The Chimes

The Chimes is a novella written by Charles Dickens. Dickens was an English writer and social critic. On New Year's Eve, Trotty, an elderly "ticket-porter", is filled with despair at the accounts of crime and depravity in the newspapers, and wonders whether the working classes are simply wicked by nature. Excerpt: "Bright eyes they were. Eyes that would bear a world of looking in, before their depth was fathomed. Dark eyes, that reflected back the eyes which searched them; not flashingly, or at the owner's will, but with a clear, calm, honest, patient radiance, claiming kindred with that light which Heaven called into being. Eyes that were beautiful and true, and beaming with Hope. With Hope so young and fresh; with Hope so buoyant, vigorous, and bright, despite the twenty years of work and poverty on which they had looked; that they became a voice to Trotty Veck, and said: "I think we have some business here—a little!"