stave 4

• The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently, approached.’
• ‘It seemed to scatter gloom and mystery.’
• ‘It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form and left nothing visible.’
• ‘It was tall and stately.
• ‘Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him.’
• ‘There were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him.’
• ‘”I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart.”’
• ‘”It’s likely to be a very cheap funeral.”
• ‘They were men of business: very wealthy, and of great importance. He had made a point of always standing well in their esteem: in a business point of view that is; strictly in a business point of view.’
• “’Every person has a right to take care of themselves. He always did.”
• ‘Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror.’
• ”Spirit!” said Scrooge, shuddering from head to foot. “I see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own.”’
• ‘Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here.’
• ‘”Before that time we shall be ready with the money; and even though we were not, it would be bad fortune indeed to find so merciless a creditor in his successor.”’
• ‘”Let me see some tenderness connected with a death.”
• ‘Ah, poor Tiny Tim!
• ‘”Don’t mind it, father. Don’t be grieved!”’
• ‘”My little, little child!” cried Bob. “My little child!”’
• ‘The Spirit was immovable as ever.’
• ‘”Hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?”
• “’I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone.”