OUR MUTUAL FRIEND
Charles Dickens
Contents
BOOK THE FIRST -- THE CUP AND THE LIP Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
ON THE LOOK OUT
THE MAN FROM SOMEWHERE ANOTHER MAN
THE R. WILFER FAMILY BOFFIN'S BOWER
CUT ADRIFT
MR WEGG LOOKS AFTER HIMSELF MR BOFFIN IN CONSULTATION
MR AND MRS BOFFIN IN CONSULTATION A MARRIAGE CONTRACT
PODSNAPPERY
THE SWEAT OF AN HONEST MAN'S BROW TRACKING THE BIRD OF PREY
THE BIRD OF PREY BROUGHT DOWN TWO NEW SERVANTS
MINDERS AND REMINDERS A DISMAL SWAMP
BOOK THE SECOND -- BIRDS OF A FEATHER Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
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Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16 OF AN EDUCATIONAL CHARACTER STILL EDUCATIONAL
A PIECE OF WORK CUPID PROMPTED MERCURY PROMPTING
A RIDDLE WITHOUT AN ANSWER
IN WHICH A FRIENDLY MOVE IS ORIGINATED IN WHICH AN INNOCENT ELOPEMENT OCCURS IN WHICH THE ORPHAN MAKES HIS WILL
A SUCCESSOR
SOME AFFAIRS OF THE HEART MORE BIRDS OF PREY
A SOLO AND A DUETT STRONG OF PURPOSE
THE WHOLE CASE SO FAR
AN ANNIVERSARY OCCASION
BOOK THE THIRD -- A LONG LANE Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17 LODGERS IN QUEER STREET A RESPECTED FRIEND IN A NEW ASPECT
THE SAME RESPECTED FRIEND IN MORE ASPECTS THAN ONE A HAPPY RETURN OF THE DAY
THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN FALLS INTO BAD COMPANY THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN FALLS INTO WORSE COMPANY THE FRIENDLY MOVE TAKES UP A STRONG POSITION THE END OF A LONG JOURNEY
SOMEBODY BECOMES THE SUBJECT OF A PREDICTION SCOUTS OUT
IN THE DARK MEANING MISCHIEF
GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME, AND HANG HIM
MR WEGG PREPARES A GRINDSTONE FOR MR BOFFIN'S NOSE
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THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN AT HIS WORST THE FEAST OF THE THREE HOBGOBLINS A SOCIAL CHORUS
BOOK THE FOURTH -- A TURNING Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
SETTING TRAPS
THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN RISES A LITTLE THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN SINKS AGAIN
A RUNAWAY MATCH
CONCERNING THE MENDICANT'S BRIDE A CRY FOR HELP
BETTER TO BE ABEL THAN CAIN A FEW GRAINS OF PEPPER
TWO PLACES VACATED
THE DOLLS' DRESSMAKER DISCOVERS A WORD
EFFECT IS GIVEN TO THE DOLLS' DRESSMAKER'S DISCOVERY THE PASSING SHADOW
SHOWING HOW THE GOLDEN DUSTMAN HELPED TO SCATTER DUST CHECKMATE TO THE FRIENDLY MOVE
WHAT WAS CAUGHT IN THE TRAPS THAT WERE SET PERSONS AND THINGS IN GENERAL
THE VOICE OF SOCIETY
BOOK THE FIRST -- THE CUP AND THE LIP
Chapter 1
ON THE LOOK OUT
In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in.
The figures in this boat were those of a strong man with ragged grizzled hair and a sun-browned face, and a dark girl of nineteen
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or twenty, sufficiently like him to be recognizable as his daughter. The girl rowed, pulling a pair of sculls very easily; the man, with the rudder-lines slack in his hands, and his hands loose in his waistband, kept an eager look out. He had no net, hook, or line, and he could not be a fisherman; his boat had no cushion for a sitter, no paint, no inscription, no appliance beyond a rusty boathook and a coil of rope, and he could not be a waterman; his boat was too crazy and too small to take in cargo for delivery, and he could not be a lighterman or river-carrier; there was no clue to what he looked for, but he looked for something, with a most intent and searching gaze. The tide, which had turned an hour before, was running down, and his eyes watched every little race and eddy in its
broad sweep, as the boat made slight head-way against it, or drove stern foremost before it, according as he directed his daughter by
a movement of his head. She watched his face as earnestly as he watched the river. But, in the intensity of her look there was a touch of dread or horror.
Allied to the bottom of the river rather than the surface, by reason of the slime and ooze with which it was covered, and its sod-den state, this boat and the two figures in it obviously were doing something that they often did, and were seeking what they often sought. Half savage as the man showed, with no covering on his matted head, with his brown arms bare to between the elbow and the shoulder, with the loose knot of a looser kerchief lying low on his bare breast in a wilderness of beard and whisker, with such dress as he wore seeming to be made out of the mud that begrimed his boat, still there was a business-like usage in his steady gaze. So with