soon left off. There are a few dirty scraps of newspapers, all
referring to Coroners' Inquests; there is nothing else. They search the
cupboard, and the drawer of the ink-splashed table. There is not a morsel of an
old letter, or of any other writing, in either. The young surgeon examines the
dress on the law-writer. A knife and some odd halfpence are all he finds. Mr.
Snagsby's suggestion is the practical suggestion after all, and the beadle must
be called in.
    So the little crazy lodger goes for the beadle, and the rest come out of the
room. »Don't leave the cat there!« says the surgeon: »that won't do!« Mr. Krook
therefore drives her out before him; and she goes furtively down-stairs, winding
her lithe tail and licking her lips.
    »Good night!« says Mr. Tulkinghorn; and goes home to Allegory and
meditation.
    By this time the news has got into the court. Groups of its inhabitants
assemble to discuss the thing; and the outposts of the army of observation
(principally boys) are pushed forward to Mr. Krook's window, which they closely
invest. A policeman has already walked up to the room, and walked down again to
the door, where he stands like a tower, only condescending to see the boys at
his base occasionally; but whenever he does see them, they quail and fall back.
Mrs. Perkins, who has not been for some weeks on speaking terms with Mrs. Piper,
in consequence of an unpleasantness originating in young Perkins having fetched
young Piper a crack, renews her friendly intercourse on this auspicious
occasion. The potboy at the corner, who is a privileged amateur, as possessing
official knowledge of life, and having to deal with drunken men occasionally,
exchanges confidential communications with the policeman, and has the appearance
of an impregnable youth, unassailable by truncheons and unconfinable in
station-houses. People talk across the court out of window, and bare-headed
scouts come hurrying in from Chancery Lane to know what's the matter. The
general feeling seems to be that it's a blessing Mr. Krook warn't made away with
first, mingled with a little natural disappointment that he was not. In the
midst of this sensation, the beadle arrives.
    The beadle, though generally understood in the neighbourhood to be a
ridiculous institution, is not without a certain popularity for the moment, if
it were only as a man who is going to see the body. The policeman