Waiting for Father Marcus Stone

Wood engraving by Dalziel

14.5 cm high x 9.4 cm wide

Dickens's Our Mutual Friend, Chapter Thirteen, "Tracking the Bird of Prey"[This part of the novel originally appeared in periodical form in August 1864.]

Reverting to the plot involving the watermen Gaffer Hexam and Rogue Riderhood and the mysterious murder of John Harmon, Dickens sends Eugene Wrayburn and Mortimer Lightwood under the direction of a police inspector (based on the actual figure of Chief Inspector Fields of the London Metropolitan Police) in search of riverside hovel of Gaffer, whom Riderhood has accused of Harmon's murder to order to obtain the ten-thousand-pound reward posted by Boffin.

Scouting out the Limehouse shack, Eugene surreptitiously watches Lizzie Hexam, who is patiently awaiting the arrival of her father. The atmospheric scene, with the interior of the hovel but indistinctly seen, functions to evoke sympathy for the poor beautiful and sensitive girl, who has attracted the attention of the barrister Eugene Wrayburn.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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