅，盡量安慰安慰他，好嗎？不要灰心喪氣，所爾舅舅。努力振作起精神，這才是個男子漢！”
沃爾特?zé)崆檠笠绲卣f完了這些話，不顧老人上句不接下句地勸阻，迅猛地又沖出了店鋪；他急忙跑到辦公室，借口他舅舅突然病了，請求準(zhǔn)假，然后火速地向卡特爾船長的住所進(jìn)發(fā)。
當(dāng)他沿著街道跑過去的時候，一切似乎都已改變了。像往常一樣，手推車、大車、公共汽車、運貨馬車和行人混雜在一起，熙熙攘攘，發(fā)出了各種鬧聲，可是落到木制海軍軍官候補生身上的不幸使它們變得古怪與新奇。房屋與店鋪跟它們平日的樣子不同，正面有很大的字母寫著布格羅利先生的付款通知單。這位經(jīng)紀(jì)人似乎把教堂也掌握在手中了，因為它們的尖頂以一種不同尋常的氣概升入了天空；甚至天空本身也改變了，也明顯地參與了這件事情的執(zhí)行。
卡特爾船長住在靠近印度造船廠的小運河的岸邊；那里有一座旋橋，它不時旋開，讓一些如同漫游巨怪般的船艦像擱淺了的海中怪獸一樣，沿著街道沖游過去。當(dāng)走向卡特爾船長住所的時候，從陸地到水上的逐步變化是奇妙有趣的。開始時是一些作為客棧附屬物的旗桿高高聳立著；然后是現(xiàn)成服裝店，店外懸掛著耿濟(jì)島①的黑色厚毛線衫，海員用的防水帽以及最緊窄和最寬松的帆布褲子。接著是生產(chǎn)錨和錨鏈的鐵工廠，長柄的大鐵錘整天叮叮當(dāng)當(dāng)?shù)貟啻蛑F塊。再下去是一排排房屋，房屋附近種植的紅豆中間豎立著頂上有小風(fēng)信標(biāo)的桅桿。接下去是水溝，然后是截去樹梢的柳樹。再下去是更多的水溝。然后是一片片奇怪的臟水，由于上面有船，很難辨認(rèn)出來。再下去，空氣中散發(fā)著刨花的氣味。所有其他行業(yè)都被制作桅、槳和滑車的行業(yè)和造船業(yè)排擠掉了。往下去，土地變得像沼澤一樣低濕、泥濘，很不牢固。再下去，除了朗姆酒和糖的氣味外，再也聞不到別的氣味了。再往下，卡特爾船長的住所就近在您的眼前了。他住在二層樓，那是布里格廣場上的一層。
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①耿濟(jì)島（IsleofGuernsey）：英國海峽中的一個島。
船長是那些看去像木材的人們當(dāng)中的一位，他們的衣服和身體好像是從一株橡樹中一道砍削出來的，最活躍的想象力也幾乎不可能把他們衣服中的任何一部分從身上分開，哪怕那是無關(guān)重要的一部分；因此，當(dāng)沃爾特敲了門，船長立刻從他前面的小窗子當(dāng)中的一個伸出頭來招呼他的時候，他像平時一樣，頭上已經(jīng)戴著那頂上了光的硬帽子，身上已經(jīng)穿上那套藍(lán)色的寬闊的外衣，還露出那像船帆一樣的襯衫領(lǐng)子；沃爾特完全相信，他經(jīng)常處于這種狀態(tài)，仿佛船長是一只鳥，那些衣帽是他的羽毛似的。
“沃爾，我的孩子！”卡特爾船長說道?！白龊脺?zhǔn)備，再敲一次。使勁敲，今天是洗衣服的日子。”
沃爾特急不可耐地用門環(huán)砰砰地猛敲著。
“很有勁！”卡特爾船長說道，然后立即把頭縮了進(jìn)去，仿佛他預(yù)料到一場夾帶冰雹的暴風(fēng)就要來臨似的。
他沒有錯，因為一位寡居的太太以驚人的敏捷回答了這個召喚；她袖子卷到肩膀上，胳膊上沾滿了肥皂泡，而且冒著霧騰騰的熱氣。她在看沃爾特之前先看了一下門環(huán)，然后用眼睛把他從頭到腳打量了一下，說她很奇怪，門環(huán)居然還在門上，沒有被他完全打落下來。
“就我所知，卡特爾船長在家里，”沃爾特和解地笑了一下，說道。
“他在家嗎？”這位寡居的太太回答道?！霸瓉怼绱?！”
“他剛才還跟我說話，”沃爾特急促地解釋道。
“他跟您說話了嗎？”寡居的太太回答道?！澳敲匆苍S您可以向他轉(zhuǎn)達(dá)麥克斯廷杰太太的敬意，告訴他，如果下一次要貶損他本人和他的住所的體面，從窗口對外講話的話，那么就請他也下樓來開門，她將為此而感謝他。”麥克斯廷杰太太高聲地說著，同時聽聽二層樓上對這會提出什么意見。
“夫人，”沃爾特說道，“如果您肯行個好，讓我進(jìn)去的話，那么我會對他說的?！?BR> 因為有一個木制的路障橫放在門口，把他擋住了，那路障是為了防止小麥克斯廷杰在玩耍的時候，從臺階上滾下去而擺設(shè)在那里的。
“我希望，”麥克斯廷杰太太傲慢地說道，“一個能把我的門敲下的小子能夠從這里跳過去?！笨墒钱?dāng)沃爾特以為這是允許他進(jìn)去，因此跳了過去之后，麥克斯廷杰太太卻立刻問道，一位英國婦女的家是不是她的堡壘？①它是不是可以容許“二流子”隨意闖入？當(dāng)沃爾特穿過洗衣服所形成的人造霧氣（它使樓梯扶手粘粘糊糊，像出了汗似的），進(jìn)到卡特爾船長的房間，看到這位先生正在門后埋伏著的時候，她仍糾纏不休地渴望在這兩個問題上得到回答。
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①“一位英國男子的家是他的堡壘”（AnEnglishman′shouseishiscastle．）是英國法學(xué)家愛德華·科克爵士（SirEdwardCoke，1552—1634年，曾任民事法院的首席法官）在他的著作《英國法總論》（InstitutesoftheLawsofEngland）中所說的一句話，意為一位英國男子在他家中就處于法律威力所及的范圍之外。麥克斯廷杰太太的問話就是從這句話引伸出來的。
“我從來不欠她一個便士，沃爾，”船長輕聲說道，臉上仍明顯地流露出恐怖的神色?！拔覍λ退男『⒆觽冏隽嗽S許多多的好事?？墒怯袝r她還是蠻不講理。噓！”
“我就要離開這里，卡特爾船長，”沃爾特說道。“別走，沃爾，”船長回答道。“我不論走到哪里，她都會把我找到的。請坐。吉爾斯好嗎？”
船長戴著帽子，正在吃午飯：冷的羊腰子、黑啤酒和幾個冒著熱氣的土豆。土豆是他自己煮的，他需要吃的時候，就從火爐前面的一只有柄的小平底鍋中取出。吃飯的時候，他解下鉤子，把一把小刀插進(jìn)木制的插口里；他已經(jīng)用這把小刀開始為沃爾特把一個土豆的皮剝?nèi)チ恕Ｋ姆块g很小，充滿了濃烈的吸煙草散發(fā)出的氣味，但卻十分溫暖舒適。所有的東西都收藏了起來，仿佛這里每隔半小時就要發(fā)生一次地震似的。
“吉爾斯好嗎？”船長問道。
沃爾特這時已經(jīng)緩過氣來，但卻喪失了情緒——或者可以說是喪失了一種由于急速趕路而暫時振奮起來的情緒。他向問他的人望了一會兒，說道，“啊，卡特爾船長！”然后，就流出了眼淚。船長看到這種情景時的驚恐是不能用言語形容的。面對著這種情形，麥克斯廷杰太太已完全消失了。土豆和叉子從他手中掉下——如果可能的話，小刀也會掉下的——，他坐在那里凝視著這個孩子，仿佛他預(yù)料立刻就會聽到，城里的土地已經(jīng)裂開一個深坑，它已經(jīng)把他的老朋友、他的咖啡色外衣、鈕扣、精密計時表、眼鏡以及一切都吞沒了。
但是當(dāng)沃爾特把事實真相告訴他之后，卡特爾船長沉思了片刻，就立刻非常活躍地行動起來。他從碗柜頂層隔板上的一個小錫罐中倒出他存有的全部現(xiàn)錢（總共是十三鎊零半個克朗①），并把它們裝進(jìn)他的寬大的藍(lán)色上衣的一個口袋中，接著他又把餐具箱子中所存有的東西充實到這個儲藏所中。餐具箱子中所存有的是兩只干癟的、不像原形的茶匙和一副舊式的彎曲的方糖箱子。他又把他那只很大的、有雙層外殼的銀表從它安息的深處拉了出來，以便確信這個珍貴的物品完好無損；然后他把鉤子重新擰緊到右腕上，拿起那根有好多節(jié)的手杖，囑咐沃爾特動身。
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①克朗：舊時英國的硬幣，一克朗等于五先令。
可是他在這種由于道德高尚而激發(fā)的興奮中仍然記得，麥克斯廷杰太太可能在下面等待著，所以卡特爾船長最后猶豫起來，甚至還往窗子看了一眼，仿佛他腦子里閃出這樣的念頭：寧可從這個不尋常的出口逃走，也不要碰見他那個可怕的敵人；可是他決定采用計謀。
“沃爾，”船長膽怯地眨眨眼睛，說道，“你先走，我的孩子。當(dāng)你走到走廊里的時候，你就大聲喊道，‘再見，卡特爾船長，’再把門關(guān)上。然后你在街道拐角里等著我，直到我們見面為止?！?BR> 這些指示是預(yù)先知道敵人的策略才發(fā)出的，因為當(dāng)沃爾特走下樓的時候，麥克斯廷杰太太像一個復(fù)仇的妖魔一樣，從后面的小廚房中悄悄地溜了出來，但是沒有像她原先期望的那樣碰上船長，她只是再一次暗示了一下門環(huán)的事，就又悄悄地溜回廚房里去了。
大約過了五分鐘光景，卡特爾船長才鼓起勇氣來設(shè)法逃走；因為沃爾特在街道拐角等了好久，一直回頭看看那座房屋，但卻沒有看到那頂上了光的硬帽子的任何影子。終于，船長像爆炸一樣突然地沖出到門外，大步地向他走來，一次也沒有回頭去看；當(dāng)他們一離開這條街的時候，他就假裝吹口哨。
“舅舅的情緒很低沉吧，沃爾？”他們向前走去的時候，船長問道。
“我擔(dān)心是這樣。如果您今天早上看到他的話，那么您將永遠(yuǎn)忘不了他的那副神情。”
“快些走，沃爾，我的孩子，”船長加快步伐，回答道，“你這一輩子永遠(yuǎn)用這同樣的步子走路。請查一下《教義問答》，并記住這句忠告?！?BR> 船長心中只顧想到所羅門·吉爾斯，也許也夾雜著他剛剛從麥克斯廷杰太太那里逃出來的回憶，所以沒有再引用其他的話來幫助沃爾特來進(jìn)一步完善他的德行。在他們到達(dá)老所爾的家門口之前，他們沒有交談其他的話；不幸的木制海軍軍官候補生手里拿著儀器在老所爾家的門口似乎正在向地平線眺望著，想要找一位朋友來幫助他擺脫困境。
“吉爾斯！”船長急忙跑到后客廳里，十分親切地握著他的手?！鞍浩痤^來迎著風(fēng)，我們將會戰(zhàn)勝它。”船長像一個正在傳達(dá)人類智慧所發(fā)現(xiàn)的最為寶貴、最切合實際的教義的人那樣莊嚴(yán)地說道。“你應(yīng)該做的一切，就是昂起頭來迎著風(fēng)，我們將會戰(zhàn)勝它！”
老所爾緊緊地握著他的手，并且謝謝他。
然后卡特爾船長以在這種場合適宜的莊重的神態(tài)，在桌子上放下那兩只茶匙，那副方糖箝子，那只銀表和現(xiàn)錢，同時問經(jīng)紀(jì)人布羅格利先生，需要償付多少錢。
“聽著，您看這些怎么樣？”卡特爾船長問道。
“啊，上帝保佑您！”經(jīng)紀(jì)人回答道；“難道您以為那些財產(chǎn)有什么用處嗎？”
“為什么沒有用處？”船長問道。
“為什么？總共是三百七十多鎊，”經(jīng)紀(jì)人回答道。
“不要緊，”船長回答道，雖然這個數(shù)字顯然使他吃驚，“我想，跑進(jìn)您網(wǎng)里來的都是魚吧？”
“當(dāng)然，”布羅格利先生說道?！暗悄溃黯E魚并不是鯨魚。”
這句話的哲理似乎擊中了船長。他沉思了一會兒；同時目不轉(zhuǎn)睛地看著經(jīng)紀(jì)人，像是在看一位思想深奧的天才似的。
然后他把儀器制造商叫到一旁。
“吉爾斯，”卡特爾船長說道，“這是什么樣的一筆債務(wù)？
債權(quán)人是誰？”
“說輕一些！”老人回答道?！拔覀冏唛_一些，別當(dāng)著沃利的面說。這是為了給沃利的父親擔(dān)保而發(fā)生的事情?！还P老債務(wù)。我已經(jīng)償付了好多，內(nèi)德，可是我的日子過得很艱難，目前我不能再做什么了。我預(yù)見到這件事，可是我無能為力。無論如何，在沃利面前一句話也別說?！?BR> “你有·一·些錢吧，是不是？”船長低聲問道。
“是的，是的，——啊，是的。——我有一些，”老所爾回答道；他首先把手伸進(jìn)兩只空空的衣袋，然后用它們緊緊擠著他的威爾士假發(fā)，仿佛他以為他可以從那里擠出一些金子似的?！暗俏遥矣幸稽c錢是不能兌換成現(xiàn)錢的，內(nèi)德；它是不能立刻拿來用的。我一直在想用它來給沃利做點什么事?？墒俏乙堰^時了，落在時代后面了。這里那里都是錢，但同時——同時，總之，實際上等于什么地方都沒有錢?！?BR> 老人手足無措地看著四周，說道。
他那樣子很像是個神志恍惚的人，把錢藏在許多地方，但卻忘記藏在哪里了，所以船長跟隨著他的眼光，心里懷著一絲微弱的希望，也許他會記起來在上面的煙囪里或在下面的地窖里隱藏著幾百鎊?？墒撬_門·吉爾斯心里很清楚，這是決不會發(fā)生的事情。
“我完全落在時代后面了，我親愛的內(nèi)德，”所爾萬念俱灰地說道，“落后得很遠(yuǎn)了。我這樣遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地落在它的后面是沒有什么用處的。這些貨物是賣掉——它的價值超過這筆債務(wù)——我是到一個什么地方去，死掉算了。我已經(jīng)沒有什么精力了。我不明白發(fā)生的事情，是讓這告一結(jié)束。讓他們把這些貨物賣掉，并把他卸下來，”老人有氣無力地指著木制海軍軍官候補生，說道，“讓我們一起完蛋吧?！?BR> “對沃爾特你打算怎么辦呢？”船長問道?！昂美玻美?！請坐下，吉爾斯，請坐下，讓我想一想這件事。如果我不是一位靠菲薄的年全過活的人（這年金要是積攢到今天將會是夠大的一筆數(shù)字了），那么我現(xiàn)在就用不著想了?？墒悄阒灰浩痤^來迎著風(fēng)，”船長重新用這句無可辯駁的話來安慰他，“那么你就會一切都好的！”
老所爾由衷地感謝他，但他并沒有昂起頭來迎著風(fēng)，而是走去把頭靠在后客廳的壁爐上。
卡特爾船長在店鋪里走來走去走了一些時候，深深地思考著，濃密的黑眉毛十分陰沉地低垂著，就像烏云籠罩在山峰上一樣，因此沃爾特不敢去打斷他的思路。布羅格利先生不愿意讓這幾個人過于緊張不安，同時他又是個足智多謀的人，所以就輕輕吹著口哨，在貨物中間走來走去；他輕輕地敲敲睛雨表，又搖搖羅盤，仿佛這些羅盤是藥水瓶似的；接著他又拿起帶有天然磁石的鑰匙，從望遠(yuǎn)鏡里往外看，設(shè)法熟悉地球儀的用途，把平行規(guī)尺騎在鼻子上，又進(jìn)行其他一些物理試驗來開心取樂。
“沃爾！”船長終于說道?！拔蚁氲搅?！”
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That spice of romance and love of the marvellous, of which there was a pretty strong infusion in the nature of young Walter Gay, and which the guardianship of his Uncle, old Solomon Gills, had not very much weakened by the waters of stern practical experience, was the occasion of his attaching an uncommon and delightful interest to the adventure of Florence with Good Mrs Brown. He pampered and cherished it in his memory, especially that part of it with which he had been associated: until it became the spoiled child of his fancy, and took its own way, and did what it liked with it.
The recollection of those incidents, and his own share in them, may have been made the more captivating, perhaps, by the weekly dreamings of old Sol and Captain Cuttle on Sundays. Hardly a Sunday passed, without mysterious references being made by one or other of those worthy chums to Richard Whittington; and the latter gentleman had even gone so far as to purchase a ballad of considerable antiquity, that had long fluttered among many others, chiefly expressive of maritime sentiments, on a dead wall in the Commercial Road: which poetical performance set forth the courtship and nuptials of a promising young coal-whipper with a certain 'lovely Peg,' the accomplished daughter of the master and part-owner of a Newcastle collier. In this stirring legend, Captain Cuttle descried a profound metaphysical bearing on the case of Walter and Florence; and it excited him so much, that on very festive occasions, as birthdays and a few other non-Dominical holidays, he would roar through the whole song in the little back parlour; making an amazing shake on the word Pe-e-eg, with which every verse concluded, in compliment to the heroine of the piece.
But a frank, free-spirited, open-hearted boy, is not much given to analysing the nature of his own feelings, however strong their hold upon him: and Walter would have found it difficult to decide this point. He had a great affection for the wharf where he had encountered Florence, and for the streets (albeit not enchanting in themselves) by which they had come home. The shoes that had so often tumbled off by the way, he preserved in his own room; and, sitting in the little back parlour of an evening, he had drawn a whole gallery of fancy portraits of Good Mrs Brown. It may be that he became a little smarter in his dress after that memorable occasion; and he certainly liked in his leisure time to walk towards that quarter of the town where Mr Dombey's house was situated, on the vague chance of passing little Florence in the street. But the sentiment of all this was as boyish and innocent as could be. Florence was very pretty, and it is pleasant to admire a pretty face. Florence was defenceless and weak, and it was a proud thought that he had been able to render her any protection and assistance. Florence was the most grateful little creature in the world, and it was delightful to see her bright gratitude beaming in her face. Florence was neglected and coldly looked upon, and his breast was full of youthful interest for the slighted child in her dull, stately home.
Thus it came about that, perhaps some half-a-dozen times in the course of the year, Walter pulled off his hat to Florence in the street, and Florence would stop to shake hands. Mrs Wickam (who, with a characteristic alteration of his name, invariably spoke of him as 'Young Graves') was so well used to this, knowing the story of their acquaintance, that she took no heed of it at all. Miss Nipper, on the other hand, rather looked out for these occasions: her sensitive young heart being secretly propitiated by Walter's good looks, and inclining to the belief that its sentiments were responded to.
In this way, Walter, so far from forgetting or losing sight of his acquaintance with Florence, only remembered it better and better. As to its adventurous beginning, and all those little circumstances which gave it a distinctive character and relish, he took them into account, more as a pleasant story very agreeable to his imagination, and not to be dismissed from it, than as a part of any matter of fact with which he was concerned. They set off Florence very much, to his fancy; but not himself. Sometimes he thought (and then he walked very fast) what a grand thing it would have been for him to have been going to sea on the day after that first meeting, and to have gone, and to have done wonders there, and to have stopped away a long time, and to have come back an Admiral of all the colours of the dolphin, or at least a Post-Captain with epaulettes of insupportable brightness, and have married Florence (then a beautiful young woman) in spite of Mr Dombey's teeth, cravat, and watch-chain, and borne her away to the blue shores of somewhere or other, triumphantly. But these flights of fancy seldom burnished the brass plate of Dombey and Son's Offices into a tablet of golden hope, or shed a brilliant lustre on their dirty skylights; and when the Captain and Uncle Sol talked about Richard Whittington and masters' daughters, Walter felt that he understood his true position at Dombey and Son's, much better than they did.
So it was that he went on doing what he had to do from day to day, in a cheerful, pains-taking, merry spirit; and saw through the sanguine complexion of Uncle Sol and Captain Cuttle; and yet entertained a thousand indistinct and visionary fancies of his own, to which theirs were work-a-day probabilities. Such was his condition at the Pipchin period, when he looked a little older than of yore, but not much; and was the same light-footed, light-hearted, light-headed lad, as when he charged into the parlour at the head of Uncle Sol and the imaginary boarders, and lighted him to bring up the Madeira.
'Uncle Sol,' said Walter, 'I don't think you're well. You haven't eaten any breakfast. I shall bring a doctor to you, if you go on like this.'
'He can't give me what I want, my boy,' said Uncle Sol. 'At least he is in good practice if he can - and then he wouldn't.'
'What is it, Uncle? Customers?'
'Ay,' returned Solomon, with a sigh. 'Customers would do.'
'Confound it, Uncle!' said Walter, putting down his breakfast cup with a clatter, and striking his hand on the table: 'when I see the people going up and down the street in shoals all day, and passing and re-passing the shop every minute, by scores, I feel half tempted to rush out, collar somebody, bring him in, and make him buy fifty pounds' worth of instruments for ready money. What are you looking in at the door for? - ' continued Walter, apostrophizing an old gentleman with a powdered head (inaudibly to him of course), who was staring at a ship's telescope with all his might and main. 'That's no use. I could do that. Come in and buy it!'
The old gentleman, however, having satiated his curiosity, walked calmly away.
'There he goes!' said Walter. 'That's the way with 'em all. But, Uncle - I say, Uncle Sol' - for the old man was meditating and had not responded to his first appeal. 'Don't be cast down. Don't be out of spirits, Uncle. When orders do come, they'll come in such a crowd, you won't be able to execute 'em.'
'I shall be past executing 'em, whenever they come, my boy,' returned Solomon Gills. 'They'll never come to this shop again, till I am out of t.'
'I say, Uncle! You musn't really, you know!' urged Walter. 'Don't!'
Old Sol endeavoured to assume a cheery look, and smiled across the little table at him as pleasantly as he could.
'There's nothing more than usual the matter; is there, Uncle?' said Walter, leaning his elbows on the tea tray, and bending over, to speak the more confidentially and kindly. 'Be open with me, Uncle, if there is, and tell me all about it.'
'No, no, no,' returned Old Sol. 'More than usual? No, no. What should there be the matter more than usual?'
Walter answered with an incredulous shake of his head. 'That's what I want to know,' he said, 'and you ask me! I'll tell you what, Uncle, when I see you like this, I am quite sorry that I live with you.'
Old Sol opened his eyes involuntarily.
'Yes. Though nobody ever was happier than I am and always have been with you, I am quite sorry that I live with you, when I see you with anything in your mind.'
'I am a little dull at such times, I know,' observed Solomon, meekly rubbing his hands.
'What I mean, Uncle Sol,' pursued Walter, bending over a little more to pat him on the shoulder, 'is, that then I feel you ought to have, sitting here and pouring out the tea instead of me, a nice little dumpling of a wife, you know, - a comfortable, capital, cosy old lady, who was just a match for you, and knew how to manage you, and keep you in good heart. Here am I, as loving a nephew as ever was (I am sure I ought to be!) but I am only a nephew, and I can't be such a companion to you when you're low and out of sorts as she would have made herself, years ago, though I'm sure I'd give any money if I could cheer you up. And so I say, when I see you with anything on your mind, that I feel quite sorry you haven't got somebody better about you than a blundering young rough-and-tough boy like me, who has got the will to console you, Uncle, but hasn't got the way - hasn't got the way,' repeated Walter, reaching over further yet, to shake his Uncle by the hand.
'Wally, my dear boy,' said Solomon, 'if the cosy little old lady had taken her place in this parlour five and forty years ago, I never could have been fonder of her than I am of you.'
'I know that, Uncle Sol,' returned Walter. 'Lord bless you, I know that. But you wouldn't have had the whole weight of any uncomfortable secrets if she had been with you, because she would have known how to relieve you of 'em, and I don't.'
'Yes, yes, you do,' returned the Instrument-maker.
'Well then, what's the matter, Uncle Sol?' said Walter, coaxingly. 'Come! What's the matter?'
Solomon Gills persisted that there was nothing the matter; and maintained it so resolutely, that his nephew had no resource but to make a very indifferent imitation of believing him.
'All I can say is, Uncle Sol, that if there is - '
'But there isn't,' said Solomon.
'Very well,, said Walter. 'Then I've no more to say; and that's lucky, for my time's up for going to business. I shall look in by-and-by when I'm out, to see how you get on, Uncle. And mind, Uncle! I'll never believe you again, and never tell you anything more about Mr Carker the Junior, if I find out that you have been deceiving me!'
Solomon Gills laughingly defied him to find out anything of the kind; and Walter, revolving in his thoughts all sorts of impracticable ways of making fortunes and placing the wooden Midshipman in a position of independence, betook himself to the offices of Dombey and Son with a heavier countenance than he usually carried there.
There lived in those days, round the corner - in Bishopsgate Street Without - one Brogley, sworn broker and appraiser, who kept a shop where every description of second-hand furniture was exhibited in the most uncomfortable aspect, and under circumstances and in combinations the most completely foreign to its purpose. Dozens of chairs hooked on to washing-stands, which with difficulty poised themselves on the shoulders of sideboards, which in their turn stood upon the wrong side of dining-tables, gymnastic with their legs upward on the tops of other dining-tables, were among its most reasonable arrangements. A banquet array of dish-covers, wine-glasses, and decanters was generally to be seen, spread forth upon the bosom of a four-post bedstead, for the entertainment of such genial company as half-a-dozen pokers, and a hall lamp. A set of window curtains with no windows belonging to them, would be seen gracefully draping a barricade of chests of drawers, loaded with little jars from chemists' shops; while a homeless hearthrug severed from its natural companion the fireside, braved the shrewd east wind in its adversity, and trembled in melancholy accord with the shrill complainings of a cabinet piano, wasting away, a string a day, and faintly resounding to the noises of the street in its jangling and distracted brain. Of motionless clocks that never stirred a finger, and seemed as incapable of being successfully wound up, as the pecuniary affairs of their former owners, there was always great choice in Mr Brogley's shop; and various looking-glasses, accidentally placed at compound interest of reflection and refraction, presented to the eye an eternal perspective of bankruptcy and ruin.
Mr Brogley himself was a moist-eyed, pink-complexioned, crisp-haired man, of a bulky figure and an easy temper - for that class of Caius Marius who sits upon the ruins of other people's Carthages, can keep up his spirits well enough. He had looked in at Solomon's shop sometimes, to ask a question about articles in Solomon's way of business; and Walter knew him sufficiently to give him good day when they met in the street. But as that was the extent of the broker's acquaintance with Solomon Gills also, Walter was not a little surprised when he came back in the course of the forenoon, agreeably to his promise, to find Mr Brogley sitting in the back parlour with his hands in his pockets, and his hat hanging up behind the door.
'Well, Uncle Sol!' said Walter. The old man was sitting ruefully on the opposite side of the table, with his spectacles over his eyes, for a wonder, instead of on his forehead. 'How are you now?'
Solomon shook his head, and waved one hand towards the broker, as introducing him.
'Is there anything the matter?' asked Walter, with a catching in his breath.
'No, no. There's nothing the matter, said Mr Brogley. 'Don't let it put you out of the way.' Walter looked from the broker to his Uncle in mute amazement. 'The fact is,' said Mr Brogley, 'there's a little payment on a bond debt - three hundred and seventy odd, overdue: and I'm in possession.'
'In possession!' cried Walter, looking round at the shop.
'Ah!' said Mr Brogley, in confidential assent, and nodding his head as if he would urge the advisability of their all being comfortable together. 'It's an execution. That's what it is. Don't let it put you out of the way. I come myself, because of keeping it quiet and sociable. You know me. It's quite private.'
'Uncle Sol!' faltered Walter.
'Wally, my boy,' returned his uncle. 'It's the first time. Such a calamity never happened to me before. I'm an old man to begin.' Pushing up his spectacles again (for they were useless any longer to conceal his emotion), he covered his face with his hand, and sobbed aloud, and his tears fell down upon his coffee-coloured waistcoat.
'Uncle Sol! Pray! oh don't!' exclaimed Walter, who really felt a thrill of terror in seeing the old man weep. 'For God's sake don't do that. Mr Brogley, what shall I do?'
'I should recommend you looking up a friend or so,' said Mr Brogley, 'and talking it over.'
'To be sure!' cried Walter, catching at anything. 'Certainly! Thankee. Captain Cuttle's the man, Uncle. Wait till I run to Captain Cuttle. Keep your eye upon my Uncle, will you, Mr Brogley, and make him as comfortable as you can while I am gone? Don't despair, Uncle Sol. Try and keep a good heart, there's a dear fellow!'
Saying this with great fervour, and disregarding the old man's broken remonstrances, Walter dashed out of the shop again as hard as he could go; and, having hurried round to the office to excuse himself on the plea of his Uncle's sudden illness, set off, full speed, for Captain Cuttle's residence.
Everything seemed altered as he ran along the streets. There were the usual entanglement and noise of carts, drays, omnibuses, waggons, and foot passengers, but the misfortune that had fallen on the wooden Midshipman made it strange and new. Houses and shops were different from what they used to be, and bore Mr Brogley's warrant on their fronts in large characters. The broker seemed to have got hold of the very churches; for their spires rose into the sky with an unwonted air. Even the sky itself was changed, and had an execution in it plainly.
Captain Cuttle lived on the brink of a little canal near the India Docks, where there was a swivel bridge which opened now and then to let some wandering monster of a ship come roamIng up the street like a stranded leviathan. The gradual change from land to water, on the approach to Captain Cuttle's lodgings, was curious. It began with the erection of flagstaffs, as appurtenances to public-houses; then came slop-sellers' shops, with Guernsey shirts, sou'wester hats, and canvas pantaloons, at once the tightest and the loosest of their order, hanging up outside. These were succeeded by anchor and chain-cable forges, where sledgehammers were dinging upon iron all day long. Then came rows of houses, with little vane-surmounted masts uprearing themselves from among the scarlet beans. Then, ditches. Then, pollard willows. Then, more ditches. Then, unaccountable patches of dirty water, hardly to be descried, for the ships that covered them. Then, the air was perfumed with chips; and all other trades were swallowed up in mast, oar, and block-making, and boatbuilding. Then, the ground grew marshy and unsettled. Then, there was nothing to be smelt but rum and sugar. Then, Captain Cuttle's lodgings - at once a first floor and a top storey, in Brig Place - were close before you.
The Captain was one of those timber-looking men, suits of oak as well as hearts, whom it is almost impossible for the liveliest imagination to separate from any part of their dress, however insignificant. Accordingly, when Walter knocked at the door, and the Captain instantly poked his head out of one of his little front windows, and hailed him, with the hard glared hat already on it, and the shirt-collar like a sail, and the wide suit of blue, all standing as usual, Walter was as fully persuaded that he was always in that state, as if the Captain had been a bird and those had been his feathers.
'Wal'r, my lad!'said Captain Cuttle. 'Stand by and knock again. Hard! It's washing day.'
Walter, in his impatience, gave a prodigious thump with the knocker.
'Hard it is!' said Captain Cuttle, and immediately drew in his head, as if he expected a squall.
Nor was he mistaken: for a widow lady, with her sleeves rolled up to her shoulders, and her arms frothy with soap-suds and smoking with hot water, replied to the summons with startling rapidity. Before she looked at Walter she looked at the knocker, and then, measuring him with her eyes from head to foot, said she wondered he had left any of it.
'Captain Cuttle's at home, I know,' said Walter with a conciliatory smile.
'Is he?' replied the widow lady. 'In-deed!'
'He has just been speaking to me,' said Walter, in breathless explanation.
'Has he?' replied the widow lady. 'Then p'raps you'll give him Mrs MacStinger's respects, and say that the next time he lowers himself and his lodgings by talking out of the winder she'll thank him to come down and open the door too.' Mrs MacStinger spoke loud, and listened for any observations that might be offered from the first floor.
'I'll mention it,' said Walter, 'if you'll have the goodness to let me in, Ma'am.'
For he was repelled by a wooden fortification extending across the doorway, and put there to prevent the little MacStingers in their moments of recreation from tumbling down the steps.
'A boy that can knock my door down,' said Mrs MacStinger, contemptuously, 'can get over that, I should hope!' But Walter, taking this as a permission to enter, and getting over it, Mrs MacStinger immediately demanded whether an Englishwoman's house was her castle or not; and whether she was to be broke in upon by 'raff.' On these subjects her thirst for information was still very importunate, when Walter, having made his way up the little staircase through an artificial fog occasioned by the washing, which covered the banisters with a clammy perspiration, entered Captain Cuttle's room, and found that gentleman in ambush behind the door.
'Never owed her a penny, Wal'r,' said Captain Cuttle, in a low voice, and with visible marks of trepidation on his countenance. 'Done her a world of good turns, and the children too. Vixen at times, though. Whew!'
'I should go away, Captain Cuttle,' said Walter.
'Dursn't do it, Wal'r,' returned the Captain. 'She'd find me out, wherever I went. Sit down. How's Gills?'
The Captain was dining (in his hat) off cold loin of mutton, porter, and some smoking hot potatoes, which he had cooked himself, and took out of a little saucepan before the fire as he wanted them. He unscrewed his hook at dinner-time, and screwed a knife into its wooden socket instead, with which he had already begun to peel one of these potatoes for Walter. His rooms were very small, and strongly impregnated with tobacco-smoke, but snug enough: everything being stowed away, as if there were an earthquake regularly every half-hour.
'How's Gills?' inquired the Captain.
Walter, who had by this time recovered his breath, and lost his spirits - or such temporary spirits as his rapid journey had given him - looked at his questioner for a moment, said 'Oh, Captain Cuttle!' and burst into tears.
No words can describe the Captain's consternation at this sight Mrs MacStinger faded into nothing before it. He dropped the potato and the fork - and would have dropped the knife too if he could - and sat gazing at the boy, as if he expected to hear next moment that a gulf had opened in the City, which had swallowed up his old friend, coffee-coloured suit, buttons, chronometer, spectacles, and all.
But when Walter told him what was really the matter, Captain Cuttle, after a moment's reflection, started up into full activity. He emptied out of a little tin canister on the top shelf of the cupboard, his whole stock of ready money (amounting to thirteen pounds and half-a-crown), which he transferred to one of the pockets of his square blue coat; further enriched that repository with the contents of his plate chest, consisting of two withered atomies of tea-spoons, and an obsolete pair of knock-knee'd sugar-tongs; pulled up his immense double-cased silver watch from the depths in which it reposed, to assure himself that that valuable was sound and whole; re-attached the hook to his right wrist; and seizing the stick covered over with knobs, bade Walter come along.
Remembering, however, in the midst of his virtuous excitement, that Mrs MacStinger might be lying in wait below, Captain Cuttle hesitated at last, not without glancing at the window, as if he had some thoughts of escaping by that unusual means of egress, rather than encounter his terrible enemy. He decided, however, in favour of stratagem.
'Wal'r,' said the Captain, with a timid wink, 'go afore, my lad. Sing out, "good-bye, Captain Cuttle," when you're in the passage, and shut the door. Then wait at the corner of the street 'till you see me.
These directions were not issued without a previous knowledge of the enemy's tactics, for when Walter got downstairs, Mrs MacStinger glided out of the little back kitchen, like an avenging spirit. But not gliding out upon the Captain, as she had expected, she merely made a further allusion to the knocker, and glided in again.
Some five minutes elapsed before Captain Cuttle could summon courage to attempt his escape; for Walter waited so long at the street corner, looking back at the house, before there were any symptoms of the hard glazed hat. At length the Captain burst out of the door with the suddenness of an explosion, and coming towards him at a great pace, and never once looking over his shoulder, pretended, as soon as they were well out of the street, to whistle a tune.
'Uncle much hove down, Wal'r?' inquired the Captain, as they were walking along.
'I am afraid so. If you had seen him this morning, you would never have forgotten it.'
'Walk fast, Wal'r, my lad,' returned the Captain, mending his pace; 'and walk the same all the days of your life. Overhaul the catechism for that advice, and keep it!'
The Captain was too busy with his own thoughts of Solomon Gills, mingled perhaps with some reflections on his late escape from Mrs MacStinger, to offer any further quotations on the way for Walter's moral improvement They interchanged no other word until they arrived at old Sol's door, where the unfortunate wooden Midshipman, with his instrument at his eye, seemed to be surveying the whole horizon in search of some friend to help him out of his difficulty.
'Gills!' said the Captain, hurrying into the back parlour, and taking him by the hand quite tenderly. 'Lay your head well to the wind, and we'll fight through it. All you've got to do,' said the Captain, with the solemnity of a man who was delivering himself of one of the most precious practical tenets ever discovered by human wisdom, 'is to lay your head well to the wind, and we'll fight through it!'
Old Sol returned the pressure of his hand, and thanked him.
Captain Cuttle, then, with a gravity suitable to the nature of the occasion, put down upon the table the two tea-spoons and the sugar-tongs, the silver watch, and the ready money; and asked Mr Brogley, the broker, what the damage was.
'Come! What do you make of it?' said Captain Cuttle.
'Why, Lord help you!' returned the broker; 'you don't suppose that property's of any use, do you?'
'Why not?' inquired the Captain.
'Why? The amount's three hundred and seventy, odd,' replied the broker.
'Never mind,' returned the Captain, though he was evidently dismayed by the figures: 'all's fish that comes to your net, I suppose?'
'Certainly,' said Mr Brogley. 'But sprats ain't whales, you know.'
The philosophy of this observation seemed to strike the Captain. He ruminated for a minute; eyeing the broker, meanwhile, as a deep genius; and then called the Instrument-maker aside.
'Gills,' said Captain Cuttle, 'what's the bearings of this business? Who's the creditor?'
'Hush!' returned the old man. 'Come away. Don't speak before Wally. It's a matter of security for Wally's father - an old bond. I've paid a good deal of it, Ned, but the times are so bad with me that I can't do more just now. I've foreseen it, but I couldn't help it. Not a word before Wally, for all the world.'
'You've got some money, haven't you?' whispered the Captain.
'Yes, yes - oh yes- I've got some,' returned old Sol, first putting his hands into his empty pockets, and then squeezing his Welsh wig between them, as if he thought he might wring some gold out of it; 'but I - the little I have got, isn't convertible, Ned; it can't be got at. I have been trying to do something with it for Wally, and I'm old fashioned, and behind the time. It's here and there, and - and, in short, it's as good as nowhere,' said the old man, looking in bewilderment about him.
He had so much the air of a half-witted person who had been hiding his money in a variety of places, and had forgotten where, that the Captain followed his eyes, not without a faint hope that he might remember some few hundred pounds concealed up the chimney, or down in the cellar. But Solomon Gills knew better than that.
'I'm behind the time altogether, my dear Ned,' said Sol, in resigned despair, 'a long way. It's no use my lagging on so far behind it. The stock had better be sold - it's worth more than this debt - and I had better go and die somewhere, on the balance. I haven't any energy left. I don't understand things. This had better be the end of it. Let 'em sell the stock and take him down,' said the old man, pointing feebly to the wooden Midshipman, 'and let us both be broken up together.'
'And what d'ye mean to do with Wal'r?'said the Captain. 'There, there! Sit ye down, Gills, sit ye down, and let me think o' this. If I warn't a man on a small annuity, that was large enough till to-day, I hadn't need to think of it. But you only lay your head well to the wind,' said the Captain, again administering that unanswerable piece of consolation, 'and you're all right!'
Old Sol thanked him from his heart, and went and laid it against the back parlour fire-place instead.
Captain Cuttle walked up and down the shop for some time, cogitating profoundly, and bringing his bushy black eyebrows to bear so heavily on his nose, like clouds setting on a mountain, that Walter was afraid to offer any interruption to the current of his reflections. Mr Brogley, who was averse to being any constraint upon the party, and who had an ingenious cast of mind, went, softly whistling, among the stock; rattling weather-glasses, shaking compasses as if they were physic, catching up keys with loadstones, looking through telescopes, endeavouring to make himself acquainted with the use of the globes, setting parallel rulers astride on to his nose, and amusing himself with other philosophical transactions.
'Wal'r!' said the Captain at last. 'I've got it.'
'Have you, Captain Cuttle?' cried Walter, with great animation.
'Come this way, my lad,' said the Captain. 'The stock's the security. I'm another. Your governor's the man to advance money.'
'Mr Dombey!' faltered Walter.
The Captain nodded gravely. 'Look at him,' he said. 'Look at Gills. If they was to sell off these things now, he'd die of it. You know he would. We mustn't leave a stone unturned - and there's a stone for you.'
'A stone! - Mr Dombey!' faltered Walter.
'You run round to the office, first of all, and see if he's there,' said Captain Cuttle, clapping him on the back. 'Quick!'
Walter felt he must not dispute the command - a glance at his Uncle would have determined him if he had felt otherwise - and disappeared to execute it. He soon returned, out of breath, to say that Mr Dombey was not there. It was Saturday, and he had gone to Brighton.
'I tell you what, Wal'r!' said the Captain, who seemed to have prepared himself for this contingency in his absence. 'We'll go to Brighton. I'll back you, my boy. I'll back you, Wal'r. We'll go to Brighton by the afternoon's coach.'
If the application must be made to Mr Dombey at all, which was awful to think of, Walter felt that he would rather prefer it alone and unassisted, than backed by the personal influence of Captain Cuttle, to which he hardly thought Mr Dombey would attach much weight. But as the Captain appeared to be of quite another opinion, and was bent upon it, and as his friendship was too zealous and serious to be trifled with by one so much younger than himself, he forbore to hint the least objection. Cuttle, therefore, taking a hurried leave of Solomon Gills, and returning the ready money, the teaspoons, the sugar-tongs, and the silver watch, to his pocket - with a view, as Walter thought, with horror, to making a gorgeous impression on Mr Dombey - bore him off to the coach-office, with- out a minute's delay, and repeatedly assured him, on the road, that he would stick by him to the last.
就年輕的沃爾特·蓋伊的性格來說，他原本強烈地喜愛浪漫的情趣和向往奇異的事跡；在舅舅老所羅門·吉爾斯的監(jiān)護(hù)下，嚴(yán)酷的生活經(jīng)驗的水流并沒有把他的這種性格沖淡多少；這就是他對弗洛倫斯跟善良的布朗太太的奇遇興致勃勃地懷著異乎尋常的興趣的原因。他在記憶中縱容它，珍惜它，特別是與他有關(guān)的那一部分，后來它終于成了他想象中的一個慣壞了的孩子，可以自行其是，隨心所欲了。
老所爾與卡特爾船長每個星期天聚會時都要做一次他們的美夢，這樣一來，這些事情和他本人在其中的參與就更具有一種令人神魂顛倒的魅力。很少有哪一個星期天，這兩位高尚的朋友中的這一位或那一位不神秘地提到理查德·惠廷頓的?？ㄌ貭柎L甚至還買了一本相當(dāng)古老的敘事曲，它主要是反映海員們的思想感情的，它和許多其他的歌曲書籍一起，掛在商業(yè)路上的冷清的墻上，飄動著書頁，已經(jīng)好久了；這本詩歌作品敘述了一位有出息的給船上裝煤的年輕人跟一位“可愛的佩格姑娘”之間求愛與結(jié)婚的故事；這位佩格姑娘是紐卡斯?fàn)枹僖凰颐捍拇L（他同時也是船主之一）的有才能的女兒，卡特爾船長從這個激動人心的傳說中，看到它與沃爾特和弗洛倫斯的情況有一種意味深長的、形而上學(xué)的相似關(guān)系；它使他感到十分興奮，每逢生日或其他非宗教節(jié)日的喜慶日子，他都會在小后客廳里放開嗓子，把這首歌從頭到尾唱完。在唱到“佩——格”這個詞的時候，他還發(fā)出了令人驚奇的顫音；每個詩句都是用這個贊美女主人公的詞來結(jié)尾的。
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①紐卡斯?fàn)枺∟ewcastle）：英國港市。
可是一位胸懷坦率、豁達(dá)大度、光明磊落的孩子并不很喜愛分析自己感情的性質(zhì)，不論這種感情是多么強烈地支配著他；沃爾特要作出這樣的判斷也是困難的。他對他跟弗洛倫斯相遇的碼頭，對他們回家時經(jīng)過的街道（雖然它們本身并沒有令人銷魂的地方）都懷著深厚的感情。他把那雙在路上不時脫落的鞋子保存在他自己的房間里；有一天晚上他坐在小后客廳里，給想象中的善良的布朗太太畫了肖像，畫了整整一走廊。在那次值得紀(jì)念的事件發(fā)生以后，他的衣著也可能變得稍稍漂亮起來了；他在閑暇的時候，的確喜歡朝著董貝先生公館坐落的那個市區(qū)走去，模模糊糊地希望在街上遇到小弗洛倫斯?？墒撬羞@些思想感情都是孩子氣的，天真爛漫的。弗洛倫斯是很漂亮的，愛慕漂亮的臉孔是件愉快的事情；弗洛倫斯是軟弱無力，沒有人保衛(wèi)她的，想到他向她提供了保護(hù)與幫助是值得自豪的。弗洛倫斯是這世界上最感恩的小人兒，看到她臉上閃耀著熱烈感激的光彩是使人高興的。弗洛倫斯是被輕視和冷落的，他在心中對這位在她那沉悶、莊嚴(yán)的家中被看不起的孩子滿懷著年輕人的興趣。
沃爾特在街上脫下帽子向弗洛倫斯致意，弗洛倫斯則會停下來跟他握手，這樣在一年當(dāng)中發(fā)生過六、七次。威肯姆大嫂（她按照她悲觀的性格來改變他的姓名，始終不變地把他叫做“年輕的格萊夫斯①”）知道他們相識的經(jīng)歷，對于這種情形已經(jīng)十分習(xí)慣了，所以她對它絲毫也不注意。另一方面，尼珀姑娘是很盼望遇到這樣的機(jī)會的，因為在她敏感的年輕的心靈中已對沃爾特英俊的外貌暗暗地產(chǎn)生了好感；她總愛相信，這種感情總是會得到回答的。
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①年輕的格萊夫斯（youngGraves）：在英文中，Graves一詞的意義是墳?zāi)埂?BR> 因此，沃爾特非但沒有忘記他跟弗洛倫斯的相識或模糊了它的印象，相反地，他記得愈來愈清楚了。至于它那傳奇性的開始以及那些給予它別具一格的特色與興味的細(xì)微情節(jié)，與其說他把它看成是與他有關(guān)的事實的一部分，倒不如說他把它們看成是很合乎他想象、決不會從他腦子中消失的有趣故事。在他看來，這些情節(jié)突出地襯托出弗洛倫斯，而不是他自己。有時他想（這時候他就走得很快），如果在他們第一次相遇之后的第二天他出去航海，在海上創(chuàng)造出奇跡，長久離別后回來的時候成了一位海軍上將，全身服裝像海豚那樣閃耀著各種色彩，或者至少成了一位郵船船長，佩戴著閃閃發(fā)光、令人承受不住的肩章，然后不顧董貝先生的牙齒、領(lǐng)帶和表鏈，與弗洛倫斯結(jié)婚（那時候她是一位美麗的年輕女人了），得意洋洋地把她帶到某個有著藍(lán)色海岸的地方去，那該是件多么美妙的事啊！可是這些奔放的幻想并沒有把董貝父子公司營業(yè)所的銅牌擦亮成為一塊金色希望的牌子或把燦爛的光輝照射到他們的骯臟的天窗上；當(dāng)卡特爾船長與所爾舅舅談?wù)摾聿榈隆せ萃㈩D和他主人的女兒時，沃爾特覺得，他對他自己在董貝父子公司中真正的地位要比他們明白得多。
所以他一天天繼續(xù)興致勃勃、不辭勞苦、歡樂愉快地做著他應(yīng)該做的事情，清楚地看到所爾舅舅和卡特爾船長充滿希望的臉色，然而他自己卻懷著上千種模糊不清、虛無縹緲的幻想；跟他的這些幻想相比，他們的幻想倒還存在著一些實現(xiàn)的可能性。這就是弗洛倫斯陪伴保羅到皮普欽那里去那段時間中他的情況；這時候他看上去比過去歲數(shù)大了一些，但大得不多，仍然是一位走路輕快、無憂無慮、不多思索的小伙子，就像他過去有一天在所爾舅舅和想象中的攻入敵船的船員們的前面，沖進(jìn)客廳里的時候，以及當(dāng)他給所爾舅舅照明去取那瓶馬德拉白葡萄酒的時候一樣。
“所爾舅舅，”沃爾特說道，“我覺得你身體不大好，你沒有吃早飯。如果你再這樣下去的話，那么我將給你請一位醫(yī)生來。”
“他不能給我所需要的東西，我的孩子，”所爾舅舅說道，“如果他能的話，那么他至少有很好的經(jīng)驗——但他畢竟是不能給的。”
“你指什么，舅舅？是指顧客嗎？”
“是的，”所羅門嘆了一口氣，回答道?！邦櫩途托小！?BR> “真見鬼，舅舅！”沃爾特把他的早餐杯子卡嗒一聲放下，在桌子上敲了一拳，說道，“當(dāng)我看到人們整天一群群在街上走來走去，每分鐘都有幾十個人經(jīng)過這個店鋪的時候，我真想沖出去，扭住一個人的領(lǐng)口，拉他到店里來，一定讓他拿出現(xiàn)錢，購買值五十鎊的儀器。喂，您在門口看什
么？——”沃爾特繼續(xù)說道，一邊向一位頭上撒了白粉的老先生喊道（他當(dāng)然聽不見），那老先生正在聚精會神地注視著一架船上用的望遠(yuǎn)鏡?！澳菦]有用，我也能那樣看，進(jìn)來把它買去吧！”
可是那位老先生滿足了好奇心之后，不聲不響地走開了。
“他走了！”沃爾特說道。“他們?nèi)际沁@樣?？墒牵司恕艺f，所爾舅舅”——因為老人正在沉思，沒有回答他第一次對他的招呼——“別垂頭喪氣，別沒精打采，舅舅。當(dāng)訂貨真來的時候，它們會大批大批地來，那時候你都沒辦法去完成它們的呢?！?BR> “不論它們什么時候來，我都能全部完成的，我的孩子，”所羅門·吉爾斯回答道?！霸谖覜]有離開店鋪之前，它們永遠(yuǎn)也不會到這里來了?！?BR> “我說，舅舅！你真不應(yīng)該這么說，你知道！”沃爾特勸說道?！皠e那么說了！”
老所爾努力裝出一副高興的神色，向桌子對面的他盡量愉快地微笑著。
“沒有發(fā)生跟往常不同的什么事吧，是不是，舅舅？”沃爾特把兩只胳膊肘支在茶盤上，身子向前彎過去，更加親密、更加親切地說道：“別對我瞞什么，舅舅，如果發(fā)生了什么事情，那么請把一切都告訴我?！?BR> “沒有，沒有，沒有，”老所爾回答道?！案Ｓ惺裁床煌氖聠?？沒有，沒有，會發(fā)生跟往常不同的什么事情呢？”
沃爾特表示不大相信地?fù)u搖頭，作為回答?！斑@就是我想要知道的，”他說道，“可是你卻問我！我將告訴你，舅舅，當(dāng)我看到你這種樣子的時候，我就會因為跟你住在一起而感到十分遺憾。”
老所爾不自覺地張開了眼睛。
“是的，雖然沒有什么人能比我現(xiàn)在更幸福，而且我跟你在一起一直是幸福的，可是每當(dāng)我看到你有什么心事的時候，我就會因為和你住在一起而感到十分遺憾。”
“我知道，我在這種時候有些沉悶，”所羅門溫和地搓著手，說道。
“我想要說的是，所爾舅舅，”沃爾特把身子往前再彎過去一點，好拍拍他的肩膀，“這種時候我就覺得你應(yīng)當(dāng)有一位和善的、矮小的、胖乎乎的妻子，而不是我跟你坐在一起，給你倒茶；你知道，——她是一位賢惠的、能使你感到愉快的、和你情投意合的老太太，跟你正好相配；她知道怎樣照顧你，讓你心情舒暢?？墒乾F(xiàn)在卻是我在這里；我是一個很愛你的外甥（我相信我應(yīng)當(dāng)是?。?，可是我只是一個外甥；當(dāng)你悶悶不樂，心緒不佳的時候，我就不能成為像她那樣幾年前就知道怎么做的伴侶了，雖然我相信，如果我能使你高興起來，那么要我拿出多少錢來我都是愿意的。所以我說，每當(dāng)我看到你有什么心事，而除了像我這樣一個常常出漏子的粗魯小伙子外，你沒有一個更好的人在身旁的時候，我就感到很遺憾。我倒有意安慰安慰你，舅舅，可是我不知道該怎么辦才好——不知道怎么辦才好。”沃爾特重復(fù)說了一句，一邊把身子向前再彎過去一些，好和他的舅舅握握手。
“沃利，我親愛的孩子，”所羅門說道，“如果那位和我情投意合的、矮小的老太太在四十五年前就在這客廳里占據(jù)了她的位置，那么我也決不會像我現(xiàn)在這樣喜歡你一樣地喜歡她的?！?BR> “我知道這一點，所爾舅舅，”沃爾特回答道?！吧系郾Ｓ幽?，我知道這一點?？墒侨绻阍谝黄?，那么你有了不好對外人說的不稱心的事情，你就不會承擔(dān)它的全部負(fù)擔(dān)了，因為她知道怎樣讓你把它們解脫掉的，而我就不知道了?！?BR> “不，不，你知道的！”儀器制造商回答道。
“唔，那么發(fā)生了什么事情了呢，所爾舅舅？”沃爾特哄騙地說道?！罢f吧！發(fā)生了什么事情？”
所羅門·吉爾斯堅持說，沒有發(fā)生什么事情，而且態(tài)度堅決，毫不改變，所以他的外甥沒有法子，只好不太高明地假裝相信他。
“我只想說一點，所爾舅舅，如果發(fā)生了什么——”
“可是沒有發(fā)生什么，”所羅門說道。
“很好，”沃爾特說道?！澳俏揖驮僖矝]有什么要說的了；巧得很，因為現(xiàn)在是我該去上班的時候了。我路過這里的時候，會順便來看你的，看看你過得怎么樣，舅舅。記住，舅舅！如果我發(fā)現(xiàn)你欺騙了我，那么我就再也不相信你了，再也不跟你講低級職員卡克先生的事情了！”
所羅門·吉爾斯大笑著否認(rèn)他能發(fā)現(xiàn)這樣的事情；沃爾特腦子里盤旋著各種不切實際的發(fā)財致富的辦法，好使木制海軍軍官候補生處于獨立的地位，一邊露出比平時更沉重的神色，向董貝父子公司的營業(yè)所走去。
在那些日子里，在比曉普斯蓋特街的拐角上住著一位布羅格利先生，他是一位有許可證的經(jīng)紀(jì)人和估價人，開設(shè)了一個店鋪，店鋪里離奇古怪地擺放著各種各樣的舊家具，擺放和組合的方式都跟這些家具的用途完全不相稱。幾十張椅子鉤掛在臉盆架上；臉盆架為難地在餐具柜的兩側(cè)保持住重心，以免倒下；餐具柜又支立在餐桌的不是恰當(dāng)?shù)囊贿?；這些餐桌像做體操似地用腳頂住另一些餐桌的桌面；這些就是這些家具的最合理的安排。由盤蓋、酒杯、圓酒瓶組成的宴席餐具通常散放在四柱的床架上，供它們的親朋好友（如三、四副火鉗和過道里的一盞燈）來享用。沒有任何窗子屬于它們的窗簾懸掛著，成了一張塞滿小藥瓶的五屜柜的遮護(hù)物；一塊無家可歸的爐邊地毯離開它天然的伴侶爐子，在逆境中英勇地抵抗著刺骨的東風(fēng)，它渾身哆嗦著，那憂傷的情調(diào)與一架鋼琴的尖聲怨訴倒很一致；那鋼琴一天損失一根弦，正在消瘦下去，它那吵吵鬧鬧、精神錯亂的腦袋對街上的喧聲正作出微弱的反響。至于那指針永遠(yuǎn)停在一個地方、不會走動的鐘表，似乎像他過去的主人的金錢狀況一樣，已經(jīng)不能正常地運轉(zhuǎn)了；這種鐘表在布羅格利先生的店中經(jīng)常是很多的，可以隨意挑選；還有各種各樣的鏡子有時擺放得能使反映與折射出的形象比原形增大幾倍，它們送入眼睛來的永遠(yuǎn)是一片破產(chǎn)與沒落的景象。
布羅格利先生本人的眼睛經(jīng)常是水汪汪的，臉孔是粉紅色的，頭發(fā)卷曲，塊頭很大，性格隨和——因為凱烏斯·馬略這樣一類人是能夠精神振作地坐在其他民族的迦太基的廢墟上的①。他有時曾順道到所羅門的店里來看看，問一問所羅門所經(jīng)營的儀器方面的問題；沃爾特跟他熟了，在街上遇見時總要向他寒暄問好，然而這位經(jīng)紀(jì)人與所羅門·吉爾斯也僅僅熟悉到這樣的程度罷了，所以當(dāng)沃爾特那天午前信守諾言，回到家中，看見布羅格利先生坐在后客廳里，雙手插在衣袋中，帽子掛在門后的時候，感到相當(dāng)驚奇。
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①凱烏斯·馬略（CaiusMarius，公元前157—86年），曾七次當(dāng)選為古羅馬的執(zhí)政官，他指揮非洲的戰(zhàn)爭時，勇猛頑強，用兵如神。公元前88年，他被迫逃出羅馬，歷經(jīng)艱險，逃到非洲，曾在迦太基的廢墟中避難。迦太基（Carthage）為古代大城市之一，相傳為腓尼基人于公元前814年所建，今為突尼斯市郊區(qū)。
“唔，所爾舅舅！”沃爾特說道。那老人正沮喪地坐在桌子的另一邊，眼鏡居然很難得地戴在眼睛前面，而不是架在前額上。“你現(xiàn)在好嗎？”
所羅門搖搖頭，一只手向經(jīng)紀(jì)人揮了揮，作為介紹他。
“發(fā)生什么事情了嗎？”沃爾特屏息地問道。
“沒有，沒有，沒有發(fā)生什么事情，”布羅格利先生說道。
“您別為這憂慮?！?BR> 沃爾特沉默而驚奇地把眼光從經(jīng)紀(jì)人身上轉(zhuǎn)移到他舅舅身上。
“事情是，”布羅格利先生說道，“這里有一張沒有支付的票據(jù)。三百七十多鎊，已經(jīng)過期了?，F(xiàn)在票據(jù)在我手里?！?BR> “在您手里！”沃爾特往店鋪里環(huán)視了一下，喊道。
“是的，”布羅格利先生用一種講機(jī)密話的語氣說道，同時點點頭，仿佛他想勸告大家，每個人都應(yīng)當(dāng)覺得自己很好。“這是執(zhí)行一件該辦的事。事情僅僅如此而已。你別為這憂慮。我親自到這里來，是因為我想悄悄地、和和氣氣地把這件事情了結(jié)了。您知道我，完全是私下的，一點也沒有聲張?！?BR> “所爾舅舅！”沃爾特結(jié)結(jié)巴巴地說道。
“沃利，我的孩子，”他的舅舅回答道。“這是第一次。我從前從沒有遇到過這樣的不幸。我太老了，沒法從頭開始了?！彼蜒坨R又推到額上去（因為它已不能再掩蓋他的情緒了），用一只手捂住臉孔，大聲抽泣著，眼淚掉落在他的咖啡色的背心上。
“所爾舅舅！??！請別這樣！”沃爾特高聲喊道；他看到老人哭泣，確實感到一陣恐怖?！翱丛谏系鄣姆稚?，別這樣！
布羅格利先生，我該怎么辦？”
“我想建議您去找位朋友，”布羅格利先生說道，“跟他談?wù)勥@件事情。”
“完全正確！”沃爾特急忙抓住一切機(jī)會，喊道?！爱?dāng)然該這么辦！謝謝您?？ㄌ貭柎L就是我們所需要的人，舅舅。等著我，等我跑去找卡特爾船長。布羅格利先生，當(dāng)我不在家的時候，請您照看一下我的舅舅，盡量安慰安慰他，好嗎？不要灰心喪氣，所爾舅舅。努力振作起精神，這才是個男子漢！”
沃爾特?zé)崆檠笠绲卣f完了這些話，不顧老人上句不接下句地勸阻，迅猛地又沖出了店鋪；他急忙跑到辦公室，借口他舅舅突然病了，請求準(zhǔn)假，然后火速地向卡特爾船長的住所進(jìn)發(fā)。
當(dāng)他沿著街道跑過去的時候，一切似乎都已改變了。像往常一樣，手推車、大車、公共汽車、運貨馬車和行人混雜在一起，熙熙攘攘，發(fā)出了各種鬧聲，可是落到木制海軍軍官候補生身上的不幸使它們變得古怪與新奇。房屋與店鋪跟它們平日的樣子不同，正面有很大的字母寫著布格羅利先生的付款通知單。這位經(jīng)紀(jì)人似乎把教堂也掌握在手中了，因為它們的尖頂以一種不同尋常的氣概升入了天空；甚至天空本身也改變了，也明顯地參與了這件事情的執(zhí)行。
卡特爾船長住在靠近印度造船廠的小運河的岸邊；那里有一座旋橋，它不時旋開，讓一些如同漫游巨怪般的船艦像擱淺了的海中怪獸一樣，沿著街道沖游過去。當(dāng)走向卡特爾船長住所的時候，從陸地到水上的逐步變化是奇妙有趣的。開始時是一些作為客棧附屬物的旗桿高高聳立著；然后是現(xiàn)成服裝店，店外懸掛著耿濟(jì)島①的黑色厚毛線衫，海員用的防水帽以及最緊窄和最寬松的帆布褲子。接著是生產(chǎn)錨和錨鏈的鐵工廠，長柄的大鐵錘整天叮叮當(dāng)當(dāng)?shù)貟啻蛑F塊。再下去是一排排房屋，房屋附近種植的紅豆中間豎立著頂上有小風(fēng)信標(biāo)的桅桿。接下去是水溝，然后是截去樹梢的柳樹。再下去是更多的水溝。然后是一片片奇怪的臟水，由于上面有船，很難辨認(rèn)出來。再下去，空氣中散發(fā)著刨花的氣味。所有其他行業(yè)都被制作桅、槳和滑車的行業(yè)和造船業(yè)排擠掉了。往下去，土地變得像沼澤一樣低濕、泥濘，很不牢固。再下去，除了朗姆酒和糖的氣味外，再也聞不到別的氣味了。再往下，卡特爾船長的住所就近在您的眼前了。他住在二層樓，那是布里格廣場上的一層。
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①耿濟(jì)島（IsleofGuernsey）：英國海峽中的一個島。
船長是那些看去像木材的人們當(dāng)中的一位，他們的衣服和身體好像是從一株橡樹中一道砍削出來的，最活躍的想象力也幾乎不可能把他們衣服中的任何一部分從身上分開，哪怕那是無關(guān)重要的一部分；因此，當(dāng)沃爾特敲了門，船長立刻從他前面的小窗子當(dāng)中的一個伸出頭來招呼他的時候，他像平時一樣，頭上已經(jīng)戴著那頂上了光的硬帽子，身上已經(jīng)穿上那套藍(lán)色的寬闊的外衣，還露出那像船帆一樣的襯衫領(lǐng)子；沃爾特完全相信，他經(jīng)常處于這種狀態(tài)，仿佛船長是一只鳥，那些衣帽是他的羽毛似的。
“沃爾，我的孩子！”卡特爾船長說道?！白龊脺?zhǔn)備，再敲一次。使勁敲，今天是洗衣服的日子。”
沃爾特急不可耐地用門環(huán)砰砰地猛敲著。
“很有勁！”卡特爾船長說道，然后立即把頭縮了進(jìn)去，仿佛他預(yù)料到一場夾帶冰雹的暴風(fēng)就要來臨似的。
他沒有錯，因為一位寡居的太太以驚人的敏捷回答了這個召喚；她袖子卷到肩膀上，胳膊上沾滿了肥皂泡，而且冒著霧騰騰的熱氣。她在看沃爾特之前先看了一下門環(huán)，然后用眼睛把他從頭到腳打量了一下，說她很奇怪，門環(huán)居然還在門上，沒有被他完全打落下來。
“就我所知，卡特爾船長在家里，”沃爾特和解地笑了一下，說道。
“他在家嗎？”這位寡居的太太回答道?！霸瓉怼绱?！”
“他剛才還跟我說話，”沃爾特急促地解釋道。
“他跟您說話了嗎？”寡居的太太回答道?！澳敲匆苍S您可以向他轉(zhuǎn)達(dá)麥克斯廷杰太太的敬意，告訴他，如果下一次要貶損他本人和他的住所的體面，從窗口對外講話的話，那么就請他也下樓來開門，她將為此而感謝他。”麥克斯廷杰太太高聲地說著，同時聽聽二層樓上對這會提出什么意見。
“夫人，”沃爾特說道，“如果您肯行個好，讓我進(jìn)去的話，那么我會對他說的?！?BR> 因為有一個木制的路障橫放在門口，把他擋住了，那路障是為了防止小麥克斯廷杰在玩耍的時候，從臺階上滾下去而擺設(shè)在那里的。
“我希望，”麥克斯廷杰太太傲慢地說道，“一個能把我的門敲下的小子能夠從這里跳過去?！笨墒钱?dāng)沃爾特以為這是允許他進(jìn)去，因此跳了過去之后，麥克斯廷杰太太卻立刻問道，一位英國婦女的家是不是她的堡壘？①它是不是可以容許“二流子”隨意闖入？當(dāng)沃爾特穿過洗衣服所形成的人造霧氣（它使樓梯扶手粘粘糊糊，像出了汗似的），進(jìn)到卡特爾船長的房間，看到這位先生正在門后埋伏著的時候，她仍糾纏不休地渴望在這兩個問題上得到回答。
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①“一位英國男子的家是他的堡壘”（AnEnglishman′shouseishiscastle．）是英國法學(xué)家愛德華·科克爵士（SirEdwardCoke，1552—1634年，曾任民事法院的首席法官）在他的著作《英國法總論》（InstitutesoftheLawsofEngland）中所說的一句話，意為一位英國男子在他家中就處于法律威力所及的范圍之外。麥克斯廷杰太太的問話就是從這句話引伸出來的。
“我從來不欠她一個便士，沃爾，”船長輕聲說道，臉上仍明顯地流露出恐怖的神色?！拔覍λ退男『⒆觽冏隽嗽S許多多的好事?？墒怯袝r她還是蠻不講理。噓！”
“我就要離開這里，卡特爾船長，”沃爾特說道。“別走，沃爾，”船長回答道。“我不論走到哪里，她都會把我找到的。請坐。吉爾斯好嗎？”
船長戴著帽子，正在吃午飯：冷的羊腰子、黑啤酒和幾個冒著熱氣的土豆。土豆是他自己煮的，他需要吃的時候，就從火爐前面的一只有柄的小平底鍋中取出。吃飯的時候，他解下鉤子，把一把小刀插進(jìn)木制的插口里；他已經(jīng)用這把小刀開始為沃爾特把一個土豆的皮剝?nèi)チ恕Ｋ姆块g很小，充滿了濃烈的吸煙草散發(fā)出的氣味，但卻十分溫暖舒適。所有的東西都收藏了起來，仿佛這里每隔半小時就要發(fā)生一次地震似的。
“吉爾斯好嗎？”船長問道。
沃爾特這時已經(jīng)緩過氣來，但卻喪失了情緒——或者可以說是喪失了一種由于急速趕路而暫時振奮起來的情緒。他向問他的人望了一會兒，說道，“啊，卡特爾船長！”然后，就流出了眼淚。船長看到這種情景時的驚恐是不能用言語形容的。面對著這種情形，麥克斯廷杰太太已完全消失了。土豆和叉子從他手中掉下——如果可能的話，小刀也會掉下的——，他坐在那里凝視著這個孩子，仿佛他預(yù)料立刻就會聽到，城里的土地已經(jīng)裂開一個深坑，它已經(jīng)把他的老朋友、他的咖啡色外衣、鈕扣、精密計時表、眼鏡以及一切都吞沒了。
但是當(dāng)沃爾特把事實真相告訴他之后，卡特爾船長沉思了片刻，就立刻非常活躍地行動起來。他從碗柜頂層隔板上的一個小錫罐中倒出他存有的全部現(xiàn)錢（總共是十三鎊零半個克朗①），并把它們裝進(jìn)他的寬大的藍(lán)色上衣的一個口袋中，接著他又把餐具箱子中所存有的東西充實到這個儲藏所中。餐具箱子中所存有的是兩只干癟的、不像原形的茶匙和一副舊式的彎曲的方糖箱子。他又把他那只很大的、有雙層外殼的銀表從它安息的深處拉了出來，以便確信這個珍貴的物品完好無損；然后他把鉤子重新擰緊到右腕上，拿起那根有好多節(jié)的手杖，囑咐沃爾特動身。
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①克朗：舊時英國的硬幣，一克朗等于五先令。
可是他在這種由于道德高尚而激發(fā)的興奮中仍然記得，麥克斯廷杰太太可能在下面等待著，所以卡特爾船長最后猶豫起來，甚至還往窗子看了一眼，仿佛他腦子里閃出這樣的念頭：寧可從這個不尋常的出口逃走，也不要碰見他那個可怕的敵人；可是他決定采用計謀。
“沃爾，”船長膽怯地眨眨眼睛，說道，“你先走，我的孩子。當(dāng)你走到走廊里的時候，你就大聲喊道，‘再見，卡特爾船長，’再把門關(guān)上。然后你在街道拐角里等著我，直到我們見面為止?！?BR> 這些指示是預(yù)先知道敵人的策略才發(fā)出的，因為當(dāng)沃爾特走下樓的時候，麥克斯廷杰太太像一個復(fù)仇的妖魔一樣，從后面的小廚房中悄悄地溜了出來，但是沒有像她原先期望的那樣碰上船長，她只是再一次暗示了一下門環(huán)的事，就又悄悄地溜回廚房里去了。
大約過了五分鐘光景，卡特爾船長才鼓起勇氣來設(shè)法逃走；因為沃爾特在街道拐角等了好久，一直回頭看看那座房屋，但卻沒有看到那頂上了光的硬帽子的任何影子。終于，船長像爆炸一樣突然地沖出到門外，大步地向他走來，一次也沒有回頭去看；當(dāng)他們一離開這條街的時候，他就假裝吹口哨。
“舅舅的情緒很低沉吧，沃爾？”他們向前走去的時候，船長問道。
“我擔(dān)心是這樣。如果您今天早上看到他的話，那么您將永遠(yuǎn)忘不了他的那副神情。”
“快些走，沃爾，我的孩子，”船長加快步伐，回答道，“你這一輩子永遠(yuǎn)用這同樣的步子走路。請查一下《教義問答》，并記住這句忠告?！?BR> 船長心中只顧想到所羅門·吉爾斯，也許也夾雜著他剛剛從麥克斯廷杰太太那里逃出來的回憶，所以沒有再引用其他的話來幫助沃爾特來進(jìn)一步完善他的德行。在他們到達(dá)老所爾的家門口之前，他們沒有交談其他的話；不幸的木制海軍軍官候補生手里拿著儀器在老所爾家的門口似乎正在向地平線眺望著，想要找一位朋友來幫助他擺脫困境。
“吉爾斯！”船長急忙跑到后客廳里，十分親切地握著他的手?！鞍浩痤^來迎著風(fēng)，我們將會戰(zhàn)勝它。”船長像一個正在傳達(dá)人類智慧所發(fā)現(xiàn)的最為寶貴、最切合實際的教義的人那樣莊嚴(yán)地說道。“你應(yīng)該做的一切，就是昂起頭來迎著風(fēng)，我們將會戰(zhàn)勝它！”
老所爾緊緊地握著他的手，并且謝謝他。
然后卡特爾船長以在這種場合適宜的莊重的神態(tài)，在桌子上放下那兩只茶匙，那副方糖箝子，那只銀表和現(xiàn)錢，同時問經(jīng)紀(jì)人布羅格利先生，需要償付多少錢。
“聽著，您看這些怎么樣？”卡特爾船長問道。
“啊，上帝保佑您！”經(jīng)紀(jì)人回答道；“難道您以為那些財產(chǎn)有什么用處嗎？”
“為什么沒有用處？”船長問道。
“為什么？總共是三百七十多鎊，”經(jīng)紀(jì)人回答道。
“不要緊，”船長回答道，雖然這個數(shù)字顯然使他吃驚，“我想，跑進(jìn)您網(wǎng)里來的都是魚吧？”
“當(dāng)然，”布羅格利先生說道?！暗悄溃黯E魚并不是鯨魚。”
這句話的哲理似乎擊中了船長。他沉思了一會兒；同時目不轉(zhuǎn)睛地看著經(jīng)紀(jì)人，像是在看一位思想深奧的天才似的。
然后他把儀器制造商叫到一旁。
“吉爾斯，”卡特爾船長說道，“這是什么樣的一筆債務(wù)？
債權(quán)人是誰？”
“說輕一些！”老人回答道?！拔覀冏唛_一些，別當(dāng)著沃利的面說。這是為了給沃利的父親擔(dān)保而發(fā)生的事情?！还P老債務(wù)。我已經(jīng)償付了好多，內(nèi)德，可是我的日子過得很艱難，目前我不能再做什么了。我預(yù)見到這件事，可是我無能為力。無論如何，在沃利面前一句話也別說?！?BR> “你有·一·些錢吧，是不是？”船長低聲問道。
“是的，是的，——啊，是的。——我有一些，”老所爾回答道；他首先把手伸進(jìn)兩只空空的衣袋，然后用它們緊緊擠著他的威爾士假發(fā)，仿佛他以為他可以從那里擠出一些金子似的?！暗俏遥矣幸稽c錢是不能兌換成現(xiàn)錢的，內(nèi)德；它是不能立刻拿來用的。我一直在想用它來給沃利做點什么事?？墒俏乙堰^時了，落在時代后面了。這里那里都是錢，但同時——同時，總之，實際上等于什么地方都沒有錢?！?BR> 老人手足無措地看著四周，說道。
他那樣子很像是個神志恍惚的人，把錢藏在許多地方，但卻忘記藏在哪里了，所以船長跟隨著他的眼光，心里懷著一絲微弱的希望，也許他會記起來在上面的煙囪里或在下面的地窖里隱藏著幾百鎊?？墒撬_門·吉爾斯心里很清楚，這是決不會發(fā)生的事情。
“我完全落在時代后面了，我親愛的內(nèi)德，”所爾萬念俱灰地說道，“落后得很遠(yuǎn)了。我這樣遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地落在它的后面是沒有什么用處的。這些貨物是賣掉——它的價值超過這筆債務(wù)——我是到一個什么地方去，死掉算了。我已經(jīng)沒有什么精力了。我不明白發(fā)生的事情，是讓這告一結(jié)束。讓他們把這些貨物賣掉，并把他卸下來，”老人有氣無力地指著木制海軍軍官候補生，說道，“讓我們一起完蛋吧?！?BR> “對沃爾特你打算怎么辦呢？”船長問道?！昂美玻美?！請坐下，吉爾斯，請坐下，讓我想一想這件事。如果我不是一位靠菲薄的年全過活的人（這年金要是積攢到今天將會是夠大的一筆數(shù)字了），那么我現(xiàn)在就用不著想了?？墒悄阒灰浩痤^來迎著風(fēng)，”船長重新用這句無可辯駁的話來安慰他，“那么你就會一切都好的！”
老所爾由衷地感謝他，但他并沒有昂起頭來迎著風(fēng)，而是走去把頭靠在后客廳的壁爐上。
卡特爾船長在店鋪里走來走去走了一些時候，深深地思考著，濃密的黑眉毛十分陰沉地低垂著，就像烏云籠罩在山峰上一樣，因此沃爾特不敢去打斷他的思路。布羅格利先生不愿意讓這幾個人過于緊張不安，同時他又是個足智多謀的人，所以就輕輕吹著口哨，在貨物中間走來走去；他輕輕地敲敲睛雨表，又搖搖羅盤，仿佛這些羅盤是藥水瓶似的；接著他又拿起帶有天然磁石的鑰匙，從望遠(yuǎn)鏡里往外看，設(shè)法熟悉地球儀的用途，把平行規(guī)尺騎在鼻子上，又進(jìn)行其他一些物理試驗來開心取樂。
“沃爾！”船長終于說道?！拔蚁氲搅?！”
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