Chapter II

“Ding-a-dong――a-ding-dong――ding-dong-boum.” Joy-bells――joy――for the wedding! the wedding! Ha! And at the Wooden Midshipman’s! Cap’en Cuttle was magnificent. He had had his hook polished with black lead, and looked himself as radiant as his hook――aye as radiant as he did, when, undressing the night before old Sol Gills tumbled into the garret through the skylight. Where had that old man been! Where――indeed where?

It was the question Cap’en Cuttle put――and in these terms.

“Whereby and awast――keep her head to the wind, and when kitched make a note on. Therefore――if so――say so――what’s in the log? Let dogs delight to bark and fight――for which see Dibdin――therefore――stand by it is――and that steady.”

Thus solemnly adjured Gills spoke――

“Where I have been――and what I have been doing” the old man said “is nothink to nobody.”

Ding-dong-bell――ding-a-dong――a-ding-dong! The wedding at the Wooden Midshipman! It was on the very day, almost at the very hour that the house of Dombey and Son was shut up, that the wedding party left the Wooden Midshipman. And did he not look happy――that Wooden Midshipman? A credible person, a Beadle, avers that the timber face smiled and the timber lips shouted a loud “Hooray” in cadence with those joy-bells which still rung merrily from the grey towers of St. Koweld-without. Aye, and so they rang when, before the altar, stood Old Gills with a radiant countenance and flowing tears――and Captain Cuttle with a prayer-book in his hand (in order to check the parson and keep him right) and his silver chronometer hung on his hook “whereby to see fair play to all――awast and belay”――and Susan Nipper shedding tears indefatigably――and Wall’r and Florence.

The sun was in the heavens! But lo! through the stained glass, amid the saints and angels――gorgeous on that chancel window――fell its blessing light! Walter Gay and his bride stood hoping in the sun-shine!

“Wilt thou take this woman to be thy wedded wife?”

“Of course――no――that is――oh dear――dear――I beg pardon――its of no consequence――none in the least――don’t mind me,” ejaculated a voice from a dimly seen pew beneath the organ.

Thither repaired the Beadle full of wrath――and found the unhappy Toots fainting on a hassock. But the Game Chicken advancing, doubled the Beadle up――carried off Mr. Toots――deposited him in a patent safety, and conducted him――for the improvement and development of his mind, to see three hundred rats killed in five minutes, by a terrier much famed in Whitechapel.

So the sun had not begun to descend towards the west――ere the marriage party left the church, and――Wall’r and Florence, now Mr. and Mrs. Gay leading them on――took their way towards London-bridge.