The Old Curiosity Shop

One night while Nell follows the Edwards sisters, she sits beneath a tree and looks at the stars. She meditates on all the changes in her life. Around nine in the evening, Nell heads back to town. On her way, she spots her grandfather sitting with other men around a fire. The group mostly consists of other gamblers, including Isaac List and Joe Jowl—the two men from the inn who previously won all of Nell and her grandfather’s money. The grandfather is in debt to the two men and has no means to pay them back, especially not by their deadline of the very next day. Nell runs to her room and checks to see her money is still there, and it is. She wakes her grandfather later that night, claiming to have had a nightmare that people were coming to rob them. She insists they leave immediately.

Nell realizes that all the burdens of their lives have now fallen on her shoulders. She feels guilty for leaving Mrs. Jarley without any notice or explanation, but she takes comfort in the fact that her quick action saved her grandfather. As they walk, a man happens upon them. Nell tells him they are traveling from the schoolmaster’s cottage to another town—she makes no mention of Mrs.