'Quite ready! Stand back
here, for your lives!'
And in an instant he was felled like an ox in the butcher's
shambles--struck down as though a block of marble had fallen from the
roof and crushed him--and cheerful light, and beaming faces came pouring
in--and Emma was clasped in her uncle's embrace, and Dolly, with a
shriek that pierced the air, fell into the arms of her father and
mother.
What fainting there was, what laughing, what crying, what sobbing, what
smiling, how much questioning, no answering, all talking together, all
beside themselves with joy; what kissing, congratulating, embracing,
shaking of hands, and falling into all these raptures, over and over and
over again; no language can describe.
At length, and after a long time, the old locksmith went up and fairly
hugged two strangers, who had stood apart and left them to themselves;
and then they saw--whom? Yes, Edward Chester and Joseph Willet.
'See here!' cried the locksmith. 'See here! where would any of us have
been without these two? Oh, Mr Edward, Mr Edward--oh, Joe, Joe, how
light, and yet how full, you have made my old heart to-night!'
'It was Mr Edward that knocked him down, sir,' said Joe: 'I longed to do
it, but I gave it up to him.
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