Oh yes! Why
not?' went out for a walk.
Chapter 79
Old John did not walk near the Golden Key, for between the Golden Key
and the Black Lion there lay a wilderness of streets--as everybody
knows who is acquainted with the relative bearings of Clerkenwell and
Whitechapel--and he was by no means famous for pedestrian exercises.
But the Golden Key lies in our way, though it was out of his; so to the
Golden Key this chapter goes.
The Golden Key itself, fair emblem of the locksmith's trade, had been
pulled down by the rioters, and roughly trampled under foot. But, now,
it was hoisted up again in all the glory of a new coat of paint,
and shewed more bravely even than in days of yore. Indeed the whole
house-front was spruce and trim, and so freshened up throughout, that if
there yet remained at large any of the rioters who had been concerned in
the attack upon it, the sight of the old, goodly, prosperous dwelling,
so revived, must have been to them as gall and wormwood.
The shutters of the shop were closed, however, and the window-blinds
above were all pulled down, and in place of its usual cheerful
appearance, the house had a look of sadness and an air of mourning;
which the neighbours, who in old days had often seen poor Barnaby go in
and out, were at no loss to understand.
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