It is important to remember that Jacob Marley was dead. Did Scrooge know that? Of course he did.
Scrooge and Marley had been partners in London for many
years, and excellent men of business they were, too. When
Marley died, Scrooge continued with the business alone.
Both names still stood above the office door: Scrooge and
Marley. Sometimes people who were new to the business
called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he
answered to both names. He did not care what name they
called him. The only thing that mattered to him was the
business, and making money.
Oh! He was a hard, clever, mean old man, Scrooge was!
There was nothing warm or open about him. He lived a
secretive, lonely life, and took no interest in other people
at all. The cold inside him made his eyes red, and his thin
lips blue, and his voice high and cross. It put white frost
on his old head, his eyebrows and his chin. The frost in his
heart made the air around him cold, too. In the hottest
days of summer his office was as cold as ice, and it was
just as cold in winter.
Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with a
happy smile, ‘My dear Scrooge, how are you? When wil