It was a loud shouting, mingled with boisterous acclamations, that rent
the very air. It drew nearer and nearer every moment, and approached
so rapidly, that, even while they listened, it burst into a deafening
confusion of sounds at the street corner.
'This must be stopped--quieted,' said Mr Haredale, hastily. 'We should
have foreseen this, and provided against it. I will go out to them at
once.'
But, before he could reach the door, and before Edward could catch up
his hat and follow him, they were again arrested by a loud shriek from
above-stairs: and the locksmith's wife, bursting in, and fairly running
into Mr Haredale's arms, cried out:
'She knows it all, dear sir!--she knows it all! We broke it out to her
by degrees, and she is quite prepared.' Having made this communication,
and furthermore thanked Heaven with great fervour and heartiness, the
good lady, according to the custom of matrons, on all occasions of
excitement, fainted away directly.
They ran to the window, drew up the sash, and looked into the crowded
street. Among a dense mob of persons, of whom not one was for an instant
still, the locksmith's ruddy face and burly form could be descried,
beating about as though he was struggling with a rough sea.
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