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He did not pause till he was at the door of the oyster-room. He paused then, to make way for a tipsy company of four, who reeled out, the gaslight from the bar-room on the edges of their sodden, distorted faces, giving three shouts and a yell, as they slammed the door behind them. He pushed after a party that was just entering.
Badchild, the accomplished keeper of an oyster-room and minor hell in Pickering Place, is prevailed upon to take the chair, supported on his right by Mr. Jorrocks, and on his left by Mr. Tom Rhodes, of Thames Street, while the stout, jolly, portly Jerry Hawthorn fills in the fullest sense of the word the vice-chair.
Before him was the house, the oyster-room staring at him through the lighted transparencies of its two windows, like two square eyes, below; and his tenant's light in a chamber above! The added shock which this discovery gave to the heaving of his heart made him gasp for breath. Could it be? Did he still dream? While he stood panting and staring at the building the city clocks began to strike.
Dazed and giddy, in cold fear, and with the returning sense of something near him, he stood and watched the groups that pushed and tumbled in through the entrance of the oyster-room, whistling and chattering as they went, and banging the door behind them. He noticed that some came out presently, banging the door harder, and went, smoking and shouting, down the street.
Out they'll go, though, or I'll know why. And, to crown all um-m. And I wish the Devil had him! as he will." "Had who, Beary-papa?" "Him. I'll tell you. The street-floor of one of my houses in Hanover Street lets for an oyster-room. They keep a bar there, and sell liquor. Last night they had a grand row, a drunken fight, and one man was stabbed, it's thought fatally." "O father!"
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