Mr. Tacker, who from his great experience in the performance of funerals, would have made an excellent pantomime actor, winked at Mrs. Gamp without at all disturbing the gravity of his countenance, and followed his master into the next room.
It was a great point with Mr. Mould, and a part of his professional tact, not to seem to know the doctor; though in reality they were near neighbours, and very often, as in the present instance, worked together.
So he advanced to fit on his black kid gloves as if he had never seen him in all his life; while the doctor, on his part, looked as distant and unconscious as if he had heard and read of undertakers, and had passed their shops, but had never before been brought into communication with one.
`Gloves, eh?' said the doctor. `Mr. Pecksniff after you.'
`I couldn't think of it,' returned Mr. Pecksniff.
`You are very good,' said the doctor, taking a pair. `Well, sir, as I was saying, I was called up to attend that case at about half-past one o'clock. Cake and wine, eh? Which is port? Thank you.'
Mr. Pecksniff took some also.
`At about half-past one o'clock in the morning, sir,' resumed the doctor, `I was called up to attend that case. At the first pull of the night-bell I turned out, threw up the window, and put out my head. Cloak, eh? Don't tie it too tight. That'll do.'
Mr. Pecksniff having been likewise inducted into a similar garment, the doctor resumed.
`And put out my head. Hat, eh? My good friend, that is not mine. Mr. Pecksniff, I beg your pardon, but I think we have unintentionally made an exchange. Thank you. Well, sir, I was going to tell you --'
`We are quite ready,' interrupted Mould in a low voice.
`Ready, eh?' said the doctor. `Very good, Mr. Pecksniff, I'll take an opportunity of relating the rest in the coach. It's rather curious. Ready, eh? No rain, I hope?'
`Quite fair, sir,' returned Mould.
`I was afraid the ground would have been wet,' said the doctor, `for my glass fell yesterday. We may congratulate ourselves upon our good fortune.'
But seeing by this time that Mr. Jonas and Chuffey were going out at the door, he put a white pocket-handkerchief to his face as if a violent burst of grief had suddenly come upon him, and walked down side by side with Mr. Pecksniff.
Mr. Mould and his men had not exaggerated the grandeur of the arrangements.
They were splendid. The four hearse-horses, especially reared and pranced, and showed their highest action, as if they knew a man was dead, and triumphed in it. `They break us, drive us, ride us. ill-treat, abuse, and maim us for their pleasure -- But they die; Hurrah, they die!'
So through the narrow streets and winding city ways, went Anthony Chuzzlewit's funeral: Mr. Jonas glancing stealthily out of the coach-window now and then, to observe its effect upon the crowd; Mr. Mould as he walked along, listening with a sober pride to the exclamations of the bystanders; the doctor whispering his story to Mr. Pecksniff, without appearing to come any nearer the end of it; and poor old Chuffey sobbing unregarded in a corner. But he had greatly scandalised Mr. Mould at an early stage of the ceremony by carrying his handkerchief in his hat in a perfectly informal manner, and wiping his eyes with his knuckles. And as Mr. Mould himself had said already, his behaviour was indecent, and quite unworthy of such an occasion; and he never ought to have been there.
There he was, however; and in the churchyard there he was, also, conducting himself in a no less unbecoming manner, and leaning for support on Tacker, who plainly told him that he was fit for nothing better than a walking funeral. But Chuffey, Heaven help him! heard no sound but the echoes, lingering in his own heart, of a voice for ever silent.
