It was no wonder that Dr Levitt was not yet visible. If he should
arrive by dawn, that was all that could be expected. But where were Mr
Grey and Sydney? Where was Mr Rowland? Like some of Mr Hope's other
neighbours, who ought to have come to his aid on such an occasion, these
gentlemen were detained at home by the emotions of their families.
Sydney Grey was locked up by his tender mother as securely as Mr Hope's
prisoner; and all the boy's efforts to break the door availed only to
bruise him full as seriously as the mob would have done. His father was
detained by the tremors of his wife, the palpitations of Sophia, and the
tears and sobs of the twins, all of which began with the certainty of
the first stone having been thrown, and were by no means abated by the
sight of the reflection of the flames on the sky. Mr Grey found it
really impossible to leave his family, as he afterwards said. He
consoled himself with the thought that he had done the best he could, by
sending his men. These things were exactly what his partner said. He,
too, had done the best he could, in sending his men. He, too, found it
impossible to leave his family. In the dusk of the evening, when the
first stones had begun to fly, the carriage which was heard, in the
intervals of the crashes, to roll by, contained Mrs Rowland and her
children, and some one else. It may easily be imagined that it was made
impossible to Mr Rowland to leave his family, to go to the assistance
of the people in the corner-house.
A fresh shout soon announced some new device. A kind of procession
appeared to be advancing up the street, and some notes of rude music
were heard. A party was bringing an effigy of Mr Hope to burn on the
pile. There was the odious thing--plain enough in the light of the
fire--with the halter round its neck, a knife in the right hand, and a
phial--a real phial out of Hope's own surgery, in the left!
"This is too bad to be borne," cried Enderby; while Hope, who had come
up to see what others were seeing, laughed heartily at the
representative of himself. "This is not to be endured. Morris, quick!
Fetch me half a dozen candles!"
"Candles, sir?"
"Yes, candles. I will put this rabble to flight. I wish I had thought
of it before."
"Oh, Philip!" said Margaret, apprehensively.
"Fear nothing, Margaret. I am going to do something most eminently
safe, as you will see."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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