What had already fallen from her, however, had not only piqued his curiosity, but seriously alarmed him, wherefore he urged her to tell him the worst at once.
'Oh there's no worst in it,' said the small servant.

'It hasn't anything to do with you.' 'Has it anything to do with--is it anything you heard through chinks or keyholes--and that you were not intended to hear ?' asked Dick, in a breathless state.
'Yes,' replied the small servant.
'In--in Bevis Marks ?' pursued Dick hastily.

'Conversations between Brass and Sally ?' 'Yes,' cried the small servant again.
Richard Swiveller thrust his lank arm out of bed, and, gripping her by the wrist and drawing her close to him, bade her out with it, and freely too, or he would not answer for the consequences; being wholly unable to endure the state of excitement and expectation.

She, seeing that he was greatly agitated, and that the effects of postponing her revelation might be much more injurious than any that were likely to ensue from its being made at once, promised compliance, on condition that the patient kept himself perfectly quiet, and abstained from starting up or tossing about.
'But if you begin to do that,' said the small servant, 'I'll leave off.
And so I tell you.' 'You can't leave off, till you have gone on,' said Dick.

'And do go on, there's a darling.