[Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens]@TWC D-Link book
Little Dorrit

CHAPTER 13
29/36

They ought to be prosecuted and fined, them Mails.

They come a racing out of Lad Lane and Wood Street at twelve or fourteen mile a hour, them Mails do.

The only wonder is, that people ain't killed oftener by them Mails.' 'This person is not killed, I hope ?' 'I don't know!' said the man, 'it an't for the want of a will in them Mails, if he an't.' The speaker having folded his arms, and set in comfortably to address his depreciation of them Mails to any of the bystanders who would listen, several voices, out of pure sympathy with the sufferer, confirmed him; one voice saying to Clennam, 'They're a public nuisance, them Mails, sir;' another, 'I see one on 'em pull up within half a inch of a boy, last night;' another, 'I see one on 'em go over a cat, sir--and it might have been your own mother;' and all representing, by implication, that if he happened to possess any public influence, he could not use it better than against them Mails.
'Why, a native Englishman is put to it every night of his life, to save his life from them Mails,' argued the first old man; 'and he knows when they're a coming round the corner, to tear him limb from limb.

What can you expect from a poor foreigner who don't know nothing about 'em!' 'Is this a foreigner ?' said Clennam, leaning forward to look.
In the midst of such replies as 'Frenchman, sir,' 'Porteghee, sir,' 'Dutchman, sir,' 'Prooshan, sir,' and other conflicting testimony, he now heard a feeble voice asking, both in Italian and in French, for water.

A general remark going round, in reply, of 'Ah, poor fellow, he says he'll never get over it; and no wonder!' Clennam begged to be allowed to pass, as he understood the poor creature.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books