Still, from time to time, fatigue, impatience, suffering, and surprise,
found utterance upon that rack, and plainly too, though never once in
words. At length, in the solemn hour of midnight, he began to talk;
waiting awfully for answers sometimes; as though invisible companions
were about his bed; and so replying to their speech and questioning
again.
Mrs Gamp awoke, and sat up in her bed; presenting on the wall the shadow
of a gigantic night constable, struggling with a prisoner.
'Come! Hold your tongue!' she cried, in sharp reproof. 'Don't make none
of that noise here.'
There was no alteration in the face, or in the incessant motion of the
head, but he talked on wildly.
'Ah!' said Mrs Gamp, coming out of the chair with an impatient shiver;
'I thought I was a-sleepin' too pleasant to last! The devil's in the
night, I think, it's turned so chilly!'
'Don't drink so much!' cried the sick man. 'You'll ruin us all. Don't
you see how the fountain sinks? Look at the mark where the sparkling
water was just now!'
'Sparkling water, indeed!' said Mrs Gamp. 'I'll have a sparkling cup o'
tea, I think.
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