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He had been there five or six months, when he came running to this turnkey one forenoon to tell him, breathless and pale, that his wife was ill. As anybody might a known she would be, said the turnkey. We intended, he returned, that she should go to a country lodging only to-morrow. What am I to do! Oh, good heaven, what am I to do! Dont waste your time in clasping your hands and biting your fingers, responded the practical turnkey, taking him by the elbow, but come along with me. The turnkey conducted himtrembling from head to foot, and constantly crying under his breath, What was he to do! while his irresolute fingers bedabbled the tears upon his faceup one of the common staircases in the prison to a door on the garret story. Upon which door the turnkey knocked with the handle of his key. Come in! cried a voice inside. The turnkey, opening the door, disclosed in a wretched, ill-smellinglittle room, two hoarse, puffy, red- faced personages seated at a rickety table, playing at all-fours, smoking pipes, and drinking brandy. Doctor, said the turnkey, heres a gentlemans wife in want of you without a minutes loss of time! The doctors friend was in the positive degree of hoarseness, puffiness, red-facedness, all-fours, tobacco, dirt, and brandy; the doctor in the comparativehoarser, puffier, more red-faced, more all-foury, tobaccoer, dirtier, and brandier. The doctor was amazingly shabby, in a torn and darned rough-weather sea-jacket, out at elbows and eminently short of buttons (he had been in his time the experienced surgeon carried by a passenger ship), the dirtiest white trousers conceivable by mortal man, carpet slippers, and no visible linen. Childbed? said the doctor. Im the boy! With that the doctor took a comb from the chimney- piece and stuck his hair uprightwhich appeared to be his way of washing himself produced a professional chest or case, of most abject appearance, from the cupboard where his cup and saucer and coals were, settled his chin in the frouzy wrapper round his neck, and became a ghastly medical scarecrow. The doctor and the debtor ran down-stairs, leaving the turnkey to return to the lock, and made for the debtors room. All the ladies in the prison had got hold of the news, and were in the yard. Some of them had already taken possession of the two children, and were hospitably carrying them off; others were offering loans of little comforts from their own scanty store; others were sympathising with the greatest volubility. The gentlemen prisoners, feeling themselves at a disadvantage, had for the most part retired, not to say sneaked, to their rooms; from the open windows of which some of them now complimented the doctor with whistles as he passed below, while others, with several stories between them, interchanged sarcastic references to the prevalent excitement. It was a hot summer day, and the prison rooms were baking between the high walls. In the debtors confined chamber, Mrs Bangham, charwoman and messenger, who was not a prisoner (though she had been once), but was the popular medium of communication with the outer world, had volunteered her services as fly-catcher and general attendant. The walls and ceiling were blackened with flies. Mrs Bangham, expert in sudden device, with one hand fanned the patient with a cabbage leaf, and with the other set traps of vinegar and sugar in gallipots; at the same time enunciating sentiments of an encouraging and congratulatory nature, adapted to the occasion. The flies trouble you, dont they, my dear? said Mrs Bangham. But praps theyll take your mind off of it, and do you good. What between the buryin ground, the grocers, the wagon stables, and the paunch trade, the Marshalsea flies gets very large. Praps theyre sent as a consolation, if we only knowed it. How are you now, my dear? No better? No, my dear, it aint to be expected; youll be worse before youre better, and you know it, dont you? Yes. Thats right! And to think of a sweet little cherub being born inside the lock! Now aint it pretty, aint THAT something to carry you through it pleasant? Why, we aint |
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