old portmanteau.
Mr. Snagsby arrives hastily, in his grey coat and his black sleeves. 'Dear me, dear me,' he says; 'and it has come to this, has it! Bless my soul!'
'Can you give the person of the house any information about this unfortunate creature, Snagsby?' inquires Mr. Tulkinghorn. 'He was in arrears with his rent, it seems. And he must be buried, you know.'
'Well, sir,' says Mr. Snagsby, coughing his apologetic cough behind his hand; 'I really don't know what advice I could offer, except sending for the beadle.'
'I don't speak of advice,' returns Mr. Tulkinghorn. 'I could advise—'
('No one better, sir, I am sure,' says Mr. Snagsby, with his deferential cough.)
'I speak of affording some clue to his connexions, or to where he came from, or to anything concerning him.'
'I assure you, sir,' says Mr. Snagsby, after prefacing his reply with his cough of general propitiation, 'that I no more know where he came from than I know—'
'Where he has gone to, perhaps,' suggests the surgeon, to help him out.
A pause. Mr. Tulkinghorn looking at the law-stationer. Mr. Krook, with his mouth open, looking for somebody to speak next.
'As to his connexions, sir,' says Mr. Snagsby, 'if a person was to say to me, "Snagsby, here's twenty thousand pound down, ready for you in the Bank of England, if you'll only name one of 'em," I couldn't do it, sir! About a year and a half ago – to the best of my belief at the time when he first came to lodge at the present rag and bottle shop—'
'That was the time!' says Krook, with a nod.
'About a year and a half ago,' says Mr. Snagsby, strengthened, 'he came into our place one morning after breakfast, and, finding my little woman (which I name Mrs. Snagsby when I use that appellation) in our shop, produced a specimen of his handwriting, and gave her to understand that he was in want of copying work to do, and was – not to put too fine a point upon it—' a favourite apology for plain-speaking with Mr. Snagsby, which he always offers with a sort of argumentative frankness, 'hard up! My little woman is not in general partial to strangers, particular – not to put too fine a point upon it – when they want anything. But she was rather took by something about this person; whether by his being unshaved, or by his hair being in want of attention, or by what other ladies' reasons, I leave you to judge; and she accepted of the specimen, and likewise of the address. My little woman hasn't a good ear for names,' proceeds Mr. Snagsby, after consulting his cough of consideration behind his hand, 'and she considered Nemo equally the same as Nimrod. In consequence of which, she got into a habit of saying to me at meals, "Mr. Snagsby, you haven't found Nimrod any work yet!" or "Mr. Snagsby, why didn't you give that eight-and-thirty Chancery folio in Jarndyce, to Nimrod?" or such like. And that is the way he gradually fell into job-work at our place; and that is the most I know of him, except that he was a quick hand, and a hand not sparing of night-work; and that if you gave him out, say five-and-forty folio on the Wednesday night, you would have it brought in on the Thursday morning. All of which—' Mr. Snagsby concludes by politely motioning with his hat towards the bed, as much as to add, 'I have no doubt my honourable friend would confirm, if he were in a condition to do it.'
'Hadn't you better see,' says Mr. Tulkinghorn to Krook, 'whether he had any papers that may enlighten you? There will be an Inquest, and you will be asked the question. You can read?'
'No, I can't,' returns the old man, with a sudden grin.
'Snagsby,' says Mr. Tulkinghorn, 'look over the room for him. He will get into some trouble or difficulty, otherwise. Being here, I'll wait, if you make haste; and then I can testify on his behalf, if it should ever be necessary, that all was fair and right. If you will hold the candle for Mr. Snagsby, my friend, he'll soon see whether there is anything to help you.'
'In the first place, here's an old portmanteau, sir,' says Snagsby.
Ah, to be sure, so there is! Mr. Tulkinghorn does not appear to have seen it before, though he is standing so close to it, and though there is very little else, Heaven knows.
The marine-store merchant holds the light, and the lawstationer conducts the search. The surgeon leans against the corner of the chimney-piece; Miss Flite peeps and trembles just within the door. The apt old scholar of the old school, with his dull black breeches tied with ribbons at the knees, his large black waistcoat, his long-sleeved black coat, and his wisp of limp white neckerchief tied in the bow the Peerage knows so well, stands in exactly the same place and attitude.
There are some worthless articles of clothing in the old portmanteau; there is a bundle of pawnbrokers' duplicates, those turnpike tickets on the road of Poverty; there is a crumpled paper, smelling of opium, on which are scrawled rough memoranda – as, took, such a day, so many grains; took, such another day, so many more – begun some time ago, as if with the intention of being regularly continued, but soon left off. There are a few dirty scraps of newspapers, all referring to Coroners' Inquests; there is nothing else. They search the cupboard, and the drawer of the ink-splashed table. There is not a morsel of an old letter, or of any other writing, in either. The young surgeon examines the dress on the law-writer. A knife and some odd halfpence are all he finds. Mr. Snagsby's suggestion is the practical suggestion after all, and the beadle must be called in.
So the little crazy lodger goes for the beadle, and the rest come out of the room. 'Don't leave the cat there I' says the surgeon: 'that won't do!' Mr. Krook therefore drives her out before him; and she goes furtively downstairs, winding her lithe tail and licking her lips.
'Good night!' says Mr. Tulkinghorn; and goes home to Allegory and meditation.
By this time the news has got into the court. Groups of its inhabitants assemble to discuss the thing; and the outposts of the army of observation (principally boys) are pushed forward to Mr. Krook's window, which they closely invest. A policeman has already walked up to the room, and walked down again to the door, where he stands like a tower, only condescending to see the boys at his base occasionally; but whenever he does see them, they quail and fall back. Mrs. Perkins, who has not been for some weeks on speaking terms with Mrs. Piper, in consequence of an unpleasantness originating in young Perkins having 'fetched' young Piper 'a crack,' renews her friendly intercourse on this auspicious occasion. The potboy at the corner, who is a privileged amateur, as possessing official knowledge of life, and having to deal with drunken men occasionally, exchanges confidential communications with the policeman, and has the appearance of an impregnable youth, unassailable by truncheons and unconfinable in station-houses. People talk across the court out of window, and bare-headed scouts come hurrying in from Chancery Lane to know what's the matter. The general feeling seems to be that it's a blessing Mr. Krook warn't made away with first, mingled with a little natural disappointment that he was not. In the midst of this sensation, the beadle arrives.
The beadle, though generally understood in the neighbourhood to be a ridiculous institution, is not without a certain popularity for the moment, if it were only as a man who is going to see the body. The policeman considers him an imbecile civilian, a remnant of the barbarous watchmen-times; but gives him admission, as something that must be borne with until Government shall abolish him. The sensation is heightened, as the tidings spread from mouth to mouth that the beadle is on the ground, and has gone in.
By-and-bye the beadle comes out, once more intensifying the sensation, which has rather languished in the interval. He is understood to be in want of witnesses, for the Inquest tomorrow, who can tell the Coroner and Jury anything whatever respecting the deceased. Is immediately referred to innumerable people who can tell nothing whatever. Is made more imbecile by being constantly informed that Mrs. Green's son 'was a law-writer his-self, and knowed him better than anybody'—which son of Mrs. Green's appears, on inquiry, to be at the present time aboard
