'Well, well!' said Mr Pecksniff, with great feeling; 'let me not be hard
upon my child. Beside her sister Cherry she appears so. A strange noise
that, Mr Jonas!'
'Something wrong in the clock, I suppose,' said Jonas, glancing towards
it. 'So the other one ain't your favourite, ain't she?'
The fond father was about to reply, and had already summoned into his
face a look of most intense sensibility, when the sound he had already
noticed was repeated.
'Upon my word, Mr Jonas, that is a very extraordinary clock,' said
Pecksniff.
It would have been, if it had made the noise which startled them; but
another kind of time-piece was fast running down, and from that the
sound proceeded. A scream from Chuffey, rendered a hundred times more
loud and formidable by his silent habits, made the house ring from roof
to cellar; and, looking round, they saw Anthony Chuzzlewit extended on
the floor, with the old clerk upon his knees beside him.
He had fallen from his chair in a fit, and lay there, battling for each
gasp of breath, with every shrivelled vein and sinew starting in its
place, as if it were bent on bearing witness to his age, and sternly
pleading with Nature against his recovery.
Pages:
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588