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'Ah! said Mr Brogley, in confidential assent, and nodding his head as if he would urge the advisability of their all being comfortable together. 'It's an execution. That's what it is. Don't let it put you out of the way. I come myself, because of keeping it quiet and sociable. You know me. It's quite private. 'Uncle Sol! faltered Walter. 'Wally, my boy, returned his uncle.
Captain Cuttle, then, with a gravity suitable to the nature of the occasion, put down upon the table the two tea-spoons and the sugar-tongs, the silver watch, and the ready money; and asked Mr Brogley, the broker, what the damage was. 'Come! What do you make of it? said Captain Cuttle. 'Why, Lord help you! returned the broker; 'you don't suppose that property's of any use, do you?
'It's the first time. Such a calamity never happened to me before. 'Uncle Sol! Pray! oh don't! exclaimed Walter, who really felt a thrill of terror in seeing the old man weep. 'For God's sake don't do that. Mr Brogley, what shall I do? 'I should recommend you looking up a friend or so, said Mr Brogley, 'and talking it over. 'To be sure! cried Walter, catching at anything. 'Certainly! Thankee.
But as that was the extent of the broker's acquaintance with Solomon Gills also, Walter was not a little surprised when he came back in the course of the forenoon, agreeably to his promise, to find Mr Brogley sitting in the back parlour with his hands in his pockets, and his hat hanging up behind the door. 'Well, Uncle Sol! said Walter.
Dejected and despondent in the extreme, Captain Cuttle felt it just to release Rob from the arrest in which he had placed him, and to enlarge him, subject to a kind of honourable inspection which he still resolved to exercise; and having hired a man, from Brogley the Broker, to sit in the shop during their absence, the Captain, taking Rob with him, issued forth upon a dismal quest after the mortal remains of Solomon Gills.
The old man was sitting ruefully on the opposite side of the table, with his spectacles over his eyes, for a wonder, instead of on his forehead. 'How are you now? Solomon shook his head, and waved one hand towards the broker, as introducing him. 'Is there anything the matter? asked Walter, with a catching in his breath. 'No, no. There's nothing the matter, said Mr Brogley.
'Don't let it put you out of the way. Walter looked from the broker to his Uncle in mute amazement. 'The fact is, said Mr Brogley, 'there's a little payment on a bond debt three hundred and seventy odd, overdue: and I'm in possession. 'In possession! cried Walter, looking round at the shop.
Captain Cuttle's the man, Uncle. Wait till I run to Captain Cuttle. Keep your eye upon my Uncle, will you, Mr Brogley, and make him as comfortable as you can while I am gone? Don't despair, Uncle Sol. Try and keep a good heart, there's a dear fellow!
Mr Brogley himself was a moist-eyed, pink-complexioned, crisp-haired man, of a bulky figure and an easy temper for that class of Caius Marius who sits upon the ruins of other people's Carthages, can keep up his spirits well enough.
The state of mind in which poor Walter had gone to Captain Cuttle's, on the day when Brogley the broker came into possession, and when there seemed to him to be an execution in the very steeples, was pretty much the same as that in which Florence now took her way to Uncle Sol's; with this difference, that Florence suffered the added pain of thinking that she had been, perhaps, the innocent occasion of involving Walter in peril, and all to whom he was dear, herself included, in an agony of suspense.
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