福斯特极力劝说狄更斯,出于艺术上的需要,该让《老古玩店》里的小耐尔死去。狄更斯也同意结局只能如此。可是,当他在故事发展过程中暗示这一点时,“读者的信如潮水般涌来,求他让小耐尔活下去”。对小耐尔的死狄更斯也极为难过,他只觉得“说不出的痛苦”……读者更感到伤心。麦克里迪从剧院回家,读到新到的一期书,上面写到小耐尔的尸体躺在窗前,胸口放着一束冬青,他不由打了个寒噤,“我从来没有读过比这更凄惨的文字了。”他在日记中写道,“有好 Foster tried to persuade Dickens that out of artistic need, the death of Little Nile at the Old Curiosity Store. Dickens also agreed that the ending should only be the case. However, as he implied this during the story, “The reader’s letter flooded in and asked him to keep Little Nile alive.” To Dillon’s death Dickens also extremely sad, he only felt “indescribable pain” ... ... readers are even more sad. McCready returned home from the theater and read a new book that read Little Nile’s body lying in front of the window with a bouquet of holly on his chest. “I never read More miserable than this, ”he wrote in his diary