These various changes, Mr. Sleary, very short of breath now, related with great heartiness, and with a wonderful kind of innocence, considering what a bleary and brandy-and-watery old veteran he was. Afterwards he brought in Josephine, and E. W. B. Childers (rather deeply lined in the jaws by daylight), and the Little Wonder of Scholastic Equitation, and in a word, all the company. Amazing creatures they were in Louisa’s eyes, so white and pink of complexion, so scant of dress, and so demonstrative of leg; but it was very agreeable to see them crowding about Sissy, and very natural in Sissy to be unable to refrain from tears.
“There! Now Thethilia hath kithd all the children, and hugged all the women, and thaken handth all round with all the men, clear, every one of you, and ring in the band for the thecond part!”
As soon as they were gone, he continued in a low tone. “Now, Thethilia, I don’t athk to know any thecreth, but I thuppothe I may conthider thith to be Mith Thquire.”
“This is his sister. Yes.”
“And t’other on’th daughter. That’h what I mean. Hope I thee you well, mith. And I hope the Thquire”th well?”
“My father will be here soon,” said Louisa, anxious to bring him to the point. “Is my brother safe?”
“Thafe and thound!” he replied. “I want you jutht to take a peep at the Ring, mith, through here. Thethilia, you know the dodgeth; find a thpy-hole for yourthelf.”
They each looked through a chink in the boards.
“That’h Jack the Giant Killer – piethe of comic infant bithnith,” said Sleary. “There”th a property-houthe, you thee, for Jack to hide in; there”th my Clown with a thauthepan-lid and a thpit, for Jack”th thervant; there”th little Jack himthelf in a thplendid thoot of armour; there”th two comic black thervanth twithe ath big ath the houthe, to thtand by it and to bring it in and clear it; and the Giant (a very ecthpenthive bathket one), he an’t on yet. Now, do you thee ’em all?”
“Yes,” they both said.
“Look at ’em again,” said Sleary, “look at ’em well. You thee ’em all? Very good. Now, mith;” he put a form for them to sit on; “I have my opinionth, and the Thquire your father hath hith. I don’t want to know what your brother”th been up to; ith better for me not to know. All I thay ith, the Thquire hath thood by Thethilia, and I’ll thtand by the Thquire. Your brother ith one them black thervanth.”
Louisa uttered an exclamation, partly of distress, partly of satisfaction.
“Ith a fact,” said Sleary, “and even knowin” it, you couldn’t put your finger on him. Let the Thquire come. I thall keep your brother here after the performanth. I thant undreth him, nor yet wath hith paint off. Let the Thquire come here after the performanth, or come here yourthelf after the performanth, and you thall find your brother, and have the whole plathe to talk to him in. Never mind the lookth of him, ath long ath he”th well hid.”
Louisa, with many thanks and with a lightened load, detained Mr. Sleary no longer then. She left her love for her brother, with her eyes full of tears; and she and Sissy went away until later in the afternoon.
Mr. Gradgrind arrived within an hour afterwards. He too had encountered no one whom he knew; and was now sanguine with Sleary’s assistance, of getting his disgraced son to Liverpool in the night. As neither of the three could be his companion without almost identifying him under any disguise, he prepared a letter to a correspondent whom he could trust, beseeching him to ship the bearer off at any cost, to North or South America, or any distant part of the world to which he could be the most speedily and privately dispatched.