Charles Dickens
Bleak House
Preface
A Chancery Judge once had the kindness to inform me as one of a company of some
hundred and fifty men and women not labouring under any suspicions of lunacy
that the Court of Chancery though the shining subject of much popular prejudice
at which point I thought the Judges eye had a cast in my direction was
almost immaculate There had been he admitted a trivial blemish or so in its
rate of progress but this was exaggerated and had been entirely owing to the
parsimony of the public which guilty public it appeared had been until lately
bent in the most determined manner on by no means enlarging the number of
Chancery Judges appointed I believe by Richard the Second but any other King
will do as well
This seemed to me too profound a joke to be inserted in the body of this
book or I should have restored it to Conversation Kenge or to Mr Vholes with
one or other of whom I think it must have originated In such mouths I might
have coupled it with an apt quotation from one of SHAKSPEARES Sonnets
My nature is subdued
To what it works in like the dyers hand
Pity me then and wish I were renewd
But as it is wholesome that the parsimonious public should know what has been
doing and still is doing in this connexion I mention here that everything set
forth in these pages concerning the Court of Chancery is substantially true and
within the truth The case of Gridley is in no essential altered from one of
actual occurrence made public by a disinterested person who was professionally
acquainted with the whole of the monstrous wrong from beginning to end At the
present moment1 there is a suit before the Court which was commenced nearly
twenty years ago in which from thirty to forty counsel have been known to
appear at one time in which costs have been incurred to the amount of seventy
thousand pounds which is a friendly suit and which is I am assured no nearer
to its termination now than when it was begun There is another wellknown suit
in Chancery not yet decided which was commenced before the close of the last
century and in which more than double the amount of seventy thousand pounds has
been swallowed up in costs If I wanted other authorities for JARNDYCE AND
JARNDYCE I could rain them on these pages to the shame of a parsimonious
public
There is only one other point on which I offer a word of remark The
possibility of what is called Spontaneous Combustion has been denied since the
death of Mr Krook and my good friend MR LEWES quite mistaken as he soon
found in supposing the thing to have been abandoned by all authorities
published some ingenious letters to me at the time when that event was
chronicled arguing that Spontaneous Combustion could not possibly be I have no
need to observe that I do not wilfully or negligently mislead my readers and
that before I wrote that description I took pains to investigate the subject
There are about thirty cases on record of which the most famous that of the
Countess Cornelia de Bandi Cesenate was minutely investigated and described by
Giuseppe Bianchini a prebendary of Verona otherwise distinguished in letters
who published an account of it at Verona in 1731 which he afterwards
republished at Rome The appearances beyond all rational doubt observed in that
case are the appearances observed in Mr Krooks case The next most famous
instance happened at Rheims six years earlier and the historian in that case
is LE CAT one of the most renowned surgeons produced by France The subject was
a woman whose husband was ignorantly convicted of having murdered her but on
solemn appeal to a higher court he was acquitted because it was shown upon the
evidence that she had died the death to which this name of Spontaneous
Combustion is given. I do not think it necessary to add to these notable facts
and that general reference to the authorities which will be found at page 31
vol ii2 the recorded opinions and experiences of distinguished medical
professors French English and Scotch in more modern days contenting myself
with observing that I shall not abandon the facts until there shall have been a
considerable Spontaneous Combustion of the testimony on which human occurrences
are usually received
In Bleak House I have purposely dwelt upon the romantic side of familiar
things
Chapter I
In Chancery
London Michaelmas Term lately over and the Lord Chancellor sitting in
Lincolns Inn Hall Implacable November weather As much mud in the streets as
if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth and it would not
be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus forty feet long or so waddling like an
elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill Smoke lowering down from chimneypots
making a soft black drizzle with flakes of soot in it as big as fullgrown
snowflakes gone into mourning one might imagine for the death of the sun
Dogs undistinguishable in mire Horses scarcely better splashed to their very
blinkers Foot passengers jostling one another's umbrellas in a general
infection of illtemper and losing their foothold at streetcorners where
tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since
the day broke if this day ever broke adding new deposits to the crust upon
crust of mud sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement and
accumulating at compound interest
Fog everywhere Fog up the river where it flows among green aits and
meadows fog down the river where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping
and the waterside pollutions of a great and dirty city Fog on the Essex
marshes fog on the Kentish heights Fog creeping into the cabooses of
collierbrigs fog lying out on the yards and hovering in the rigging of great
ships fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats Fog in the eyes
and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners wheezing by the firesides of their
wards fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper
down in his close cabin fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his
shivering little prentice boy on deck Chance people on the bridges peeping
over the parapets into a nether sky of fog with fog all round them as if they
were up in a balloon and hanging in the misty clouds
Gas looming through the fog in divers places in the streets much as the sun
may from the spongy fields be seen to loom by husbandman and ploughboy Most
of the shops lighted two hours before their time as the gas seems to know for
it has a haggard and unwilling look
The raw afternoon is rawest and the dense fog is densest and the muddy
streets are muddiest near that leadenheaded old obstruction appropriate
ornament for the threshold of a leadenheaded old corporation Temple Bar And
hard by Temple Bar in Lincolns Inn Hall at the very heart of the fog sits
the Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery
Never can there come fog too thick never can there come mud and mire too
deep to assort with the groping and floundering condition which this High Court
of Chancery most pestilent of hoary sinners holds this day in the sight of
heaven and earth
On such an afternoon if ever the Lord High Chancellor ought to be sitting
here as here he is with a foggy glory round his head softly fenced in with
crimson cloth and curtains addressed by a large advocate with great whiskers a
little voice and an interminable brief and outwardly directing his
contemplation to the lantern in the roof where he can see nothing but fog On
such an afternoon some score of members of the High Court of Chancery bar ought
to be as here they are mistily engaged in one of the ten thousand stages of
an endless cause tripping one another up on slippery precedents groping
kneedeep in technicalities running their goathair and horsehair warded heads
against walls of words an making a pretence of equity with serious faces as
players might On such an afternoon the various solicitors in the cause some
two or three of whom have inherited it from their fathers who made a fortune by
it ought to be as are they not ranged in a line in a long matted well
but you might look in vain for Truth at the bottom of it between the
registrars red table and the silk gowns with bills crossbills answers
rejoinders injunctions affidavits issues references to masters masters
reports mountains of costly nonsense piled before them Well may the court be
dim with wasting candles here and there well may the fog hang heavy in it as
if it would never get out well may the stained glass windows lose their colour
and admit no light of day into the place well may the uninitiated from the
streets who peep through the glass panes in the door be deterred from entrance
by its owlish aspect and by the drawl languidly echoing to the roof from the
padded dais where the Lord High Chancellor looks into the lantern that has no
light in it and where the attendant wigs are all stuck in a fogbank This is
the Court of Chancery which has its decaying houses and its blighted lands in
every shire which has its wornout lunatic in every madhouse and its dead in
every churchyard which has its ruined suitor with his slipshod heels and
threadbare dress borrowing and begging through the round of every mans
acquaintance which gives to monied might the means abundantly of wearying out
the right which so exhausts finances patience courage hope so overthrows
the brain and breaks the heart that there is not an honourable man among its
practitioners who would not give who does not often give the warning
»Suffer any wrong that can be done you rather than come here«
Who happen to be in the Lord Chancellors court this murky afternoon besides
the Lord Chancellor the counsel in the cause two or three counsel who are
never in any cause and the well of solicitors before mentioned There is the
registrar below the Judge in wig and gown and there are two or three maces or
pettybags or privy purses or whatever they may be in legal court suits
These are all yawning for no crumb of amusement ever falls from JARNDYCE AND
JARNDYCE the cause in hand which was squeezed dry years upon years ago The
shorthand writers the reporters of the court and the reporters of the
newspapers invariably decamp with the rest of the regulars when Jarndyce and
Jarndyce comes on Their places are a blank Standing on a seat at the side of
the hall the better to peer into the curtained sanctuary is a little mad old
woman in a squeezed bonnet who is always in court from its sitting to its
rising and always expecting some incomprehensible judgment to be given in her
favour Some say she really is or was a party to a suit but no one knows for
certain because no one cares She carries some small litter in a reticule which
she calls her documents principally consisting of paper matches and dry
lavender A sallow prisoner has come up in custody for the halfdozenth time
to make a personal application to purge himself of his contempt which being a
solitary surviving executor who has fallen into a state of conglomeration about
accounts of which it is not pretended that he had ever any knowledge he is not
at all likely ever to do In the meantime his prospects in life are ended
Another ruined suitor who periodically appears from Shropshire and breaks out
into efforts to address the Chancellor at the close of the days business and
who can by no means be made to understand that the Chancellor is legally
ignorant of his existence after making it desolate for a quarter of a century
plants himself in a good place and keeps an eye on the Judge ready to call out
»My Lord« in a voice of sonorous complaint on the instant of his rising A few
lawyers clerks and others who know this suitor by sight linger on the chance
of his furnishing some fun and enlivening the dismal weather a little
Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on This scarecrow of a suit has in course of
time become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means The parties
to it understand it least but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers
can talk about it for five minutes without coming to a total disagreement as to
all the premises Innumerable children have been born into the cause
innumerable young people have married into it innumerable old people have died
out of it Scores of persons have deliriously found themselves made parties in
Jarndyce and Jarndyce without knowing how or why whole families have inherited
legendary hatreds with the suit The little plaintiff or defendant who was
promised a new rockinghorse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled has
grown up possessed himself of a real horse and trotted away into the other
world Fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers a long
procession of Chancellors has come in and gone out the legion of bills in the
suit have been transformed into mere bills of mortality there are not three
Jarndyces left upon the earth perhaps since old Tom Jarndyce in despair blew
his brains out at a coffeehouse in Chancery Lane but Jarndyce and Jarndyce
still drags its dreary length before the Court perennially hopeless
Jarndyce and Jarndyce has passed into a joke That is the only good that has
ever come of it It has been death to many but it is a joke in the profession
Every master in Chancery has had a reference out of it Every Chancellor was in
it for somebody or other when he was counsel at the bar Good things have been
said about it by bluenosed bulbousshoed old benchers in select portwine
committee after dinner in hall Articled clerks have been in the habit of
fleshing their legal wit upon it The last Lord Chancellor handled it neatly
when correcting Mr Blowers the eminent silk gown who said that such a thing
might happen when the sky rained potatoes he observed »or when we get through
Jarndyce and Jarndyce Mr Blowers« a pleasantry that particularly tickled
the maces bags and purses
How many people out of the suit Jarndyce and Jarndyce has stretched forth
its unwholesome hand to spoil and corrupt would be a very wide question From
the master upon whose impaling files reams of dusty warrants in Jarndyce and
Jarndyce have grimly writhed into many shapes down to the copyingclerk in the
Six Clerks Office who has copied his tens of thousands of Chanceryfoliopages
under that eternal heading no mans nature has been made better by it In
trickery evasion procrastination spoliation botheration under false
pretences of all sorts there are influences that can never come to good The
very solicitors boys who have kept the wretched suitors at bay by protesting
time out of mind that Mr Chizzle Mizzle or otherwise was particularly
engaged and had appointments until dinner may have got an extra moral twist and
shuffle into themselves out of Jarndyce and Jarndyce The receiver in the cause
has acquired a goodly sum of money by it but has acquired too a distrust of his
own mother and a contempt for his own kind Chizzle Mizzle and otherwise
have lapsed into a habit of vaguely promising themselves that they will look
into that outstanding little matter and see what can be done for Drizzle who
was not well used when Jarndyce and Jarndyce shall be got out of the office
Shirking and sharking in all their many varieties have been sown broadcast by
the illfated cause and even those who have contemplated its history from the
outermost circle of such evil have been insensibly tempted into a loose way of
letting bad things alone to take their own bad course and a loose belief that
if the world go wrong it was in some offhand manner never meant to go right
Thus in the midst of the mud and at the heart of the fog sits the Lord
High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery
»Mr Tangle« says the Lord High Chancellor latterly something restless
under the eloquence of that learned gentleman
»Mlud« says Mr Tangle Mr Tangle knows more of Jarndyce and Jarndyce than
anybody He is famous for it supposed never to have read anything else since
he left school
»Have you nearly concluded your argument«
»Mlud no variety of points feel it my duty tsubmit ludship« is the
reply that slides out of Mr Tangle
»Several members of the bar are still to be heard I believe« says the
Chancellor with a slight smile
Eighteen of Mr Tangles learned friends each armed with a little summary
of eighteen hundred sheets bob up like eighteen hammers in a pianoforte make
eighteen bows and drop into their eighteen places of obscurity
»We will proceed with the hearing on Wednesday fortnight« says the
Chancellor For the question at issue is only a question of costs a mere bud
on the forest tree of the parent suit and really will come to a settlement one
of these days
The Chancellor rises the bar rises the prisoner is brought forward in a
hurry the man from Shropshire cries »My lord« Maces bags and purses
indignantly proclaim silence and frown at the man from Shropshire
»In reference« proceeds the Chancellor still on Jarndyce and Jarndyce »to
the young girl «
»Begludships pardon boy« says Mr Tangle prematurely
»In reference« proceeds the Chancellor with extra distinctness »to the
young girl and boy the two young people«
Mr Tangle crushed
»Whom I directed to be in attendance today and who are now in my private
room I will see them and satisfy myself as to the expediency of making the
order for their residing with their uncle«
Mr Tangle on his legs again
»Begludships pardon dead«
»With their« Chancellor looking through his double eyeglass at the papers
on his desk »grandfather«
»Begludships pardon victim of rash action brains«
Suddenly a very little counsel with a terrific bass voice arises fully
inflated in the back settlements of the fog and says »Will your lordship
allow me I appear for him He is a cousin several times removed I am not at
the moment prepared to inform the Court in what exact remove he is a cousin but
he is a cousin«
Leaving this address delivered like a sepulchral message ringing in the
rafters of the roof the very little counsel drops and the fog knows him no
more Everybody looks for him Nobody can see him
»I will speak with both the young people« says the Chancellor anew »and
satisfy myself on the subject of their residing with their cousin I will
mention the matter tomorrow morning when I take my seat«
The Chancellor is about to bow to the bar when the prisoner is presented
Nothing can possibly come of the prisoners conglomeration but his being sent
back to prison which is soon done The man from Shropshire ventures another
demonstrative »My lord« but the Chancellor being aware of him has dexterously
vanished Everybody else quickly vanishes too A battery of blue bags is loaded
with heavy charges of papers and carried off by clerks the little mad old woman
marches off with her documents the empty court is locked up If all the
injustice it has committed and all the misery it has caused could only be
locked up with it and the whole burnt away in a great funeral pyre why so
much the better for other parties than the parties in Jarndyce and Jarndyce
Chapter II
In Fashion
It is but a glimpse of the world of fashion that we want on this same miry
afternoon It is not so unlike the Court of Chancery but that we may pass from
the one scene to the other as the crow flies Both the world of fashion and the
Court of Chancery are things of precedent and usage oversleeping Rip Van
Winkles who have played at strange games through a deal of thundery weather
sleeping beauties whom the Knight will wake one day when all the stopped spits
in the kitchen shall begin to turn prodigiously
It is not a large world Relatively even to this world of ours which has
its limits too as your Highness shall find when you have made the tour of it
and are come to the brink of the void beyond it is a very little speck There
is much good in it there are many good and true people in it it has its
appointed place But the evil of it is that it is a world wrapped up in too
much jewellers cotton and fine wool and cannot hear the rushing of the larger
worlds and cannot see them as they circle round the sun It is a deadened
world and its growth is sometimes unhealthy for want of air
My Lady Dedlock has returned to her house in town for a few days previous to
her departure for Paris where her ladyship intends to stay some weeks after
which her movements are uncertain The fashionable intelligence says so for the
comfort of the Parisians and it knows all fashionable things To know things
otherwise were to be unfashionable My Lady Dedlock has been down at what she
calls in familiar conversation her place in Lincolnshire The waters are out
in Lincolnshire An arch of the bridge in the park has been sapped and sopped
away The adjacent lowlying ground for half a mile in breadth is a stagnant
river with melancholy trees for islands in it and a surface punctured all
over all day long with falling rain My Lady Dedlocks place has been
extremely dreary The weather for many a day and night has been so wet that
the trees seem wet through and the soft loppings and prunings of the woodmans
axe can make no crash or crackle as they fall The deer looking soaked leave
quagmires where they pass The shot of a rifle loses its sharpness in the moist
air and its smoke moves in a tardy little cloud towards the green rise
coppicetopped that makes a background for the falling rain The view from my
Lady Dedlocks own windows is alternately a leadcoloured view and a view in
Indian ink The vases on the stone terrace in the foreground catch the rain all
day and the heavy drops fall drip drip drip upon the broad flagged
pavement called from old time the Ghosts Walk all night On Sundays the
little church in the park is mouldy the oaken pulpit breaks out into a cold
sweat and there is a general smell and taste as of the ancient Dedlocks in
their graves My Lady Dedlock who is childless looking out in the early
twilight from her boudoir at a keepers lodge and seeing the light of a fire
upon the latticed panes and smoke rising from the chimney and a child chased
by a woman running out into the rain to meet the shining figure of a wrappedup
man coming through the gate has been put quite out of temper My Lady Dedlock
says she has been bored to death
Therefore my Lady Dedlock has come away from the place in Lincolnshire and
has left it to the rain and the crows and the rabbits and the deer and the
partridges and pheasants The pictures of the Dedlocks past and gone have seemed
to vanish into the damp walls in mere lowness of spirits as the housekeeper has
passed along the old rooms shutting up the shutters And when they will next
come forth again the fashionable intelligence which like the fiend is
omniscient of the past and present but not the future cannot yet undertake to
say
Sir Leicester Dedlock is only a baronet but there is no mightier baronet
than he His family is as old as the hills and infinitely more respectable He
has a general opinion that the world might get on without hills but would be
done up without Dedlocks He would on the whole admit Nature to be a good idea
a little low perhaps when not enclosed with a parkfence but an idea
dependent for its execution on your great county families He is a gentleman of
strict conscience disdainful of all littleness and meanness and ready on the
shortest notice to die any death you may please to mention rather than give
occasion for the least impeachment of his integrity He is an honourable
obstinate truthful highspirited intensely prejudiced perfectly unreasonable
man
Sir Leicester is twenty years full measure older than my Lady He will
never see sixtyfive again nor perhaps sixtysix nor yet sixtyseven He has a
twist of the gout now and then and walks a little stiffly He is of a worthy
presence with his light grey hair and whiskers his fine shirtfrill his pure
white waistcoat and his blue coat with bright buttons always buttoned He is
ceremonious stately most polite on every occasion to my Lady and holds her
personal attractions in the highest estimation His gallantry to my Lady which
has never changed since he courted her is the one little touch of romantic
fancy in him
Indeed he married her for love A whisper still goes about that she had
not even family howbeit Sir Leicester had so much family that perhaps he had
enough and could dispense with any more But she had beauty pride ambition
insolent resolve and sense enough to portion out a legion of fine ladies
Wealth and station added to these soon floated her upward and for years now
my Lady Dedlock has been at the centre of the fashionable intelligence and at
the top of the fashionable tree
How Alexander wept when he had no more worlds to conquer everybody knows
or has some reason to know by this time the matter having been rather
frequently mentioned My Lady Dedlock having conquered her world fell not
into the melting but rather into the freezing mood An exhausted composure a
wornout placidity an equanimity of fatigue not to be ruffled by interest or
satisfaction are the trophies of her victory She is perfectly wellbred If
she could be translated to Heaven tomorrow she might be expected to ascend
without any rapture
She has beauty still and if it be not in its heyday it is not yet in its
autumn She has a fine face originally of a character that would be rather
called very pretty than handsome but improved into classicality by the acquired
expression of her fashionable state Her figure is elegant and has the effect
of being tall Not that she is so but that the most is made as the Honourable
Bob Stables has frequently asserted upon oath of all her points The same
authority observes that she is perfectly got up and remarks in commendation
of her hair especially that she is the bestgroomed woman in the whole stud
With all her perfections on her head my Lady Dedlock has come up from her
place in Lincolnshire hotly pursued by the fashionable intelligence to pass a
few days at her house in town previous to her departure for Paris where her
ladyship intends to stay some weeks after which her movements are uncertain
And at her house in town upon this muddy murky afternoon presents himself an
oldfashioned old gentleman attorneyatlaw and eke solicitor of the High
Court of Chancery who has the honour of acting as legal adviser of the
Dedlocks and has as many castiron boxes in his office with that name outside
as if the present baronet were the coin of the conjurers trick and were
constantly being juggled through the whole set Across the hall and up the
stairs and along the passages and through the rooms which are very brilliant
in the season and very dismal out of it Fairyland to visit but a desert to
live in the old gentleman is conducted by a Mercury in powder to my Ladys
presence
The old gentleman is rusty to look at but is reputed to have made good
thrift out of aristocratic marriage settlements and aristocratic wills and to
be very rich He is surrounded by a mysterious halo of family confidences of
which he is known to be the silent depository There are noble Mausoleums rooted
for centuries in retired glades of parks among the growing timber and the fern
which perhaps hold fewer noble secrets than walk abroad among men shut up in
the breast of Mr Tulkinghorn He is of what is called the old school a phrase
generally meaning any school that seems never to have been young and wears
knee breeches tied with ribbons and gaiters or stockings One peculiarity of
his black clothes and of his black stockings be they silk or worsted is that
they never shine Mute close irresponsive to any glancing light his dress is
like himself He never converses when not professionally consulted He is found
sometimes speechless but quite at home at corners of dinnertables in great
country houses and near doors of drawingrooms concerning which the
fashionable intelligence is eloquent where everybody knows him and where half
the Peerage stops to say »How do you do Mr Tulkinghorn« he receives these
salutations with gravity and buries them along with the rest of his knowledge
Sir Leicester Dedlock is with my Lady and is happy to see Mr Tulkinghorn
There is an air of prescription about him which is always agreeable to Sir
Leicester he receives it as a kind of tribute He likes Mr Tulkinghorns
dress there is a kind of tribute in that too It is eminently respectable and
likewise in a general way retainerlike It expresses as it were the steward
of the legal mysteries the butler of the legal cellar of the Dedlocks
Has Mr Tulkinghorn any idea of this himself It may be so or it may not
but there is this remarkable circumstance to be noted in everything associated
with my Lady Dedlock as one of a class as one of the leaders and
representatives of her little world She supposes herself to be an inscrutable
Being quite out of the reach and ken of ordinary mortals seeing herself in
her glass where indeed she looks so Yet every dim little star revolving about
her from her maid to the manager of the Italian Opera knows her weaknesses
prejudices follies haughtinesses and caprices and lives upon as accurate a
calculation and as nice a measure of her moral nature as her dressmaker takes
of her physical proportions Is a new dress a new custom a new singer a new
dancer a new form of jewellery a new dwarf or giant a new chapel a new
anything to be set up There are deferential people in a dozen callings whom
my Lady Dedlock suspects of nothing but prostration before her who can tell you
how to manage her as if she were a baby who do nothing but nurse her all their
lives who humbly affecting to follow with profound subservience lead her and
her whole troop after them who in hooking one hook all and bear them off as
Lemuel Gulliver bore away the stately fleet of the majestic Lilliput »If you
want to address our people sir« say Blaze and Sparkle the jewellers meaning
by our people Lady Dedlock and the rest »you must remember that you are not
dealing with the general public you must hit our people in their weakest place
and their weakest place is such a place« »To make this article go down
gentlemen« say Sheen and Gloss the mercers to their friends the manufacturers
»you must come to us because we know where to have the fashionable people and
we can make it fashionable« »If you want to get this print upon the tables of
my high connexion sir« says Mr Sladdery the librarian »or if you want to get
this dwarf or giant into the houses of my high connexion sir or if you want to
secure to this entertainment the patronage of my high connexion sir you must
leave it if you please to me for I have been accustomed to study the leaders
of my high connexion sir and I may tell you without vanity that I can turn
them round my finger« in which Mr Sladdery who is an honest man does not
exaggerate at all
Therefore while Mr Tulkinghorn may not know what is passing in the Dedlock
mind at present it is very possible that he may
»My Ladys cause has been again before the Chancellor has it Mr
Tulkinghorn« says Sir Leicester giving him his hand
»Yes It has been on again today« Mr Tulkinghorn replies making one of
his quiet bows to my Lady who is on a sofa near the fire shading her face with
a handscreen
»It would be useless to ask« says my lady with the dreariness of the place
in Lincolnshire still upon her »whether anything has been done«
»Nothing that you would call anything has been done today« replies Mr
Tulkinghorn
»Nor ever will be« says my Lady
Sir Leicester has no objection to an interminable Chancery suit It is a
slow expensive British constitutional kind of thing To be sure he has not a
vital interest in the suit in question her part in which was the only property
my Lady brought him and he has a shadowy impression that for his name the
name of Dedlock to be in a cause and not in the title of that cause is a
most ridiculous accident But he regards the Court of Chancery even if it
should involve an occasional delay of justice and a trifling amount of
confusion as a something devised in conjunction with a variety of other
somethings by the perfection of human wisdom for the eternal settlement
humanly speaking of everything And he is upon the whole of a fixed opinion
that to give the sanction of his countenance to any complaints respecting it
would be to encourage some person in the lower classes to rise up somewhere
like Wat Tyler
»As a few fresh affidavits have been put upon the file« says Mr
Tulkinghorn »and as they are short and as I proceed upon the troublesome
principle of begging leave to possess my clients with any new proceedings in a
cause« cautious man Mr Tulkinghorn taking no more responsibility than
necessary »and further as I see you are going to Paris I have brought them in
my pocket«
Sir Leicester was going to Paris too bythebye but the delight of the
fashionable intelligence was in his Lady
Mr Tulkinghorn takes out his papers asks permission to place them on a
golden talisman of a table at my Ladys elbow puts on his spectacles and
begins to read by the light of a shaded lamp
»In Chancery Between John Jarndyce «
My Lady interrupts requesting him to miss as many of the formal horrors as
he can
Mr Tulkinghorn glances over his spectacles and begins again lower down My
Lady carelessly and scornfully abstracts her attention Sir Leicester in a great
chair looks at the fire and appears to have a stately liking for the legal
repetitions and prolixities as ranging among the national bulwarks It happens
that the fire is hot where my Lady sits and that the handscreen is more
beautiful than useful being priceless but small My Lady changing her
position sees the papers on the table looks at them nearer looks at them
nearer still asks impulsively
»Who copied that«
Mr Tulkinghorn stops short surprised by my Ladys animation and her
unusual tone
»Is it what you people call lawhand« she asks looking full at him in her
careless way again and toying with her screen
»Not quite Probably« Mr Tulkinghorn examines it as he speaks »the
legal character which it has was acquired after the original hand was formed
Why do you ask«
»Anything to vary this detestable monotony O go on do«
Mr Tulkinghorn reads again The heat is greater my Lady screens her face
Sir Leicester dozes starts up suddenly and cries »Eh what do you say«
»I say I am afraid« says Mr Tulkinghorn who had risen hastily »that Lady
Dedlock is ill«
»Faint« my Lady murmurs with white lips »only that but it is like the
faintness of death Dont speak to me Ring and take me to my room«
Mr Tulkinghorn retires into another chamber bells ring feet shuffle and
patter silence ensues Mercury at last begs Mr Tulkinghorn to return
»Better now« quoth Sir Leicester motioning the lawyer to sit down and read
to him alone »I have been quite alarmed I never knew my Lady swoon before But
the weather is extremely trying and she really has been bored to death down at
our place in Lincolnshire«
Chapter III
A Progress
I have a great deal of difficulty in beginning to write my portion of these
pages for I know I am not clever I always knew that I can remember when I
was a very little girl indeed I used to say to my doll when we were alone
together »Now Dolly I am not clever you know very well and you must be
patient with me like a dear« And so she used to sit propped up in a great
armchair with her beautiful complexion and rosy lips staring at me or not
so much at me I think as at nothing while I busily stitched away and told
her every one of my secrets
My dear old doll I was such a shy little thing that I seldom dared to open
my lips and never dared to open my heart to anybody else It almost makes me
cry to think what a relief it used to be to me when I came home from school of
a day to run upstairs to my room and say »O you dear faithful Dolly I knew
you would be expecting me« and then to sit down on the floor leaning on the
elbow of her great chair and tell her all I had noticed since we parted I had
always rather a noticing way not a quick way O no a silent way of noticing
what passed before me and thinking I should like to understand it better I
have not by any means a quick understanding When I love a person very tenderly
indeed it seems to brighten But even that may be my vanity
I was brought up from my earliest remembrance like some of the princesses
in the fairy stories only I was not charming by my godmother At least I only
knew her as such She was a good good woman She went to church three times
every Sunday and to morning prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays and to lectures
whenever there were lectures and never missed She was handsome and if she had
ever smiled would have been I used to think like an angel but she never
smiled She was always grave and strict She was so very good herself I
thought that the badness of other people made her frown all her life I felt so
different from her even making every allowance for the differences between a
child and a woman I felt so poor so trifling and so far off that I never
could be unrestrained with her no could never even love her as I wished It
made me very sorry to consider how good she was and how unworthy of her I was
and I used ardently to hope that I might have a better heart and I talked it
over very often with the dear old doll but I never loved my godmother as I
ought to have loved her and as I felt I must have loved her if I had been a
better girl
This made me I dare say more timid and retiring than I naturally was and
cast me upon Dolly as the only friend with whom I felt at ease But something
happened when I was still quite a little thing that helped it very much
I had never heard my mama spoken of I had never heard of my papa either
but I felt more interested about my mama I had never worn a black frock that I
could recollect I had never been shown my mamas grave I had never been told
where it was Yet I had never been taught to pray for any relation but my
godmother I had more than once approached this subject of my thoughts with Mrs
Rachael our only servant who took my light away when I was in bed another
very good woman but austere to me and she had only said »Esther good
night« and gone away and left me
Although there were seven girls at the neighbouring school where I was a day
boarder and although they called me little Esther Summerson I knew none of
them at home All of them were older than I to be sure I was the youngest
there by a good deal but there seemed to be some other separation between us
besides that and besides their being far more clever than I was and knowing
much more than I did One of them in the first week of my going to the school
I remember it very well invited me home to a little party to my great joy
But my godmother wrote a stiff letter declining for me and I never went I
never went out at all
It was my birthday There were holidays at school on other birthdays none
on mine There were rejoicings at home on other birthdays as I knew from what I
heard the girls relate to one another there were none on mine My birthday was
the most melancholy day at home in the whole year
I have mentioned that unless my vanity should deceive me as I know it
may for I may be very vain without suspecting it though indeed I dont my
comprehension is quickened when my affection is My disposition is very
affectionate and perhaps I might still feel such a wound if such a wound could
be received more than once with the quickness of that birthday
Dinner was over and my godmother and I were sitting at the table before the
fire The clock ticked the fire clicked not another sound had been heard in
the room or in the house for I dont know how long I happened to look timidly
up from my stitching across the table at my godmother and I saw in her face
looking gloomily at me »It would have been far better little Esther that you
had had no birthday that you had never been born«
I broke out crying and sobbing and I said »O dear godmother tell me pray
do tell me did mama die on my birthday«
»No« she returned »Ask me no more child«
»O do pray tell me something of her Do now at last dear godmother if
you please What did I do to her How did I lose her Why am I so different from
other children and why is it my fault dear godmother No no no dont go
away O speak to me«
I was in a kind of fright beyond my grief and I caught hold of her dress
and was kneeling to her She had been saying all the while »Let me go« But now
she stood still
Her darkened face had such power over me that it stopped me in the midst of
my vehemence I put up my trembling little hand to clasp hers or to beg her
pardon with what earnestness I might but withdrew it as she looked at me and
laid it on my fluttering heart She raised me sat in her chair and standing me
before her said slowly in a cold low voice I see her knitted brow and
pointed finger
»Your mother Esther is your disgrace and you were hers The time will
come and soon enough when you will understand this better and will feel it
too as no one save a woman can I have forgiven her« but her face did not
relent »the wrong she did to me and I say no more of it though it was greater
than you will ever know than any one will ever know but I the sufferer For
yourself unfortunate girl orphaned and degraded from the first of these evil
anniversaries pray daily that the sins of others be not visited upon your head
according to what is written Forget your mother and leave all other people to
forget her who will do her unhappy child that greatest kindness Now go«
She checked me however as I was about to depart from her so frozen as I
was and added this
»Submission selfdenial diligent work are the preparations for a life
begun with such a shadow on it You are different from other children Esther
because you were not born like them in common sinfulness and wrath You are
set apart«
I went up to my room and crept to bed and laid my dolls cheek against
mine wet with tears and holding that solitary friend upon my bosom cried
myself to sleep Imperfect as my understanding of my sorrow was I knew that I
had brought no joy at any time to anybodys heart and that I was to no one
upon earth what Dolly was to me
Dear dear to think how much time we passed alone together afterwards and
how often I repeated to the doll the story of my birthday and confided to her
that I would try as hard as ever I could to repair the fault I had been born
with of which I confessedly felt guilty and yet innocent and would strive as
I grew up to be industrious contented and kindhearted and to do some good to
some one and win some love to myself if I could I hope it is not
selfindulgent to shed these tears as I think of it I am very thankful I am
very cheerful but I cannot quite help their coming to my eyes
There I have wiped them away now and can go on again properly
I felt the distance between my godmother and myself so much more after the
birthday and felt so sensible of filling a place in her house which ought to
have been empty that I found her more difficult of approach though I was
fervently grateful to her in my heart than ever I felt in the same way towards
my school companions I felt in the same way towards Mrs Rachael who was a
widow and O towards her daughter of whom she was proud who came to see her
once a fortnight I was very retired and quiet and tried to be very diligent
One sunny afternoon when I had come home from school with my books and
portfolio watching my long shadow at my side and as I was gliding upstairs to
my room as usual my godmother looked out of the parlourdoor and called me
back Sitting with her I found which was very unusual indeed a stranger A
portly importantlooking gentleman dressed all in black with a white cravat
large gold watch seals a pair of gold eyeglasses and a large sealring upon
his little finger
»This« said my godmother in an undertone »is the child« Then she said
in her naturally stern way of speaking »This is Esther sir«
The gentleman put up his eyeglasses to look at me and said »Come here my
dear« He shook hands with me and asked me to take off my bonnet looking at
me all the while When I had complied he said »Ah« and afterwards »Yes« And
then taking off his eyeglasses and folding them in a red case and leaning
back in his armchair turning the case about in his two hands he gave my
godmother a nod Upon that my godmother said »You may go upstairs Esther«
and I made him my curtsey and left him
It must have been two years afterwards and I was almost fourteen when one
dreadful night my godmother and I sat at the fireside I was reading aloud and
she was listening I had come down at nine oclock as I always did to read the
Bible to her and was reading from St John how our Saviour stooped down
writing with his finger in the dust when they brought the sinful woman to him
»So when they continued asking him he lifted up himself and said unto them
He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her«
I was stopped by my godmothers rising putting her hand to her head and
crying out in an awful voice from quite another part of the book
»Watch ye therefore lest coming suddenly he find you seeping And what I
say unto you I say unto all Watch«
In an instant while she stood before me repeating these words she fell
down on the floor I had no need to cry out her voice had sounded through the
house and been heard in the street
She was laid upon her bed For more than a week she lay there little
altered outwardly with her old handsome resolute frown that I so well knew
carved upon her face Many and many a time in the day and in the night with my
head upon the pillow by her that my whispers might be plainer to her I kissed
her thanked her prayed for her asked her for her blessing and forgiveness
entreated her to give me the least sign that she knew or heard me No no no
Her face was immoveable To the very last and even afterwards her frown
remained unsoftened
On the day after my poor good godmother was buried the gentleman in black
with the white neckcloth reappeared I was sent for by Mrs Rachael and found
him in the same place as if he had never gone away
»My name is Kenge« he said »you may remember it my child Kenge and
Carboy Lincolns Inn«
I replied that I remembered to have seen him once before
»Pray be seated here near me Dont distress yourself its of no use
Mrs Rachael I neednt inform you who were acquainted with the late Miss
Barbarys affairs that her means die with her and that this young lady now
her aunt is dead «
»My aunt sir«
»It is really of no use carrying on a deception when no object is to be
gained by it« said Mr Kenge smoothly »Aunt in fact though not in law Dont
distress yourself Dont weep Dont tremble Mrs Rachael our young friend has
no doubt heard of the a Jarndyce and Jarndyce«
»Never« said Mrs Rachael
»Is it possible« pursued Mr Kenge putting up his eyeglasses »that our
young friend I beg you wont distress yourself never heard of Jarndyce and
Jarndyce«
I shook my head wondering even what it was
»Not of Jarndyce and Jarndyce« said Mr Kenge looking over his glasses at
me and softly turning the case about and about as if he were petting
something »Not of one of the greatest Chancery suits known Not of Jarndyce and
Jarndyce the a in itself a monument of Chancery practice In which I
would say every difficulty every contingency every masterly notion every
form of procedure known in that court is represented over and over again It is
a cause that could not exist, out of this free and great country I should say
that the aggregate of costs in Jarndyce and Jarndyce Mrs Rachael« I was
afraid he addressed himself to her because I appeared inattentive »amounts at
the present hour to from SIXty to SEVENty THOUSAND POUNDS« said Mr Kenge
leaning back in his chair
I felt very ignorant but what could I do I was so entirely unacquainted
with the subject that I understood nothing about it even then
»And she really never heard of the cause« said Mr Kenge »Surprising«
»Miss Barbary sir« returned Mrs Rachael »who is now among the Seraphim
«
»I hope so I am sure« said Mr Kenge politely
» Wished Esther only to know what would be serviceable to her And she
knows from any teaching she has had here nothing more«
»Well« said Mr Kenge »Upon the whole very proper Now to the point«
addressing me »Miss Barbary your sole relation in fact that is for I am
bound to observe that in law you had none being deceased and it naturally not
being to be expected that Mrs Rachael «
»O dear no« said Mrs Rachael quickly
»Quite so« assented Mr Kenge »that Mrs Rachael should charge herself
with your maintenance and support I beg you wont distress yourself you are
in a position to receive the renewal of an offer which I was instructed to make
to Miss Barbary some two years ago and which though rejected then was
understood to be renewable under the lamentable circumstances that have since
occurred Now if I avow that I represent in Jarndyce and Jarndyce and
otherwise a highly humane but at the same time singular man shall I
compromise myself by any stretch of my professional caution« said Mr Kenge
leaning back in his chair again and looking calmly at us both
He appeared to enjoy beyond everything the sound of his own voice I
couldnt wonder at that for it was mellow and full and gave great importance
to every word he uttered He listened to himself with obvious satisfaction and
sometimes gently beat time to his own music with his head or rounded a sentence
with his hand I was very much impressed by him even then before I knew that
he formed himself on the model of a great lord who was his client and that he
was generally called Conversation Kenge
»Mr Jarndyce« he pursued »being aware of the I would say desolate
position of our young friend offers to place her at a firstrate establishment
where her education shall be completed where her comfort shall be secured
where her reasonable wants shall be anticipated where she shall be eminently
qualified to discharge her duty in that station of life unto which it has
pleased shall I say Providence to call her«
My heart was filled so full both by what he said and by his affecting
manner of saying it that I was not able to speak though I tried
»Mr Jarndyce« he went on »makes no condition beyond expressing his
expectation that our young friend will not at any time remove herself from the
establishment in question without his knowledge and concurrence That she will
faithfully apply herself to the acquisition of those accomplishments upon the
exercise of which she will be ultimately dependent That she will tread in the
paths of virtue and honour and the a so forth«
I was still less able to speak than before
»Now what does our young friend say« proceeded Mr Kenge »Take time take
time I pause for her reply But take time«
What the destitute subject of such an offer tried to say I need not repeat
What she did say I could more easily tell if it were worth the telling What
she felt and will feel to her dying hour I could never relate
This interview took place at Windsor where I had passed as far as I knew
my whole life On that day week amply provided with all necessaries I left it
inside the stagecoach for Reading
Mrs Rachael was too good to feel any emotion at parting but I was not so
good and wept bitterly I thought that I ought to have known her better after
so many years and ought to have made myself enough of a favourite with her to
make her sorry then When she gave me one cold parting kiss upon my forehead
like a thawdrop from the stone porch it was a very frosty day I felt so
miserable and selfreproachful that I clung to her and told her it was my
fault I knew that she could say goodbye so easily
»No Esther« she returned »It is your misfortune«
The coach was at the little lawngate we had not come out until we heard
the wheels and thus I left her with a sorrowful heart She went in before my
boxes were lifted to the coachroof and shut the door As long as I could see
the house I looked back at it from the window through my tears My godmother
had left Mrs Rachael all the little property she possessed and there was to be
a sale and an old hearthrug with roses on it which always seemed to me the
first thing in the world I had ever seen was hanging outside in the frost and
snow A day or two before I had wrapped the dear old doll in her own shawl and
quietly laid her I am half ashamed to tell it in the gardenearth under the
tree that shaded my old window I had no companion left but my bird and him I
carried with me in his cage
When the house was out of sight I sat with my birdcage in the straw at my
feet forward on the low seat to look out of the high window watching the
frosty trees that were like beautiful pieces of spar and the fields all smooth
and white with last nights snow and the sun so red but yielding so little
heat and the ice dark like metal where the skaters and sliders had brushed
the snow away There was a gentleman in the coach who sat on the opposite seat
and looked very large in a quantity of wrappings but he sat gazing out of the
other window and took no notice of me
I thought of my dead godmother of the night when I read to her of her
frowning so fixedly and sternly in her bed of the strange place I was going to
of the people I should find there and what they would be like and what they
would say to me when a voice in the coach gave me a terrible start
It said »What the devil are you crying for«
I was so frightened that I lost my voice and could only answer in a
whisper »Me sir« For of course I knew it must have been the gentleman in the
quantity of wrappings though he was still looking out of his window
»Yes you« he said turning round
»I didnt know I was crying sir« I faltered
»But you are« said the gentleman »Look here« He came quite opposite to me
from the other corner of the coach brushed one of his large furry cuffs across
my eyes but without hurting me and showed me that it was wet
»There Now you know you are« he said »Dont you«
»Yes sir« I said
»And what are you crying for« said the gentleman »Dont you want to go
there«
»Where sir«
»Where Why wherever you are going« said the gentleman
»I am very glad to go there sir« I answered
»Well then Look glad« said the gentleman
I thought he was very strange or at least that what I could see of him was
very strange for he was wrapped up to the chin and his face was almost hidden
in a fur cap with broad fur straps at the side of his head fastened under his
chin but I was composed again and not afraid of him So I told him that I
thought I must have been crying because of my godmothers death and because of
Mrs Rachaels not being sorry to part with me
»Confound Mrs Rachael« said the gentleman »Let her fly away in a high
wind on a broomstick«
I began to be really afraid of him now and looked at him with the greatest
astonishment But I thought that he had pleasant eyes although he kept on
muttering to himself in an angry manner and calling Mrs Rachael names
After a little while he opened his outer wrapper which appeared to me
large enough to wrap up the whole coach and put his arm down into a deep pocket
in the side
»Now look here« he said »In this paper« which was nicely folded »is a
piece of the best plumcake that can be got for money sugar on the outside an
inch thick like fat on mutton chops Heres a little pie a gem this is both
for size and quality made in France And what do you suppose its made of
Livers of fat geese Theres a pie Now lets see you eat em«
»Thank you sir« I replied »thank you very much indeed but I hope you
wont be offended they are too rich for me«
»Floored again« said the gentleman which I didnt at all understand and
threw them both out of window
He did not speak to me any more until he got out of the coach a little way
short of Reading when he advised me to be a good girl and to be studious and
shook hands with me I must say I was relieved by his departure We left him at
a milestone I often walked past it afterwards and never for a long time
without thinking of him and half expecting to meet him But I never did and
so as time went on he passed out of my mind
When the coach stopped a very neat lady looked up at the window and said
»Miss Donny«
»No maam Esther Summerson«
»That is quite right« said the lady »Miss Donny«
I now understood that she introduced herself by that name and begged Miss
Donnys pardon for my mistake and pointed out my boxes at her request Under
the direction of a very neat maid they were put outside a very small green
carriage and then Miss Donny the maid and I got inside and were driven
away
»Everything is ready for you Esther« said Miss Donny »and the scheme of
your pursuits has been arranged in exact accordance with the wishes of your
guardian Mr Jarndyce«
»Of did you say maam«
»Of your guardian Mr Jarndyce« said Miss Donny
I was so bewildered that Miss Donny thought the cold had been too severe for
me and lent me her smellingbottle
»Do you know my guardian Mr Jarndyce maam« I asked after a good deal
of hesitation
»Not personally Esther« said Miss Donny »merely through his solicitors
Messrs Kenge and Carboy of London A very superior gentleman Mr Kenge Truly
eloquent indeed Some of his periods quite majestic«
I felt this to be very true but was too confused to attend to it Our
speedy arrival at our destination before I had time to recover myself
increased my confusion and I never shall forget the uncertain and the unreal
air of everything at Greenleaf Miss Donnys house that afternoon
But I soon became used to it I was so adapted to the routine of Greenleaf
before long that I seemed to have been there a great while and almost to have
dreamed rather than really lived my old life at my godmothers Nothing could
be more precise exact and orderly than Greenleaf There was a time for
everything all round the dial of the clock and everything was done at its
appointed moment
We were twelve boarders and there were two Miss Donnys twins It was
understood that I would have to depend byandby on my qualifications as a
governess and I was not only instructed in everything that was taught at
Greenleaf but was very soon engaged in helping to instruct others Although I
was treated in every other respect like the rest of the school this single
difference was made in my case from the first As I began to know more I taught
more and so in course of time I had plenty to do which I was very fond of
doing because it made the dear girls fond of me At last whenever a new pupil
came who was a little downcast and unhappy she was so sure indeed I dont
know why to make a friend of me that all newcomers were confided to my care
They said I was so gentle but I am sure they were I often thought of the
resolution I had made on my birthday to try to be industrious contented and
truehearted and to do some good to some one and win some love if I could and
indeed indeed I felt almost ashamed to have done so little and have won so
much
I passed at Greenleaf six happy quiet years I never saw in any face there
thank Heaven on my birthday that it would have been better if I had never been
born When the day came round it brought me so many tokens of affectionate
remembrance that my room was beautiful with them from New Years Day to
Christmas
In those six years I had never been away except on visits at holiday time
in the neighbourhood After the first six months or so I had taken Miss Donnys
advice in reference to the propriety of writing to Mr Kenge to say that I was
happy and grateful and with her approval I had written such a letter I had
received a formal answer acknowledging its receipt and saying »We note the
contents thereof which shall be duly communicated to our client« After that I
sometimes heard Miss Donny and her sister mention how regular my accounts were
paid and about twice a year I ventured to write a similar letter I always
received by return of post exactly the same answer in the same round hand with
the signature of Kenge and Carboy in another writing which I supposed to be Mr
Kenges
It seems so curious to me to be obliged to write all this about myself As
if this narrative were the narrative of my life But my little body will soon
fall into the background now
Six quiet years I find I am saying it for the second time I had passed at
Greenleaf seeing in those around me as it might be in a lookingglass every
stage of my own growth and change there when one November morning I received
this letter I omit the date
Old Square Lincolns Inn
Jarndyce and Jarndyce
Madam
Our client Mr Jarndyce being about to receive into his house under
an Order of the Court of Chancery a Ward of the Court in this cause
for whom he wishes to secure an eligible companion directs us to inform
you that he will be glad of your services in the aforesaid capacity
We have arranged for your being forwarded carriage free pr eight
oclock coach from Reading on Monday morning next to White Horse
Cellar Piccadilly London where one of our clerks will be in waiting
to convey you to our office as above
We are Madam Your obedt Servts
Kenge and Carboy
Miss Esther Summerson
O never never never shall I forget the emotion this letter caused in the
house It was so tender in them to care so much for me it was so gracious in
that Father who had not forgotten me to have made my orphan way so smooth and
easy and to have inclined so many youthful natures towards me that I could
hardly bear it Not that I would have had them less sorry I am afraid not but
the pleasure of it and the pain of it and the pride and joy of it and the
humble regret of it were so blended that my heart seemed almost breaking while
it was full of rapture
The letter gave me only five days notice of my removal When every minute
added to the proofs of love and kindness that were given me in those five days
and when at last the morning came and when they took me through all the rooms
that I might see them for the last time and when some cried »Esther dear say
goodbye to me here at my bedside where you first spoke so kindly to me« and
when others asked me only to write their names »With Esthers love« and when
they all surrounded me with their parting presents and clung to me weeping and
cried »What shall we do when dear dear Esthers gone« and when I tried to
tell them how forbearing and how good they had all been to me and how I
blessed and thanked them every one what a heart I had
And when the two Miss Donnys grieved as much to part with me as the least
among them and when the maids said »Bless you miss wherever you go« and
when the ugly lame old gardener who I thought had hardly noticed me in all
those years came panting after the coach to give me a little nosegay of
geraniums and told me I had been the light of his eyes indeed the old man
said so what a heart I had then
And could I help it if with all this and the coming to the little school
and the unexpected sight of the poor children outside waving their hats and
bonnets to me and of a greyhaired gentleman and lady whose daughter I had
helped to teach and at whose house I had visited who were said to be the
proudest people in all that country caring for nothing but calling out
»Goodbye Esther May you be very happy« could I help it if I was quite
bowed down in the coach by myself and said »O I am so thankful I am so
thankful« many times over
But of course I soon considered that I must not take tears where I was
going after all that had been done for me Therefore of course I made myself
sob less and persuaded myself to be quiet by saying very often »Esther now
you really must This will not do« I cheered myself up pretty well at last
though I am afraid I was longer about it than I ought to have been and when I
had cooled my eyes with lavender water it was time to watch for London
I was quite persuaded that we were there when we were ten miles off and
when we really were there that we should never get there However when we
began to jolt upon a stone pavement and particularly when every other
conveyance seemed to be running into us and we seemed to be running into every
other conveyance I began to believe that we really were approaching the end of
our journey Very soon afterwards we stopped
A young gentleman who had inked himself by accident addressed me from the
pavement and said »I am from Kenge and Carboys miss of Lincolns Inn«
»If you please sir« said I
He was very obliging and as he handed me into a fly after superintending
the removal of my boxes I asked him whether there was a great fire anywhere
For the streets were so full of dense brown smoke that scarcely anything was to
be seen
»O dear no miss« he said »This is a London particular«
I had never heard of such a thing
»A fog miss« said the young gentleman
»O indeed« said I
We drove slowly through the dirtiest and darkest streets that ever were seen
in the world I thought and in suck a distracting state of confusion that I
wondered how the people kept their senses until we passed into sudden quietude
under an old gateway and drove on through a silent square until we came to an
odd nook in a corner where there was an entrance up a steep broad flight of
stairs like an entrance to a church And there really was a churchyard outside
under some cloisters for I saw the gravestones from the staircase window
This was Kenge and Carboys The young gentleman showed me through an outer
office into Mr Kenges room there was no one in it and politely put an
armchair for me by the fire He then called my attention to a little
lookingglass hanging from a nail on one side of the chimneypiece
»In case you should wish to look at yourself miss after the journey as
youre going before the Chancellor Not that its requisite I am sure« said
the young gentleman civilly
»Going before the Chancellor« I said startled for a moment
»Only a matter of form miss« returned the young gentleman »Mr Kenge is
in Court now He left his compliments and would you partake of some
refreshment« there were biscuits and a decanter of wine on a small table »and
look over the paper« which the young gentleman gave me as he spoke He then
stirred the fire and left me
Everything was so strange the stranger from its being night in the
daytime the candles burning with a white flame and looking raw and cold
that I read the words in the newspaper without knowing what they meant and
found myself reading the same words repeatedly As it was of no use going on in
that way I put the paper down took a peep at my bonnet in the glass to see if
it was neat and looked at the room which was not half lighted and at the
shabby dusty tables and at the piles of writings and at a bookcase full of the
most inexpressivelooking books that ever had anything to say for themselves
Then I went on thinking thinking thinking and the fire went on burning
burning burning and the candles went on flickering and guttering and there
were no snuffers until the young gentleman byandby brought a very dirty
pair for two hours
At last Mr Kenge came He was not altered but he was surprised to see how
altered I was and appeared quite pleased »As you are going to be the companion
of the young lady who is now in the Chancellors private room Miss Summerson«
he said »we thought it well that you should be in attendance also You will not
be discomposed by the Lord Chancellor I dare say«
»No sir« I said »I dont think I shall« Really not seeing on
consideration why I should be
So Mr Kenge gave me his arm and we went round the corner under a
colonnade and in at a side door And so we came along a passage into a
comfortable sort of room where a young lady and a young gentleman were standing
near a great loudroaring fire A screen was interposed between them and it
and they were leaning on the screen talking
They both looked up when I came in and I saw in the young lady with the
fire shining upon her such a beautiful girl With such rich golden hair such
soft blue eyes and such a bright innocent trusting face
»Miss Ada« said Mr Kenge »this is Miss Summerson«
She came to meet me with a smile of welcome and her hand extended but
seemed to change her mind in a moment and kissed me In short she had such a
natural captivating winning manner that in a few minutes we were sitting in
the windowseat with the light of the fire upon us talking together as free
and happy as could be
What a load off my mind It was so delightful to know that she could confide
in me and like me it was so good of her and so encouraging to me
The young gentleman was her distant cousin she told me and his name
Richard Carstone He was a handsome youth with an ingenuous face and a most
engaging laugh and after she had called him up to where we sat he stood by us
in the light of the fire too talking gaily like a lighthearted boy He was
very young not more than nineteen then if quite so much but nearly two years
older than she was They were both orphans and what was very unexpected and
curious to me had never met before that day Our all three coming together for
the first time in such an unusual place was a thing to talk about and we
talked about it and the fire which had left off roaring winked its red eyes
at us as Richard said like a drowsy old Chancery lion
We conversed in a low tone because a fulldressed gentleman in a bag wig
frequently came in and out and when he did so we could hear a drawling sound
in the distance which he said was one of the counsel in our case addressing the
Lord Chancellor He told Mr Kenge that the Chancellor would be up in five
minutes and presently we heard a bustle and a tread of feet and Mr Kenge
said that the Court had risen and his lordship was in the next room
The gentleman in the bag wig opened the door almost directly and requested
Mr Kenge to come in Upon that we all went into the next room Mr Kenge
first with my darling it is so natural to me now that I cant help writing
it and there plainly dressed in black and sitting in an armchair at a table
near the fire was his lordship whose robe trimmed with beautiful goldlace
was thrown upon another chair He gave us a searching look as we entered but
his manner was both courtly and kind
The gentleman in the bag wig laid bundles of papers on his lordships table
and his lordship silently selected one and turned over the leaves
»Miss Clare« said the Lord Chancellor »Miss Ada Clare«
Mr Kenge presented her and his lordship begged her to sit down near him
That he admired her and was interested by her even I could see in a moment It
touched me that the home of such a beautiful young creature should be
represented by that dry official place The Lord High Chancellor at his best
appeared so poor a substitute for the love and pride of parents
»The Jarndyce in question« said the Lord Chancellor still turning over
leaves »is Jarndyce of Bleak House«
»Jarndyce of Bleak House my lord« said Mr Kenge
»A dreary name« said the Lord Chancellor
»But not a dreary place at present my lord« said Mr Kenge
»And Bleak House« said his lordship »is in «
»Hertfordshire my lord«
»Mr Jarndyce of Bleak House is not married« said his lordship
»He is not my lord« said Mr Kenge
A pause
»Young Mr Richard Carstone is present?« said the Lord Chancellor glancing
towards him
Richard bowed and stepped forward
»Hum« said the Lord Chancellor turning over more leaves
»Mr Jarndyce of Bleak House my lord« Mr Kenge observed in a low voice
»if I may venture to remind your lordship provides a suitable companion for «
»For Mr Richard Carstone« I thought but I am not quite sure I heard his
lordship say in an equally low voice and with a smile
»For Miss Ada Clare This is the young lady Miss Summerson«
His lordship gave me an indulgent look and acknowledged my curtsey very
graciously
»Miss Summerson is not related to any party in the cause I think«
»No my lord«
Mr Kenge leant over before it was quite said and whispered His lordship
with his eyes upon his papers listened nodded twice or thrice turned over
more leaves and did not look towards me again until we were going away
Mr Kenge now retired and Richard with him to where I was near the door
leaving my pet it is so natural to me that again I cant help it sitting near
the Lord Chancellor with whom his lordship spoke a little apart asking her as
she told me afterwards whether she had well reflected on the proposed
arrangement and if she thought she would be happy under the roof of Mr
Jarndyce of Bleak House and why she thought so Presently he rose courteously
and released her and then he spoke for a minute or two with Richard Carstone
not seated but standing and altogether with more ease and less ceremony as
if he still knew though he was Lord Chancellor how to go straight to the
candour of a boy
»Very well« said his lordship aloud »I shall make the order Mr Jarndyce
of Bleak House has chosen so far as I may judge« and this was when he looked
at me »a very good companion for the young lady and the arrangement
altogether seems the best of which the circumstances admit«
He dismissed us pleasantly and we all went out very much obliged to him
for being so affable and polite by which he had certainly lost no dignity but
seemed to us to have gained some
When we got under the colonnade Mr Kenge remembered that he must go back
for a moment to ask a question and left us in the fog with the Lord
Chancellors carriage and servants waiting for him to come out
»Well« said Richard Carstone »thats over And where do we go next Miss
Summerson«
»Dont you know« I said
»Not in the least« said he
»And dont you know my love« I asked Ada
»No« said she »Dont you«
»Not at all« said I
We looked at one another, half laughing at our being like the children in
the wood when a curious little old woman in a squeezed bonnet and carrying a
reticule came curtseying and smiling up to us with an air of great ceremony
»O« said she »The wards in Jarndyce Very happy I am sure to have the
honour It is a good omen for youth and hope and beauty when they find
themselves in this place and dont know whats to come of it«
»Mad« whispered Richard not thinking she could hear him
»Right Mad young gentleman« she returned so quickly that he was quite
abashed »I was a ward myself I was not mad at that time« curtseying low and
smiling between every little sentence »I had youth and hope I believe beauty
It matters very little now Neither of the three served or saved me I have the
honour to attend Court regularly With my documents I expect a judgment
Shortly On the Day of Judgment I have discovered that the sixth seal mentioned
in the Revelations is the Great Seal It has been open a long time Pray accept
my blessing«
As Ada was a little frightened I said to humour the poor old lady that we
were much obliged to her
»Yees« she said mincingly »I imagine so And here is Conversation Kenge
With his documents How does your honourable worship do«
»Quite well quite well Now dont be troublesome thats a good soul« said
Mr Kenge leading the way back
»By no means« said the poor old lady keeping up with Ada and me »Anything
but troublesome I shall confer estates on both which is not being
troublesome I trust I expect a judgment Shortly On the Day of Judgment This
is a good omen for you Accept my blessing«
She stopped at the bottom of the steep broad flight of stairs but we
looked back as we went up and she was still there saying still with a curtsey
and a smile between every little sentence »Youth And hope And beauty And
Chancery And Conversation Kenge Ha Pray accept my blessing«
Chapter IV
Telescopic Philanthropy
We were to pass the night Mr Kenge told us when we arrived in his room at
Mrs Jellybys and then he turned to me and said he took it for granted I knew
who Mrs Jellyby was
»I really dont sir« I returned »Perhaps Mr Carstone or Miss Clare «
But no they knew nothing whatever about Mrs Jellyby
»Indeed Mrs Jellyby« said Mr Kenge standing with his back to the fire
and casting his eyes over the dusty hearthrug as if it were Mrs Jellybys
biography »is a lady of very remarkable strength of character who devotes
herself entirely to the public She has devoted herself to an extensive variety
of public subjects at various times and is at present until something else
attracts her devoted to the subject of Africa with a view to the general
cultivation of the coffee berry and the natives and the happy settlement on
the banks of the African rivers of our superabundant home population Mr
Jarndyce who is desirous to aid any work that is considered likely to be a good
work and who is much sought after by philanthropists has I believe a very
high opinion of Mrs Jellyby«
Mr Kenge adjusting his cravat then looked at us
»And Mr Jellyby sir« suggested Richard
»Ah Mr Jellyby« said Mr Kenge »is a I dont know that I can
describe him to you better than by saying that he is the husband of Mrs
Jellyby«
»A nonentity sir« said Richard with a droll look
»I dont say that« returned Mr Kenge gravely »I cant say that indeed
for I know nothing whatever of Mr Jellyby I never to my knowledge had the
pleasure of seeing Mr Jellyby He may be a very superior man but he is so to
speak merged Merged in the more shining qualities of his wife« Mr Kenge
proceeded to tell us that as the road to Bleak House would have been very long
dark and tedious on such an evening and as we had been travelling already
Mr Jarndyce had himself proposed this arrangement A carriage would be at Mrs
Jellybys to convey us out of town early in the forenoon of tomorrow
He then rang a little bell and the young gentleman came in Addressing him
by the name of Guppy Mr Kenge inquired whether Miss Summersons boxes and the
rest of the baggage had been sent round Mr Guppy said yes they had been sent
round and a coach was waiting to take us round too as soon as we pleased
»Then it only remains« said Mr Kenge shaking hands with us »for me to
express my lively satisfaction in good day Miss Clare the arrangement this
day concluded and my good bye to you Miss Summerson lively hope that it
will conduce to the happiness the glad to have had the honour of making your
acquaintance Mr Carstone welfare the advantage in all points of view of
all concerned Guppy see the party safely there«
»Where is there Mr Guppy« said Richard as we went downstairs
»No distance« said Mr Guppy »round in Thavies Inn you know«
»I cant say I know where it is for I come from Winchester and am strange
in London«
»Only round the corner« said Mr Guppy »We just twist up Chancery Lane
and cut along Holborn and there we are in four minutes time as near as a
toucher This is about a London particular now aint it miss« He seemed quite
delighted with it on my account
»The fog is very dense indeed« said I
»Not that it affects you though Im sure« said Mr Guppy putting up the
steps »On the contrary it seems to do you good miss judging from your
appearance«
I knew he meant well in paying me this compliment so I laughed at myself
for blushing at it when he had shut the door and got upon the box and we all
three laughed and chatted about our inexperience and the strangeness of
London until we turned up under an archway to our destination a narrow street
of high houses like an oblong cistern to hold the fog There was a confused
little crowd of people principally children gathered about the house at which
we stopped which had a tarnished brass plate on the door with the inscription
JELLYBY
»Dont be frightened« said Mr Guppy looking in at the coachwindow »One
of the young Jellybys been and got his head through the area railings«
»O poor child« said I »let me out if you please«
»Pray be careful of yourself miss The young Jellybys are always up to
something« said Mr Guppy
I made my way to the poor child who was one of the dirtiest little
unfortunates I ever saw and found him very hot and frightened and crying
loudly fixed by the neck between two iron railings while a milkman and a
beadle with the kindest intentions possible were endeavouring to drag him back
by the legs under a general impression that his skull was compressible by those
means As I found after pacifying him that he was a little boy with a
naturally large head I thought that perhaps where his head could go his body
could follow and mentioned that the best mode of extrication might be to push
him forward This was so favourably received by the milkman and beadle that he
would immediately have been pushed into the area if I had not held his
pinafore while Richard and Mr Guppy ran down through the kitchen to catch him
when he should be released At last he was happily got down without any
accident and then he began to beat Mr Guppy with a hoopstick in quite a
frantic manner
Nobody had appeared belonging to the house except a person in pattens who
had been poking at the child from below with a broom I dont know with what
object and I dont think she did I therefore supposed that Mrs Jellyby was
not at home and was quite surprised when the person appeared in the passage
without the pattens and going up to the back room on the first floor before
Ada and me announced us as »Them two young ladies Missis Jellyby« We passed
several more children on the way up whom it was difficult to avoid treading on
in the dark and as we came into Mrs Jellybys presence one of the poor little
things fell downstairs down a whole flight as it sounded to me with a
great noise
Mrs Jellyby whose face reflected none of the uneasiness which we could not
help showing in our own faces as the dear childs head recorded its passage
with a bump on every stair Richard afterwards said he counted seven besides
one for the landing received us with perfect equanimity She was a pretty
very diminutive plump woman of from forty to fifty with handsome eyes though
they had a curious habit of seeming to look a long way off As if I am quoting
Richard again they could see nothing nearer than Africa
»I am very glad indeed« said Mrs Jellyby in an agreeable voice »to have
the pleasure of receiving you I have a great respect for Mr Jarndyce and no
one in whom he is interested can be an object of indifference to me«
We expressed our acknowledgments and sat down behind the door where there
was a lame invalid of a sofa Mrs Jellyby had very good hair but was too much
occupied with her African duties to brush it The shawl in which she had been
loosely muffled dropped on to her chair when she advanced to us and as she
turned to resume her seat we could not help noticing that her dress didnt
nearly meet up the back and that the open space was railed across with a
latticework of staylace like a summerhouse
The room which was strewn with papers and nearly filled by a great
writingtable covered with similar litter was I must say not only very
untidy but very dirty We were obliged to take notice of that with our sense of
sight even while with our sense of hearing we followed the poor child who had
tumbled downstairs I think into the back kitchen where somebody seemed to
stifle him
But what principally struck us was a jaded and unhealthylooking though by
no means plain girl at the writingtable who sat biting the feather of her
pen and staring at us I suppose nobody ever was in such a state of ink And
from her tumbled hair to her pretty feet which were disfigured with frayed and
broken satin slippers trodden down at heel she really seemed to have no article
of dress upon her from a pin upwards that was in its proper condition or its
right place
»You find me my dears« said Mrs Jellyby snuffing the two great office
candles in tin candlesticks which made the room taste strongly of hot tallow
the fire had gone out and there was nothing in the grate but ashes a bundle
of wood and a poker »you find me my dears as usual very busy but that you
will excuse The African project at present employs my whole time It involves
me in correspondence with public bodies and with private individuals anxious
for the welfare of their species all over the country I am happy to say it is
advancing We hope by this time next year to have from a hundred and fifty to
two hundred healthy families cultivating coffee and educating the natives of
BorrioboolaGha on the left bank of the Niger«
As Ada said nothing but looked at me I said it must be very gratifying
»It is gratifying« said Mrs Jellyby »It involves the devotion of all my
energies such as they are but that is nothing so that it succeeds and I am
more confident of success every day Do you know Miss Summerson I almost
wonder that you never turned your thoughts to Africa«
This application of the subject was really so unexpected to me that I was
quite at a loss how to receive it I hinted that the climate
»The finest climate in the world« said Mrs Jellyby
»Indeed maam«
»Certainly With precaution« said Mrs Jellyby »You may go into Holborn
without precaution and be run over You may go into Holborn with precaution
and never be run over Just so with Africa«
I said »No doubt« I meant as to Holborn
»If you would like« said Mrs Jellyby putting a number of papers towards
us »to look over some remarks on that head and on the general subject which
have been extensively circulated while I finish a letter I am now dictating
to my eldest daughter who is my amanuensis «
The girl at the table left off biting her pen and made a return to our
recognition which was half bashful and half sulky
» I shall then have finished for the present« proceeded Mrs Jellyby with
a sweet smile »though my work is never done Where are you Caddy«
»Presents her compliments to Mr Swallow and begs « said Caddy
»And begs« said Mrs Jellyby dictating »to inform him in reference to
his letter of inquiry on the African project No Peepy Not on any account«
Peepy so selfnamed was the unfortunate child who had fallen downstairs
who now interrupted the correspondence by presenting himself with a strip of
plaister on his forehead to exhibit his wounded knees in which Ada and I did
not know which to pity most the bruises or the dirt Mrs Jellyby merely
added with the serene composure with which she said everything »Go along you
naughty Peepy« and fixed her fine eyes on Africa again
However as she at once proceeded with her dictation and as I interrupted
nothing by doing it I ventured quietly to stop poor Peepy as he was going out
and to take him up to nurse He looked very much astonished at it and at Adas
kissing him but soon fell fast asleep in my arms sobbing at longer and longer
intervals until he was quiet I was so occupied with Peepy that I lost the
letter in detail though I derived such a general impression from it of the
momentous importance of Africa and the utter insignificance of all other places
and things that I felt quite ashamed to have thought so little about it
»Six oclock« said Mrs Jellyby »And our dinner hour is nominally for we
dine at all hours five Caddy show Miss Clare and Miss Summerson their rooms
You will like to make some change perhaps You will excuse me I know being so
much occupied O that very bad child Pray put him down Miss Summerson«
I begged permission to retain him truly saying that he was not at all
troublesome and carried him upstairs and laid him on my bed Ada and I had two
upper rooms with a door of communication between They were excessively bare
and disorderly and the curtain to my window was fastened up with a fork
»You would like some hot water wouldnt you« said Miss Jellyby looking
round for a jug with a handle to it but looking in vain
»If it is not being troublesome« said we
»O its not the trouble« returned Miss Jellyby »the question is if there
is any«
The evening was so very cold and the rooms had such a marshy smell that I
must confess it was a little miserable and Ada was half crying We soon
laughed however and were busily unpacking when Miss Jellyby came back to say
that she was sorry there was no hot water but they couldnt find the kettle
and the boiler was out of order
We begged her not to mention it and made all the haste we could to get down
to the fire again But all the little children had come up to the landing
outside to look at the phenomenon of Peepy lying on my bed and our attention
was distracted by the constant apparition of noses and fingers in situations of
danger between the hinges of the doors It was impossible to shut the door of
either room for my lock with no knob to it looked as if it wanted to be wound
up and though the handle of Adas went round and round with the greatest
smoothness it was attended with no effect whatever on the door Therefore I
proposed to the children that they should come in and be very good at my table
and I would tell them the story of Little Red Riding Hood while I dressed which
they did and were as quiet as mice including Peepy who awoke opportunely
before the appearance of the wolf
When we went downstairs we found a mug with »A Present from Tunbridge
Wells« on it lighted up in the staircase window with a floating wick and a
young woman with a swelled face bound up in a flannel bandage blowing the fire
of the drawingroom now connected by an open door with Mrs Jellybys room
and choking dreadfully It smoked to that degree in short that we all sat
coughing and crying with the windows open for half an hour during which Mrs
Jellyby with the same sweetness of temper directed letters about Africa Her
being so employed was I must say a great relief to me for Richard told us
that he had washed his hands in a piedish and that they had found the kettle
on his dressingtable and he made Ada laugh so that they made me laugh in the
most ridiculous manner
Soon after seven oclock we went down to dinner carefully by Mrs
Jellybys advice for the staircarpets besides being very deficient in
stairwires were so torn as to be absolute traps We had a fine codfish a
piece of roast beef a dish of cutlets and a pudding an excellent dinner if
it had had any cooking to speak of but it was almost raw The young woman with
the flannel bandage waited and dropped everything on the table wherever it
happened to go and never moved it again until she put it on the stairs The
person I had seen in pattens who I suppose to have been the cook frequently
came and skirmished with her at the door and there appeared to be illwill
between them
All through dinner which was long in consequence of such accidents as the
dish of potatoes being mislaid in the coal scuttle and the handle of the
corkscrew coming off and striking the young woman in the chin Mrs Jellyby
preserved the evenness of her disposition She told us a great deal that was
interesting about BorrioboolaGha and the natives and received so many letters
that Richard who sat by her saw four envelopes in the gravy at once Some of
the letters were proceedings of ladies committees or resolutions of ladies
meetings which she read to us others were applications from people excited in
various ways about the cultivation of coffee and natives others required
answers and these she sent her eldest daughter from the table three or four
times to write She was full of business and undoubtedly was as she had told
us devoted to the cause
I was a little curious to know who a mild bald gentleman in spectacles was
who dropped into a vacant chair there was no top or bottom in particular after
the fish was taken away and seemed passively to submit himself to
BorrioboolaGha but not to be actively interested in that settlement As he
never spoke a word he might have been a native but for his complexion It was
not until we left the table and he remained alone with Richard that the
possibility of his being Mr Jellyby ever entered my head But he was Mr
Jellyby and a loquacious young man called Mr Quale with large shining knobs
for temples and his hair all brushed to the back of his head who came in the
evening and told Ada he was a philanthropist also informed her that he called
the matrimonial alliance of Mrs Jellyby with Mr Jellyby the union of mind and
matter
This young man besides having a great deal to say for himself about Africa
and a project of his for teaching the coffee colonists to teach the natives to
turn pianoforte legs and establish an export trade delighted in drawing Mrs
Jellyby out by saying »I believe now Mrs Jellyby you have received as many
as from one hundred and fifty to two hundred letters respecting Africa in a
single day have you not« or »If my memory does not deceive me Mrs Jellyby
you once mentioned that you had sent off five thousand circulars from one
postoffice at one time« always repeating Mrs Jellybys answer to us like an
interpreter During the whole evening Mr Jellyby sat in a corner with his head
against the wall as if he were subject to low spirits It seemed that he had
several times opened his mouth when alone with Richard after dinner as if he
had something on his mind but had always shut it again to Richards extreme
confusion without saying anything
Mrs Jellyby sitting in quite a nest of waste paper drank coffee all the
evening and dictated at intervals to her eldest daughter She also held a
discussion with Mr Quale of which the subject seemed to be if I understood
it the Brotherhood of Humanity and gave utterance to some beautiful
sentiments I was not so attentive an auditor as I might have wished to be
however for Peepy and the other children came flocking about Ada and me in a
corner of the drawingroom to ask for another story so we sat down among them
and told them in whispers Puss in Boots and I dont know what else until Mrs
Jellyby accidentally remembering them sent them to bed As Peepy cried for me
to take him to bed I carried him upstairs where the young woman with the
flannel bandage charged into the midst of the little family like a dragon and
overturned them into cribs
After that I occupied myself in making our room a little tidy and in
coaxing a very cross fire that had been lighted to burn which at last it did
quite brightly On my return downstairs I felt that Mrs Jellyby looked down
upon me rather for being so frivolous and I was sorry for it though at the
same time I knew that I had no higher pretensions
It was nearly midnight before we found an opportunity of going to bed and
even then we left Mrs Jellyby among her papers drinking coffee and Miss
Jellyby biting the feather of her pen
»What a strange house« said Ada when we got upstairs »How curious of my
cousin Jarndyce to send us here«
»My love« said I »it quite confuses me I want to understand it and I
cant understand it at all«
»What« asked Ada with her pretty smile
»All this my dear« said I »It must be very good of Mrs Jellyby to take
such pains about a scheme for the benefit of Natives and yet Peepy and the
housekeeping«
Ada laughed and put her arm about my neck as I stood looking at the fire
and told me I was a quiet dear good creature and had won her heart »You are
so thoughtful Esther« she said »and yet so cheerful and you do so much so
unpretendingly You would make a home out of even this house«
My simple darling She was quite unconscious that she only praised herself
and that it was in the goodness of her own heart that she made so much of me
»May I ask you a question« said I when we had sat before the fire a little
while
»Five hundred« said Ada
»Your cousin Mr Jarndyce I owe so much to him Would you mind describing
him to me«
Shaking her golden hair Ada turned her eyes upon me with such laughing
wonder that I was full of wonder too partly at her beauty partly at her
surprise
»Esther« she cried
»My dear«
»You want a description of my cousin Jarndyce«
»My dear I never saw him«
»And I never saw him« returned Ada
Well to be sure
No she had never seen him Young as she was when her mama died she
remembered how the tears would come into her eyes when she spoke of him and of
the noble generosity of his character which she had said was to be trusted
above all earthly things and Ada trusted it Her cousin Jarndyce had written to
her a few months ago »a plain honest letter« Ada said proposing the
arrangement we were now to enter on and telling her that »in time it might
heal some of the wounds made by the miserable Chancery suit« She had replied
gratefully accepting his proposal Richard had received a similar letter and
had made a similar response He had seen Mr Jarndyce once but only once five
years ago at Winchester school He had told Ada when they were leaning on the
screen before the fire where I found them that he recollected him as a bluff
rosy fellow This was the utmost description Ada could give me
It set me thinking so that when Ada was asleep I still remained before the
fire wondering and wondering about Bleak House and wondering and wondering
that yesterday morning should seem so long ago I dont know where my thoughts
had wandered when they were recalled by a tap at the door
I opened it softly and found Miss Jellyby shivering there with a broken
candle in a broken candlestick in one hand and an eggcup in the other
»Good night« she said very sulkily
»Good night« said I
»May I come in« she shortly and unexpectedly asked me in the same sulky
way
»Certainly« said I »Dont wake Miss Clare«
She would not sit down but stood by the fire dipping her inky middle
finger in the eggcup which contained vinegar and smearing it over the ink
stains on her face frowning the whole time and looking very gloomy
»I wish Africa was dead« she said on a sudden
I was going to remonstrate
»I do« she said »Dont talk to me Miss Summerson I hate it and detest
it Its a beast«
I told her she was tired and I was sorry I put my hand upon her head and
touched her forehead and said it was hot now but would be cool tomorrow She
still stood pouting and frowning at me but presently put down her eggcup and
turned softly towards the bed where Ada lay
»She is very pretty« she said with the same knitted brow and in the same
uncivil manner
I assented with a smile
»An orphan Aint she«
»Yes«
»But knows a quantity I suppose Can dance and play music and sing She
can talk French I suppose and do geography and globes and needlework and
everything«
»No doubt« said I
»I cant« she returned »I cant do anything hardly except write Im
always writing for Ma I wonder you two were not ashamed of yourselves to come
in this afternoon and see me able to do nothing else It was like your
illnature Yet you think yourselves very fine I dare say«
I could see that the poor girl was near crying and I resumed my chair
without speaking and looked at her I hope as mildly as I felt towards her
»Its disgraceful« she said »You know it is The whole house is
disgraceful The children are disgraceful Im disgraceful Pas miserable and
no wonder Priscilla drinks shes always drinking Its a great shame and a
great story of you if you say you didnt smell her today It was as bad as a
public waiting at dinner you know it was«
»My dear I dont know it« said I
»You do« she said very shortly »You shant say you dont You do«
»O my dear« said I »if you wont let me speak «
»Youre speaking now You know you are Dont tell stories Miss Summerson«
»My dear« said I »as long as you wont hear me out «
»I dont want to hear you out«
»O yes I think you do« said I »because that would be so very
unreasonable I did not know what you tell me because the servant did not come
near me at dinner but I dont doubt what you tell me and I am sorry to hear
it«
»You neednt make a merit of that« said she
»No my dear« said I »That would be very foolish«
She was still standing by the bed and now stooped down but still with the
same discontented face and kissed Ada That done she came softly back and
stood by the side of my chair Her bosom was heaving in a distressful manner
that I greatly pitied but I thought it better not to speak
»I wish I was dead« she broke out »I wish we were all dead It would be a
great deal better for us«
In a moment afterwards she knelt on the ground at my side hid her face in
my dress passionately begged my pardon and wept I comforted her and would
have raised her but she cried No no she wanted to stay there
»You used to teach girls« she said »If you could only have taught me I
could have learnt from you I am so very miserable and I like you so much«
I could not persuade her to sit by me or to do anything but move a ragged
stool to where she was kneeling and take that and still hold my dress in the
same manner By degrees the poor tired girl fell asleep and then I contrived
to raise her head so that it should rest on my lap and to cover us both with
shawls The fire went out and all night long she slumbered thus before the ashy
grate At first I was painfully awake and vainly tried to lose myself with my
eyes closed among the scenes of the day At length by slow degrees they
became indistinct and mingled I began to lose the identity of the sleeper
resting on me Now it was Ada now one of my old Reading friends from whom I
could not believe I had so recently parted Now it was the little mad woman
worn out with curtseying and smiling now some one in authority at Bleak House
Lastly it was no one and I was no one
The purblind day was feebly straggling with the fog when I opened my eyes
to encounter those of a dirtyfaced little spectre fixed upon me Peepy had
scaled his crib and crept down in his bedgown and cap and was so cold that his
teeth were chattering as if he had cut them all
Chapter V
A Morning Adventure
Although the morning was raw and although the fog still seemed heavy I say
seemed for the windows were so encrusted with dirt that they would have made
Midsummer sunshine dim I was sufficiently forewarned of the discomfort within
doors at that early hour and sufficiently curious about London to think it a
good idea on the part of Miss Jellyby when she proposed that we should go out
for a walk
»Ma wont be down for ever so long« she said »and then its a chance if
breakfasts ready for an hour afterwards they dawdle so As to Pa he gets what
he can and goes to the office He never has what you would call a regular
breakfast Priscilla leaves him out the loaf and some milk when there is any
overnight Sometimes there isnt any milk and sometimes the cat drinks it But
Im afraid you must be tired Miss Summerson and perhaps you would rather go to
bed«
»I am not at all tired my dear« said I »and would much prefer to go out«
»If youre sure you would« returned Miss Jellyby »Ill get my things on«
Ada said she would go too and was soon astir I made a proposal to Peepy
in default of being able to do anything better for him that he should let me
wash him and afterwards lay him down on my bed again To this he submitted with
the best grace possible staring at me during the whole operation as if he
never had been and never could again be so astonished in his life looking
very miserable also certainty but making no complaint and going snugly to
sleep as soon as it was over At first I was in two minds about taking such a
liberty but I soon reflected that nobody in the house was likely to notice it
What with the bustle of despatching Peepy and the bustle of getting myself
ready and helping Ada I was soon quite in a glow We found Miss Jellyby trying
to warm herself at the fire in the writingroom which Priscilla was then
lighting with a smutty parlour candlestick throwing the candle in to make it
burn better Everything was just as we had left it last night and was evidently
intended to remain so Belowstairs the dinnercloth had not been taken away
but had been left ready for breakfast Crumbs dust and waste paper were all
over the house Some pewterpots and a milkcan hung on the area railings the
door stood open and we met the cook round the corner coming out of a
publichouse wiping her mouth She mentioned as she passed us that she had
been to see what oclock it was
But before we met the cook we met Richard who was dancing up and down
Thavies Inn to warm his feet He was agreeably surprised to see us stirring so
soon and said he would gladly share our walk So he took care of Ada and Miss
Jellyby and I went first I may mention that Miss Jellyby had relapsed into her
sulky manner and that I really should not have thought she liked me much
unless she had told me so
»Where would you wish to go« she asked
»Anywhere my dear« I replied
»Anywheres nowhere« said Miss Jellyby stopping perversely
»Let us go somewhere at any rate« said I
She then walked me on very fast
»I dont care« she said »Now you are my witness Miss Summerson I say I
dont care but if he was to come to our house with his great shining lumpy
forehead night after night till he was as old as Methuselah I wouldnt have
anything to say to him Such ASSES as he and Ma make of themselves«
»My dear« I remonstrated in allusion to the epithet and the vigorous
emphasis Miss Jellyby set upon it »Your duty as a child «
»O dont talk of duty as a child Miss Summerson wheres Mas duty as a
parent All made over to the public and Africa I suppose Then let the public
and Africa show duty as a child its much more their affair than mine You are
shocked I dare say Very well so am I shocked too so we are both shocked and
theres an end of it«
She walked me on faster yet
»But for all that I say again he may come and come and come and I wont
have anything to say to him I cant bear him If theres any stuff in the world
that I hate and detest its the stuff he and Ma talk I wonder the very
pavingstones opposite our house can have the patience to stay there and be a
witness of such inconsistencies and contradictions as all that sounding
nonsense and Mas management«
I could not but understand her to refer to Mr Quale the young gentleman
who had appeared after dinner yesterday I was saved the disagreeable necessity
of pursuing the subject by Richard and Ada coming up at a round pace laughing
and asking us if we meant to run a race Thus interrupted Miss Jellyby became
silent and walked moodily on at my side while I admired the long successions
and varieties of streets the quantity of people already going to and fro the
number of vehicles passing and repassing the busy preparations in the setting
forth of shop windows and the sweeping out of shops and the extraordinary
creatures in rags secretly groping among the sweptout rubbish for pins and
other refuse
»So cousin« said the cheerful voice of Richard to Ada behind me »We are
never to get out of Chancery We have come by another way to our place of
meeting yesterday and by the Great Seal heres the old lady again«
Truly there she was immediately in front of us curtseying and smiling
and saying with her yesterdays air of patronage
»The wards in Jarndyce Very happy I am sure«
»You are out early maam« said I as she curtseyed to me
»Yees I usually walk here early Before the Court sits Its retired I
collect my thoughts here for the business of the day« said the old lady
mincingly »The business of the day requires a great deal of thought Chancery
justice is so very difficult to follow«
»Whos this Miss Summerson« whispered Miss Jellyby drawing my arm tighter
through her own
The little old ladys hearing was remarkably quick She answered for herself
directly
»A suitor my child At your service I have the honour to attend court
regularly With my documents Have I the pleasure of addressing another of the
youthful parties in Jarndyce« said the old lady recovering herself with her
head on one side from a very low curtsey
Richard anxious to atone for his thoughtlessness of yesterday
goodnaturedly explained that Miss Jellyby was not connected with the suit
»Ha« said the old lady »She does not expect a judgment She will still
grow old But not so old O dear no This is the garden of Lincolns Inn I
call it my garden It is quite a bower in the summertime Where the birds sing
melodiously I pass the greater part of the long vacation here In
contemplation You find the long vacation exceedingly long dont you«
We said yes as she seemed to expect us to say so
»When the leaves are falling from the trees and there are no more flowers
in bloom to make up into nosegays for the Lord Chancellors court« said the old
lady »the vacation is fulfilled and the sixth seal mentioned in the
Revelations again prevails Pray come and see my lodging It will be a good
omen for me Youth and hope and beauty are very seldom there It is a long
long time since I had a visit from either«
She had taken my hand and leading me and Miss Jellyby away beckoned
Richard and Ada to come too I did not know how to excuse myself and looked to
Richard for aid As he was half amused and half curious and all in doubt how to
get rid of the old lady without offence she continued to lead us away and he
and Ada continued to follow our strange conductress informing us all the time
with much smiling condescension that she lived close by
It was quite true as it soon appeared She lived so close by that we had
not time to have done humouring her for a few moments before she was at home
Slipping us out at a little side gate the old lady stopped most unexpectedly in
a narrow back street part of some courts and lanes immediately outside the wall
of the Inn and said »This is my lodging Pray walk up«
She had stopped at a shop over which was written KROOK RAG AND BOTTLE
WAREHOUSE Also in long thin letters KROOK DEALER IN MARINE STORES In one
part of the window was a picture of a red paper mill at which a cart was
unloading a quantity of sacks of old rags In another was the inscription
BONES BOUGHT In another KITCHENSTUFF BOUGHT In another OLD IRON BOUGHT In
another WASTE PAPER BOUGHT In another LADIES AND GENTLEMENS WARDROBES
BOUGHT Everything seemed to be bought and nothing to be sold there In all
parts of the window were quantities of dirty bottles blacking bottles
medicine bottles gingerbeer and sodawater bottles pickle bottles wine
bottles ink bottles I am reminded by mentioning the latter that the shop had
in several little particulars the air of being in a legal neighbourhood and of
being as it were a dirty hangeron and disowned relation of the law There
were a great many ink bottles There was a little tottering bench of shabby old
volumes outside the door labelled Law Books all at 9d Some of the
inscriptions I have enumerated were written in lawhand like the papers I had
seen in Kenge and Carboys office and the letters I had so long received from
the firm Among them was one in the same writing having nothing to do with the
business of the shop but announcing that a respectable man aged fortyfive
wanted engrossing or copying to execute with neatness and despatch Address to
Nemo care of Mr Krook within There were several secondhand bags blue and
red hanging up A little way within the shopdoor lay heaps of old crackled
parchment scrolls and discoloured and dogseared lawpapers I could have
fancied that all the rusty keys of which there must have been hundreds huddled
together as old iron had once belonged to doors of rooms or strong chests in
lawyers offices The litter of rags tumbled partly into and partly out of a
onelegged wooden scale hanging without any counterpoise from a beam might
have been counsellors bands and gowns torn up One had only to fancy as
Richard whispered to Ada and me while we all stood looking in that yonder bones
in a corner piled together and picked very clean were the bones of clients to
make the picture complete
As it was still foggy and dark and as the shop was blinded besides by the
wall of Lincolns Inn intercepting the light within a couple of yards we
should not have seen so much but for a lighted lantern that an old man in
spectacles and a hairy cap was carrying about in the shop Turning towards the
door he now caught sight of us He was short cadaverous and withered with
his head sunk sideways between his shoulders and the breath issuing in visible
smoke from his mouth as if he were on fire within His throat chin and
eyebrows were so frosted with white hairs and so gnarled with veins and
puckered skin that he looked from his breast upward like some old root in a
fall of snow
»Hi hi« said the old man coming to the door »Have you anything to sell«
We naturally drew back and glanced at our conductress who had been trying
to open the housedoor with a key she had taken from her pocket and to whom
Richard now said that as we had had the pleasure of seeing where she lived we
would leave her being pressed for time But she was not to be so easily left
She became so fantastically and pressingly earnest in her entreaties that we
would walk up and see her apartment for an instant and was so bent in her
harmless way on leading me in as part of the good omen she desired that I
whatever the others might do saw nothing for it but to comply I suppose we
were all more or less curious at any rate when the old man added his
persuasions to hers and said »Aye aye Please her It wont take a minute
Come in come in Come in through the shop if tother doors out of order« we
all went in stimulated by Richards laughing encouragement and relying on his
protection
»My landlord Krook« said the little old lady condescending to him from
her lofty station as she presented him to us »He is called among the
neighbours the Lord Chancellor His shop is called the Court of Chancery He is
a very eccentric person He is very odd Oh I assure you he is very odd«
She shook her head a great many times and tapped her forehead with her
finger to express to us that we must have the goodness to excuse him »For he
is a little you know M« said the old lady with great stateliness The
old man overheard and laughed
»Its true enough« he said going before us with the lantern »that they
call me the Lord Chancellor and call my shop Chancery And why do you think
they call me the Lord Chancellor and my shop Chancery«
»I dont know I am sure« said Richard rather carelessly
»You see« said the old man stopping and turning round »they Hi Heres
lovely hair I have got three sacks of ladies hair below but none so beautiful
and fine as this What colour and what texture«
»Thatll do my good friend« said Richard strongly disapproving of his
having drawn one of Adas tresses through his yellow hand »You can admire as
the rest of us do without taking that liberty«
The old man darted at him a sudden look which even called my attention from
Ada who startled and blushing was so remarkably beautiful that she seemed to
fix the wandering attention of the little old lady herself But as Ada
interposed and laughingly said she could only feel proud of such genuine
admiration Mr Krook shrunk into his former self as suddenly as he had leaped
out of it
»You see I have so many things here« he resumed holding up the lantern
»of so many kinds and all as the neighbours think but they know nothing
wasting away and going to rack and ruin that thats why they have given me and
my place a christening And I have so many old parchmentses and papers in my
stock And I have a liking for rust and must and cobwebs And alls fish that
comes to my net And I cant abear to part with anything I once lay hold of or
so my neighbours think but what do they know or to alter anything or to have
any sweeping nor scouring nor cleaning nor repairing going on about me
Thats the way Ive got the ill name of Chancery I dont mind I go to see my
noble and learned brother pretty well every day when he sits in the Inn He
dont notice me but I notice him Theres no great odds betwixt us We both grub
on in a muddle Hi Lady Jane«
A large grey cat leaped from some neighbouring shelf on his shoulder and
startled us all
»Hi show em how you scratch Hi Tear my lady« said her master
The cat leaped down and ripped at a bundle of rags with her tigerish claws
with a sound that it set my teeth on edge to hear
»Shed do as much for any one I was to set her on« said the old man »I
deal in catskins among other general matters and hers was offered to me Its
a very fine skin as you may see but I didnt have it stripped off That warnt
like Chancery practice though says you«
He had by this time led us across the shop and now opened a door in the
back part of it leading to the houseentry As he stood with his hand upon the
lock the little old lady graciously observed to him before passing out
»That will do Krook You mean well but are tiresome My young friends are
pressed for time I have none to spare myself having to attend court very soon
My young friends are the wards in Jarndyce«
»Jarndyce« said the old man with a start
»Jarndyce and Jarndyce The great suit Krook« returned his lodger
»Hi« exclaimed the old man in a tone of thoughtful amazement and with a
wider stare than before »Think of it«
He seemed so rapt all in a moment and looked so curiously at us that
Richard said
»Why you appear to trouble yourself a good deal about the causes before your
noble and learned brother the other Chancellor«
»Yes« said the old man abstractedly »Sure Your name now will be «
»Richard Carstone«
»Carstone« he repeated slowly checking off that name upon his forefinger
and each of the others he went on to mention upon a separate finger »Yes
There was the name of Barbary and the name of Clare and the name of Dedlock
too I think«
»He knows as much of the cause as the real salaried Chancellor« said
Richard quite astonished to Ada and me
»Ay« said the old man coming slowly out of his abstraction »Yes Tom
Jarndyce youll excuse me being related but he was never known about court
by any other name and was as well known there as she is now« nodding
slightly at his lodger »Tom Jarndyce was often in here He got into a restless
habit of strolling about when the cause was on or expected talking to the
little shopkeepers and telling em to keep out of Chancery whatever they did
For says he its being ground to bits in a slow mill its being roasted at a
slow fire its being stung to death by single bees its being drowned by
drops its going mad by grains He was as near making away with himself just
where the young lady stands as near could be«
We listened with horror
»He come in at the door« said the old man slowly pointing an imaginary
track along the shop »on the day he did it the whole neighbourhood had said
for months before that he would do it of a certainty sooner or later he come
in at the door that day and walked along there and sat himself on a bench that
stood there and asked me youll judge I was a mortal sight younger then to
fetch him a pint of wine For says he Krook I am much depressed my cause is
on again and I think Im nearer judgment than I ever was I hadnt a mind to
leave him alone and I persuaded him to go to the tavern over the way there
tother side my lane I mean Chancery Lane and I followed and looked in at the
window and saw him comfortable as I thought in the armchair by the fire and
company with him I hadnt hardly got back here when I heard a shot go echoing
and rattling right away into the inn I ran out neighbours ran out twenty of
us cried at once Tom Jarndyce«
The old man stopped looked hard at us looked down into the lantern blew
the light out and shut the lantern up
»We were right I neednt tell the present hearers Hi To be sure how the
neighbourhood poured into court that afternoon while the cause was on How my
noble and learned brother and all the rest of em grubbed and muddled away as
usual and tried to look as if they hadnt heard a word of the last fact in the
case or as if they had O dear me nothing at all to do with it if they had
heard of it by any chance«
Adas colour had entirely left her and Richard was scarcely less pale Nor
could I wonder judging even from my emotions and I was no party in the suit
that to hearts so untried and fresh it was a shock to come into the inheritance
of a protracted misery attended in the minds of many people with such dreadful
recollections I had another uneasiness in the application of the painful story
to the poor halfwitted creature who had brought us there but to my surprise
she seemed perfectly unconscious of that and only led the way upstairs again
informing us with the toleration of a superior creature for the infirmities of
a common mortal that her landlord was »a little M you know«
She lived at the top of the house in a pretty large room from which she
had a glimpse of Lincolns Inn Hall This seemed to have been her principal
inducement originally for taking up her residence there She could look at it
she said in the night especially in the moonshine Her room was clean but
very very bare I noticed the scantiest necessaries in the way of furniture a
few old prints from books of Chancellors and barristers wafered against the
wall and some halfdozen reticules and workbags containing documents as she
informed us There were neither coals nor ashes in the grate and I saw no
articles of clothing anywhere nor any kind of food Upon a shelf in an open
cupboard were a plate or two a cup or two and so forth but all dry and empty
There was a more affecting meaning in her pinched appearance I thought as I
looked round that I had understood before
»Extremely honoured I am sure« said our poor hostess with the greatest
suavity »by this visit from the wards in Jarndyce And very much indebted for
the omen It is a retired situation Considering I am limited as to situation
In consequence of the necessity of attending on the Chancellor I have lived
here many years I pass my days in court my evenings and my nights here I find
the nights long for I sleep but little and think much That is of course
unavoidable being in Chancery I am sorry I cannot offer chocolate I expect a
judgment shortly and shall then place my establishment on a superior footing
At present I dont mind confessing to the wards in Jarndyce in strict
confidence that I sometimes find it difficult to keep up a genteel appearance
I have felt the cold here I have felt something sharper than cold It matters
very little Pray excuse the introduction of such mean topics«
She partly drew aside the curtain of the long low garretwindow and called
our attention to a number of birdcages hanging there some containing several
birds There were larks linnets and goldfinches I should think at least
twenty
»I began to keep the little creatures« she said »with an object that the
wards will readily comprehend With the intention of restoring them to liberty
When my judgment should be given Yees They die in prison though Their
lives poor silly things are so short in comparison with Chancery proceedings
that one by one the whole collection has died over and over again I doubt do
you know whether one of these though they are all young will live to be free
Very mortifying is it not«
Although she sometimes asked a question she never seemed to expect a reply
but rambled on as if she were in the habit of doing so when no one but herself
was present
»Indeed« she pursued »I positively doubt sometimes I do assure you
whether while matters are still unsettled and the sixth or Great Seal still
prevails I may not one day be found lying stark and senseless here as I have
found so many birds«
Richard answering what he saw in Adas compassionate eyes took the
opportunity of laying some money softly and unobserved on the chimneypiece
We all drew nearer to the cages feigning to examine the birds
»I cant allow them to sing much« said the little old lady »for youll
think this curious I find my mind confused by the idea that they are singing
while I am following the arguments in Court And my mind requires to be so very
clear you know Another time Ill tell you their names Not at present On a
day of such good omen they shall sing as much as they like In honour of
youth« a smile and curtsey hope a smile and curtsey and beauty a smile and
curtsey »There Well let in the full light«
The birds began to stir and chirp
»I cannot admit the air freely« said the little old lady the room was
close and would have been the better for it »because the cat you saw
downstairs called Lady Jane is greedy for their lives She crouches on the
parapet outside for hours and hours I have discovered« whispering
mysteriously »that her natural cruelty is sharpened by a jealous fear of their
regaining their liberty In consequence of the judgment I expect being shortly
given She is sly and full of malice I half believe sometimes that she is no
cat but the wolf of the old saying It is so very difficult to keep her from
the door«
Some neighbouring bells reminding the poor soul that it was halfpast nine
did more for us in the way of bringing our visit to an end than we could easily
have done for ourselves She hurriedly took up her little bag of documents
which she had laid upon the table on coming in and asked if we were also going
into Court On our answering no and that we would on no account detain her she
opened the door to attend us downstairs
»With such an omen it is even more necessary than usual that I should be
there before the Chancellor comes in« said she »for he might mention my case
the first thing I have a presentiment that he will mention it the first thing
this morning«
She stopped to tell us in a whisper as we were going down that the whole
house was filled with strange lumber which her landlord had bought piecemeal
and had no wish to sell in consequence of being a little M This was on the
first floor But she had made a previous stoppage on the second floor and had
silently pointed at a dark door there
»The only other lodger« she now whispered in explanation »a law-writer
The children in the lanes here say he has sold himself to the devil I dont
know what he can have done with the money Hush«
She appeared to mistrust that the lodger might hear her even there and
repeating »Hush« went before us on tiptoe as though even the sound of her
footsteps might reveal to him what she had said
Passing through the shop on our way out as we had passed through it on our
way in we found the old man storing a quantity of packets of waste paper in a
kind of well in the floor He seemed to be working hard with the perspiration
standing on his forehead and had a piece of chalk by him with which as he put
each separate package or bundle down he made a crooked mark on the panelling of
the wall
Richard and Ada and Miss Jellyby and the little old lady had gone by him
and I was going when he touched me on the arm to stay me and chalked the
letter J upon the wall in a very curious manner beginning with the end of the
letter and shaping it backward It was a capital letter not a printed one but
just such a letter as any clerk in Messrs Kenge and Carboys office would have
made
»Can you read it« he asked me with a keen glance
»Surely« said I »Its very plain«
»What is it«
»J«
With another glance at me and a glance at the door he rubbed it out and
turned an a in its place not a capital letter this time and said »Whats
that«
I told him He then rubbed that out and turned the letter r and asked me
the same question He went on quickly until he had formed in the same curious
manner beginning at the ends and bottoms of the letters the word JARNDYCE
without once leaving two letters on the wall together
»What does that spell« he asked me
When I told him he laughed In the same odd way yet with the same
rapidity he then produced singly and rubbed out singly the letters forming
the words BLEAK HOUSE These in some astonishment I also read and he laughed
again
»Hi« said the old man laying aside the chalk »I have a turn for copying
from memory you see miss though I can neither read nor write«
He looked so disagreeable and his cat looked so wickedly at me as if I
were a bloodrelation of the birds upstairs that I was quite relieved by
Richards appearing at the door and saying
»Miss Summerson I hope you are not bargaining for the sale of your hair
Dont be tempted Three sacks below are quite enough for Mr Krook«
I lost no time in wishing Mr Krook good morning and joining my friends
outside where we parted with the little old lady who gave us her blessing with
great ceremony and renewed her assurance of yesterday in reference to her
intention of settling estates on Ada and me Before we finally turned out of
those lanes we looked back and saw Mr Krook standing at his shopdoor in his
spectacles looking after us with his cat upon his shoulder and her tail
sticking up on one side of his hairy cap like a tall feather
»Quite an adventure for a morning in London« said Richard with a sigh
»Ah cousin cousin its a weary word this Chancery«
»It is to me and has been ever since I can remember« returned Ada »I am
grieved that I should be the enemy as I suppose I am of a great number of
relations and others and that they should be my enemies as I suppose they
are and that we should all be ruining one another, without knowing how or why
and be in constant doubt and discord all our lives It seems very strange as
there must be right somewhere that an honest judge in real earnest has not been
able to find out through all these years where it is«
»Ah cousin« said Richard »Strange indeed all this wasteful wanton
chessplaying is very strange To see that composed Court yesterday jogging on
so serenely and to think of the wretchedness of the pieces on the board gave
me the headache and the heartache both together My head ached with wondering
how it happened if men were neither fools nor rascals and my heart ached to
think they could possibly be either But at all events Ada I may call you
Ada«
»Of course you may cousin Richard«
»At all events Chancery will work none of its bad influences on us We have
happily been brought together thanks to our good kinsman and it cant divide
us now«
»Never I hope cousin Richard« said Ada gently
Miss Jellyby gave my arm a squeeze and me a very significant look I smiled
in return and we made the rest of the way back very pleasantly
In half an hour after our arrival Mrs Jellyby appeared and in the course
of an hour the various things necessary for breakfast straggled one by one into
the diningroom I do not doubt that Mrs Jellyby had gone to bed and got up in
the usual manner but she presented no appearance of having changed her dress
She was greatly occupied during breakfast for the mornings post brought a
heavy correspondence relative to BorrioboolaGha which would occasion her she
said to pass a busy day The children tumbled about and notched memoranda of
their accidents in their legs which were perfect little calendars of distress
and Peepy was lost for an hour and a half and brought home from Newgate market
by a policeman The equable manner in which Mrs Jellyby sustained both his
absence and his restoration to the family circle surprised us all
She was by that time perseveringly dictating to Caddy and Caddy was fast
relapsing into the inky condition in which we had found her At one oclock an
open carriage arrived for us and a cart for our luggage Mrs Jellyby charged
us with many remembrances to her good friend Mr Jarndyce Caddy left her desk
to see us depart kissed me in the passage and stood biting her pen and
sobbing on the steps Peepy I am happy to say was asleep and spared the pain
of separation I was not without misgivings that he had gone to Newgate market
in search of me and all the other children got up behind the barouche and fell
off and we saw them with great concern scattered over the surface of Thavies
Inn as we rolled out of its precincts
Chapter VI
Quite at Home
The day had brightened very much and still brightened as we went westward We
went our way through the sunshine and the fresh air wondering more and more at
the extent of the streets the brilliancy of the shops the great traffic and
the crowds of people whom the pleasanter weather seemed to have brought out like
manycoloured flowers Byandby we began to leave the wonderful city and to
proceed through suburbs which of themselves would have made a pretty large
town in my eyes and at last we got into a real country road again with
windmills rickyards milestones farmers waggons scents of old hay swinging
signs and horse troughs trees fields and hedgerows It was delightful to see
the green landscape before us and the immense metropolis behind and when a
waggon with a train of beautiful horses furnished with red trappings and
clearsounding bells came by us with its music I believe we could all three
have sung to the bells so cheerful were the influences around
»The whole road has been reminding me of my namesake Whittington« said
Richard »and that waggon is the finishing touch Halloa whats the matter«
We had stopped and the waggon had stopped too Its music changed as the
horses came to a stand and subsided to a gentle tinkling except when a horse
tossed his head or shook himself and sprinkled off a little shower of
bellringing
»Our postilion is looking after the waggoner« said Richard »and the
waggoner is coming back after us Good day friend« The waggoner was at our
coachdoor »Why heres an extraordinary thing« added Richard looking closely
at the man »He has got your name Ada in his hat«
He had all our names in his hat Tucked within the band were three small
notes one addressed to Ada one to Richard one to me These the waggoner
delivered to each of us respectively reading the name aloud first In answer to
Richards inquiry from whom they came he briefly answered »Master sir if you
please« and putting on his hat again which was like a soft bowl cracked his
whip reawakened his music and went melodiously away
»Is that Mr Jarndyces Waggon« said Richard calling to our postboy
»Yes sir« he replied »Going to London«
We opened the notes Each was a counterpart of the other and contained
these words in a solid plain hand
»I look forward my dear to our meeting easily and without constraint
on either side I therefore have to propose that we meet as old friends
and take the past for granted It will be a relief to you possibly and
to me certainly and so my love to you
JOHN JARNDYCE«
I had perhaps less reason to be surprised than either of my companions having
never yet enjoyed an opportunity of thanking one who had been my benefactor and
sole earthly dependence through so many years I had not considered how I could
thank him my gratitude lying too deep in my heart for that but I now began to
consider how I could meet him without thanking him and felt it would be very
difficult indeed
The notes revived in Richard and Ada a general impression that they both
had without quite knowing how they came by it that their cousin Jarndyce could
never bear acknowledgments for any kindness he performed and that sooner than
receive any he would resort to the most singular expedients and evasions or
would even run away Ada dimly remembered to have heard her mother tell when
she was a very little child that he had once done her an act of uncommon
generosity and that on her going to his house to thank him he happened to see
her through a window coming to the door and immediately escaped by the back
gate and was not heard of for three months This discourse led to a great deal
more on the same theme and indeed it lasted us all day and we talked of
scarcely anything else If we did by any chance diverge into another subject
we soon returned to this and wondered what the house would be like and when we
should get there and whether we should see Mr Jarndyce as soon as we arrived
or after a delay and what he would say to us and what we should say to him
All of which we wondered about over and over again
The roads were very heavy for the horses but the pathway was generally
good so we alighted and walked up all the hills and liked it so well that we
prolonged our walk on the level ground when we got to the top At Barnet there
were other horses waiting for us but as they bad only just been fed we had to
wait for them too and got a long fresh walk over a common and an old
battlefield before the carriage came up These delays so protracted the
journey that the short day was spent and the long night had closed in before
we came to St Albans near to which town Bleak House was we knew
By that time we were so anxious and nervous that even Richard confessed as
we rattled over the stones of the old street to feeling an irrational desire to
drive back again As to Ada and me whom he had wrapped up with great care the
night being sharp and frosty we trembled from head to foot When we turned out
of the town round a corner and Richard told us that the postboy who had for
a long time sympathised with our heightened expectation was looking back and
nodding we both stood up in the carriage Richard holding Ada lest she should
be jolted down and gazed round upon the open country and the starlight night
for our destination There was a light sparkling on the top of a hill before us
and the driver pointing to it with his whip and crying »Thats Bleak House«
put his horses into a canter and took us forward at such a rate uphill though
it was that the wheels sent the road drift flying about our heads like spray
from a watermill Presently we lost the light presently saw it presently lost
it presently saw it and turned into an avenue of trees and cantered up
towards where it was beaming brightly It was in a window of what seemed to be
an oldfashioned house with three peaks in the roof in front and a circular
sweep leading to the porch A bell was rung as we drew up and amidst the sound
of its deep voice in the still air and the distant barking of some dogs and a
gush of light from the opened door and the smoking and steaming of the heated
horses and the quickened beating of our own hearts we alighted in no
inconsiderable confusion
»Ada my love Esther my dear you are welcome I rejoice to see you Rick
if I had a hand to spare at present I would give it you«
The gentleman who said these words in a clear bright hospitable voice had
one of his arms round Adas waist and the other round mine and kissed us both
in a fatherly way and bore us across the hall into a ruddy little room all in
a glow with a blazing fire Here he kissed us again and opening his arms made
us sit down side by side on a sofa ready drawn out near the hearth I felt that
if we had been at all demonstrative he would have run away in a moment
»Now Rick« said he »I have a hand at liberty A word in earnest is as
good as a speech I am heartily glad to see you You are at home Warm
yourself«
Richard shook him by both hands with an intuitive mixture of respect and
frankness and only saying though with an earnestness that rather alarmed me I
was so afraid of Mr Jarndyces suddenly disappearing »You are very kind sir
We are very much obliged to you« laid aside his hat and coat and came up to
the fire
»And how did you like the ride And how did you like Mrs Jellyby my dear«
said Mr Jarndyce to Ada
While Ada was speaking to him in reply I glanced I need not say with how
much interest at his face It was a handsome lively quick face full of
change and motion and his hair was a silvered irongrey I took him to be
nearer sixty than fifty but he was upright hearty and robust From the moment
of his first speaking to us his voice had connected itself with an association
in my mind that I could not define but now all at once a something sudden in
his manner and a pleasant expression in his eyes recalled the gentleman in the
stagecoach six years ago on the memorable day of my journey to Reading I was
certain it was he I never was so frightened in my life as when I made the
discovery for he caught my glance and appearing to read my thoughts gave such
a look at the door that I thought we had lost him
However I am happy to say he remained where he was and asked me what I
thought of Mrs Jellyby
»She exerts herself very much for Africa sir« I said
»Nobly« returned Mr Jarndyce »But you answer like Ada« Whom I had not
heard »You all think something else I see«
»We rather thought« said I glancing at Richard and Ada who entreated me
with their eyes to speak »that perhaps she was a little unmindful of her home«
»Floored« cried Mr Jarndyce
I was rather alarmed again
»Well I want to know your real thoughts my dear I may have sent you there
on purpose«
»We thought that perhaps« said I hesitating »it is right to begin with
the obligations of home sir and that perhaps while those are overlooked and
neglected no other duties can possibly be substituted for them«
»The little Jellybys« said Richard coming to my relief »are really I
cant help expressing myself strongly sir in a devil of a state«
»She means well« said Mr Jarndyce hastily »The winds in the east«
»It was in the north sir as we came down« observed Richard
»My dear Rick« said Mr Jarndyce poking the fire »Ill take an oath its
either in the east or going to be I am always conscious of an uncomfortable
sensation now and then when the wind is blowing in the east«
»Rheumatism sir« said Richard
»I dare say it is Rick I believe it is And so the little Jell I had my
doubts about em are in a oh Lord yes its easterly« said Mr Jarndyce
He had taken two or three undecided turns up and down while uttering these
broken sentences retaining the poker in one hand and rubbing his hair with the
other with a goodnatured vexation at once so whimsical and so loveable that
I am sure we were more delighted with him than we could possibly have expressed
in any words He gave an arm to Ada and an arm to me and bidding Richard bring
a candle was leading the way out when he suddenly turned us all back again
»Those little Jellybys Couldnt you didnt you now if it had rained
sugarplums or threecornered raspberry tarts or anything of that sort« said
Mr Jarndyce
»O cousin « Ada hastily began
»Good my pretty pet I like cousin Cousin John perhaps is better«
»Then cousin John « Ada laughingly began again
»Ha ha Very good indeed« said Mr Jarndyce with great enjoyment »Sounds
uncommonly natural Yes my dear«
»It did better than that It rained Esther«
»Ay« said Mr Jarndyce »What did Esther do«
»Why cousin John« said Ada clasping her hands upon his arm and shaking
her head at me across him for I wanted her to be quiet »Esther was their
friend directly Esther nursed them coaxed them to sleep washed and dressed
them told them stories kept them quiet bought them keepsakes« My dear girl
I had only gone out with Peepy after he was found and given him a little tiny
horse »and cousin John she softened poor Caroline the eldest one so much
and was so thoughtful for me and so amiable No no I wont be contradicted
Esther dear You know you know its true«
The warmhearted darling leaned across her cousin John and kissed me and
then looking up in his face boldly said »At all events cousin John I will
thank you for the companion you have given me« I felt as if she challenged him
to run away But he didnt
»Where did you say the wind was Rick« asked Mr Jarndyce
»In the north as we came down sir«
»You are right Theres no east in it A mistake of mine Come girls come
and see your home«
It was one of those delightfully irregular houses where you go up and down
steps out of one room into another and where you come upon more rooms when you
think you have seen all there are and where there is a bountiful provision of
little halls and passages and where you find still older cottagerooms in
unexpected places with lattice windows and green growth pressing through them
Mine which we entered first was of this kind with an upanddown roof that
had more corners in it than I ever counted afterwards and a chimney there was
a woodfire on the hearth paved all around with pure white tiles in every one
of which a bright miniature of the fire was blazing Out of this room you went
down two steps into a charming little sittingroom looking down upon a
flowergarden which room was henceforth to belong to Ada and me Out of this
you went up three steps into Adas bedroom which had a fine broad window
commanding a beautiful view we saw a great expanse of darkness lying underneath
the stars to which there was a hollow windowseat in which with a
springlock three dear Adas might have been lost at once Out of this room you
passed into a little gallery with which the other best rooms only two
communicated and so by a little staircase of shallow steps with a number of
corner stairs in it considering its length down into the hall But if instead
of going out at Adas door you came back into my room and went out at the door
by which you had entered it and turned up a few crooked steps that branched off
in an unexpected manner from the stairs you lost yourself in passages with
mangles in them and threecornered tables and a NativeHindoo chair which was
also a sofa a box and a bedstead and looked in every form something between
a bamboo skeleton and a great birdcage and had been brought from India nobody
knew by whom or when From these you came on Richards room which was part
library part sittingroom part bedroom and seemed indeed a comfortable
compound of many rooms Out of that you went straight with a little interval
of passage to the plain room where Mr Jarndyce slept all the year round with
his window open his bedstead without any furniture standing in the middle of
the floor for more air and his coldbath gaping for him in a smaller room
adjoining Out of that you came into another passage where there were
backstairs and where you could hear the horses being rubbed down outside the
stable and being told to Hold up and Get over as they slipped about very much
on the uneven stones Or you might if you came out at another door every room
had at least two doors go straight down to the hall again by halfadozen
steps and a low archway wondering how you got back there or had ever got out
of it
The furniture oldfashioned rather than old like the house was as
pleasantly irregular Adas sleepingroom was all flowers in chintz and paper
in velvet in needlework in the brocade of two stiff courtly chairs which
stood each attended by a little page of a stool for greater state on either
side of the fireplace Our sittingroom was green and had framed and glazed
upon the walls numbers of surprising and surprised birds staring out of
pictures at a real trout in a case as brown and shining as if it had been
served with gravy at the death of Captain Cook and at the whole process of
preparing tea in China as depicted by Chinese artists In my room there were
oval engravings of the months ladies haymaking in short waists and large
hats tied under the chin for June smoothlegged noblemen pointing with
cockedhats to village steeples for October Halflength portraits in
crayons abounded all through the house but were so dispersed that I found the
brother of a youthful officer of mine in the chinacloset and the grey old age
of my pretty young bride with a flower in her bodice in the breakfastroom As
substitutes I had four angels of Queen Annes reign taking a complacent
gentleman to heaven in festoons with some difficulty and a composition in
needlework representing fruit a kettle and an alphabet All the moveables
from the wardrobes to the chairs and tables hangings glasses even to the
pincushions and scentbottles on the dressingtables displayed the same quaint
variety They agreed in nothing but their perfect neatness their display of the
whitest linen and their storingup wheresoever the existence of a drawer
small or large rendered it possible of quantities of roseleaves and sweet
lavender Such with its illuminated windows softened here and there by shadows
of curtains shining out upon the starlight night with its light and warmth
and comfort with its hospitable jingle at a distance of preparations for
dinner with the face of its generous master brightening everything we saw and
just wind enough without to sound a low accompaniment to everything we heard
were our first impressions of Bleak House
»I am glad you like it« said Mr Jarndyce when he had brought us round
again to Adas sittingroom »It makes no pretensions but it is a comfortable
little place I hope and will be more so with such bright young looks in it
You have barely half an hour before dinner Theres no one here but the finest
creature upon earth a child«
»More children Esther« said Ada
»I dont mean literally a child« pursued Mr Jarndyce »not a child in
years He is grown up he is at least as old as I am but in simplicity and
freshness and enthusiasm and a fine guileless inaptitude for all worldly
affairs he is a perfect child«
We felt that he must be very interesting
»He knows Mrs Jellyby« said Mr Jarndyce »He is a musical man an
Amateur but might have been a Professional He is an Artist too an Amateur
but might have been a Professional He is a man of attainments and of
captivating manners He has been unfortunate in his affairs and unfortunate in
his pursuits and unfortunate in his family but he dont care hes a child«
»Did you imply that he has children of his own sir« inquired Richard
»Yes Rick Halfadozen More Nearer a dozen I should think But he has
never looked after them How could he He wanted somebody to look after him He
is a child you know« said Mr Jarndyce
»And have the children looked after themselves at all sir« inquired
Richard
»Why just as you may suppose« said Mr Jarndyce his countenance suddenly
falling »It is said that the children of the very poor are not brought up but
dragged up Harold Skimpoles children have tumbled up somehow or other The
winds getting round again I am afraid I feel it rather«
Richard observed that the situation was exposed on a sharp night
»It is exposed« said Mr Jarndyce »No doubt thats the cause Bleak House
has an exposed sound But you are coming my way Come along«
Our luggage having arrived and being all at hand I was dressed in a few
minutes and engaged in putting my worldly goods away when a maid not the one
in attendance upon Ada but another whom I had not seen brought a basket into
my room with two bunches of keys in it all labelled
»For you miss if you please« said she
»For me« said I
»The housekeeping keys miss«
I showed my surprise for she added with some little surprise on her own
part »I was told to bring them as soon as you was alone miss Miss Summerson
if I dont deceive myself«
»Yes« said I »That is my name«
»The large bunch is the housekeeping and the little bunch is the cellars
miss Any time you was pleased to appoint tomorrow morning I was to show you
the presses and things they belong to«
I said I would be ready at halfpast six and after she was gone stood
looking at the basket quite lost in the magnitude of my trust Ada found me
thus and had such a delightful confidence in me when I showed her the keys and
told her about them that it would have been insensibility and ingratitude not
to feel encouraged I knew to be sure that it was the dear girls kindness
but I liked to be so pleasantly cheated
When we went downstairs we were presented to Mr Skimpole who was
standing before the fire telling Richard how fond he used to be in his
schooltime of football He was a little bright creature with a rather large
head but a delicate face and a sweet voice and there was a perfect charm in
him All he said was so free from effort and spontaneous and was said with such
a captivating gaiety that it was fascinating to hear him talk Being of a more
slender figure than Mr Jarndyce and having a richer complexion with browner
hair he looked younger Indeed he had more the appearance in all respects of
a damaged young man than a wellpreserved elderly one There was an easy
negligence in his manner and even in his dress his hair carelessly disposed
and his neckkerchief loose and flowing as I have seen artists paint their own
portraits which I could not separate from the idea of a romantic youth who had
undergone some unique process of depreciation It struck me as being not at all
like the manner or appearance of a man who had advanced in life by the usual
road of years cares and experiences
I gathered from the conversation that Mr Skimpole had been educated for
the medical profession and had once lived in his professional capacity in the
household of a German prince He told us however that as he had always been a
mere child in point of weights and measures and had never known anything about
them except that they disgusted him he had never been able to prescribe with
the requisite accuracy of detail In fact he said he had no head for detail
And he told us with great humour that when he was wanted to bleed the prince
or physic any of his people he was generally found lying on his back in bed
reading the newspapers or making fancysketches in pencil and couldnt come
The prince at last objecting to this »in which« said Mr Skimpole in the
frankest manner »he was perfectly right« the engagement terminated and Mr
Skimpole having as he added with delightful gaiety »nothing to live upon but
love fell in love and married and surrounded himself with rosy cheeks« His
good friend Jarndyce and some other of his good friends then helped him in
quicker or slower succession to several openings in life but to no purpose
for he must confess to two of the oldest infirmities in the world one was that
he had no idea of time the other that he had no idea of money In consequence
of which he never kept an appointment never could transact any business and
never knew the value of anything Well So he had got on in life and here he
was He was very fond of reading the papers very fond of making fancysketches
with a pencil very fond of nature, very fond of art All he asked of society
was to let him live That wasnt much His wants were few Give him the papers
conversation music mutton coffee landscape fruit in the season a few
sheets of Bristolboard and a little claret and he asked no more He was a
mere child in the world but he didnt cry for the moon He said to the world
»Go your several ways in peace Wear red coats blue coats lawn sleeves put
pens behind your ears wear aprons go after glory holiness commerce trade
any object you prefer only let Harold Skimpole live«
All this and a great deal more he told us not only with the utmost
brilliancy and enjoyment but with a certain vivacious candour speaking of
himself as if he were not at all his own affair as if Skimpole were a third
person as if he knew that Skimpole had his singularities but still had his
claims too which were the general business of the community and must not be
slighted He was quite enchanting If I felt at all confused at that early time
in endeavouring to reconcile anything he said with anything I had thought about
the duties and accountabilities of life which I am far from sure of I was
confused by not exactly understanding why he was free of them That he was free
of them I scarcely doubted he was so very clear about it himself
»I covet nothing« said Mr Skimpole in the same light way »Possession is
nothing to me Here is my friend Jarndyces excellent house I feel obliged to
him for possessing it I can sketch it and alter it I can set it to music
When I am here I have sufficient possession of it and have neither trouble
cost nor responsibility My stewards name in short is Jarndyce and he cant
cheat me We have been mentioning Mrs Jellyby There is a brighteyed woman of
a strong will and immense power of businessdetail who throws herself into
objects with surprising ardour I dont regret that I have not a strong will and
an immense power of businessdetail to throw myself into objects with
surprising ardour I can admire her without envy I can sympathise with the
objects. I can dream of them I can lie down on the grass in fine weather
and float along an African river embracing all the natives I meet as sensible
of the deep silence and sketching the dense overhanging tropical growth as
accurately as if I were there I dont know that its of any direct use my
doing so but its all I can do and I do it thoroughly Then for Heavens
sake having Harold Skimpole a confiding child petitioning you the world an
agglomeration of practical people of business habits to let him live and admire
the human family do it somehow or other like good souls and suffer him to
ride his rockinghorse«
It was plain enough that Mr Jarndyce had not been neglectful of the
adjuration
Mr Skimpoles general position there would have rendered it so without the
addition of what he presently said
»Its only you the generous creatures whom I envy« said Mr Skimpole
addressing us his new friends in an impersonal manner »I envy you your power
of doing what you do It is what I should revel in myself I dont feel any
vulgar gratitude to you I almost feel as if you ought to be grateful to me for
giving you the opportunity of enjoying the luxury of generosity I know you like
it For anything I can tell I may have come into the world expressly for the
purpose of increasing your stock of happiness I may have been born to be a
benefactor to you by sometimes giving you an opportunity of assisting me in my
little perplexities Why should I regret my incapacity for details and worldly
affairs when it leads to such pleasant consequences I dont regret it
therefore«
Of all his playful speeches playful yet always fully meaning what they
expressed none seemed to be more to the taste of Mr Jarndyce than this I had
often new temptations afterwards to wonder whether it was really singular or
only singular to me that he who was probably the most grateful of mankind upon
the least occasion should so desire to escape the gratitude of others
We were all enchanted I felt it a merited tribute to the engaging qualities
of Ada and Richard that Mr Skimpole seeing them for the first time should be
so unreserved and should lay himself out to be so exquisitely agreeable They
and especially Richard were naturally pleased for similar reasons and
considered it no common privilege to be so freely confided in by such an
attractive man The more we listened the more gaily Mr Skimpole talked And
what with his fine hilarious manner and his engaging candour and his genial
way of lightly tossing his own weaknesses about as if he had said »I am a
child you know You are designing people compared with me« he really made me
consider myself in that light »but I am gay and innocent forget your worldly
arts and play with me« the effect was absolutely dazzling
He was so full of feeling too and had such a delicate sentiment for what
was beautiful or tender that he could have won a heart by that alone In the
evening when I was preparing to make tea and Ada was touching the piano in the
adjoining room and softly humming a tune to her cousin Richard which they had
happened to mention he came and sat down on the sofa near me and so spoke of
Ada that I almost loved him
»She is like the morning« he said »With that golden hair those blue eyes
and that fresh bloom on her cheek she is like the summer morning The birds
here will mistake her for it We will not call such a lovely young creature as
that who is a joy to all mankind an orphan She is the child of the universe«
Mr Jarndyce I found was standing near us with his hands behind him and
an attentive smile upon his face
»The universe« he observed »makes rather an indifferent parent I am
afraid«
»O I dont know« cried Mr Skimpole buoyantly
»I think I do know« said Mr Jarndyce
»Well« cried Mr Skimpole »you know the world which in your sense is the
universe and I know nothing of it so you shall have your way But if I had
mine« glancing at the cousins »there should be no brambles of sordid realities
in such a path as that It should be strewn with roses it should lie through
bowers where there was no spring autumn nor winter but perpetual summer Age
or change should never wither it The base word money should never be breathed
near it«
Mr Jarndyce patted him on the head with a smile as if he had been really a
child and passing a step or two on and stopping a moment glanced at the young
cousins His look was thoughtful but had a benignant expression in it which I
often how often saw again which has long been engraven on my heart The room
in which they were communicating with that in which he stood was only lighted
by the fire Ada sat at the piano Richard stood beside her bending down Upon
the wall their shadows blended together surrounded by strange forms not
without a ghostly motion caught from the unsteady fire though reflecting from
motionless objects Ada touched the notes so softly and sang so low that the
wind sighing away to the distant hills was as audible as the music The
mystery of the future and the little clue afforded to it by the voice of the
present seemed expressed in the whole picture
But it is not to recall this fancy well as I remember it that I recall the
scene First I was not quite unconscious of the contrast in respect of meaning
and intention between the silent look directed that way and the flow of words
that had preceded it Secondly though Mr Jarndyces glance as he withdrew it
rested for but a moment on me I felt as if in that moment he confided to me
and knew that he confided to me and that I received the confidence his hope
that Ada and Richard might one day enter on a dearer relationship
Mr Skimpole could play on the piano and the violoncello and he was a
composer had composed half an opera once but got tired of it and played
what he composed with taste After tea we had quite a little concert in which
Richard who was enthralled by Adas singing and told me that she seemed to
know all the songs that ever were written and Mr Jarndyce and I were the
audience After a little while I missed first Mr Skimpole and afterwards
Richard and while I was thinking how could Richard stay away so long and lose
so much the maid who had given me the keys looked in at the door saying »If
you please miss could you spare a minute«
When I was shut out with her in the hall she said holding up her hands
»Oh if you please miss Mr Carstone says would you come upstairs to Mr
Skimpoles room He has been took miss«
»Took« said I
»Took miss Sudden« said the maid
I was apprehensive that his illness might be of a dangerous kind but of
course I begged her to be quiet and not disturb any one and collected myself
as I followed her quickly upstairs sufficiently to consider what were the best
remedies to be applied if it should prove to be a fit She threw open a door
and I went into a chamber where to my unspeakable surprise instead of finding
Mr Skimpole stretched upon the bed or prostrate on the floor I found him
standing before the fire smiling at Richard while Richard with a face of great
embarrassment looked at a person on the sofa in a white greatcoat with
smooth hair upon his head and not much of it which he was wiping smoother and
making less of with a pockethandkerchief
»Miss Summerson« said Richard hurriedly »I am glad you are come You will
be able to advise us Our friend Mr Skimpole dont be alarmed is arrested
for debt«
»And really my dear Miss Summerson« said Mr Skimpole with his agreeable
candour »I never was in a situation in which that excellent sense and quiet
habit of method and usefulness which anybody must observe in you who has the
happiness of being a quarter of an hour in your society was more needed«
The person on the sofa who appeared to have a cold in his head gave such a
very loud snort that he startled me
»Are you arrested for much sir« I inquired of Mr Skimpole
»My dear Miss Summerson« said he shaking his head pleasantly »I dont
know Some pounds odd shillings and halfpence I think were mentioned«
»Its twentyfour pound sixteen and sevenpence hapenny« observed the
stranger »Thats wot it is«
»And it sounds somehow it sounds« said Mr Skimpole »like a small sum«
The strange man said nothing but made another snort It was such a powerful
one that it seemed quite to lift him out of his seat
»Mr Skimpole« said Richard to me »has a delicacy in applying to my cousin
Jarndyce because he has lately I think sir I understood you that you had
lately «
»Oh yes« returned Mr Skimpole smiling »Though I forgot how much it was
and when it was Jarndyce would readily do it again but I have the epicurelike
feeling that I would prefer a novelty in help that I would rather« and he
looked at Richard and me »develop generosity in a new soil and in a new form
of flower«
»What do you think will be best Miss Summerson« said Richard aside
I ventured to inquire generally before replying what would happen if the
money were not produced
»Jail« said the strange man coolly putting his handkerchief into his hat
which was on the floor at his feet »Or Coavinses«
»May I ask sir what is «
»Coavinses« said the strange man »A ouse«
Richard and I looked at one another again It was a most singular thing that
the arrest was our embarrassment and not Mr Skimpoles He observed us with a
genial interest but there seemed if I may venture on such a contradiction,
nothing selfish in it He had entirely washed his hands of the difficulty and
it had become ours
»I thought« he suggested as if goodnaturedly to help us out »that being
parties in a Chancery suit concerning as people say a large amount of
property Mr Richard or his beautiful cousin or both could sign something or
make over something or give some sort of undertaking or pledge or bond I
dont know what the business name of it may be but I suppose there is some
instrument within their power that would settle this«
»Not a bit on it« said the strange man
»Really« returned Mr Skimpole »That seems odd now to one who is no
judge of these things«
»Odd or even« said the stranger gruffly »I tell you not a bit on it«
»Keep your temper my good fellow keep your temper« Mr Skimpole gently
reasoned with him as he made a little drawing of his head on the flyleaf of a
book »Dont be ruffled by your occupation We can separate you from your
office we can separate the individual from the pursuit We are not so
prejudiced as to suppose that in private life you are otherwise than a very
estimable man with a great deal of poetry in your nature of which you may not
be conscious«
The stranger only answered with another violent snort whether in acceptance
of the poetrytribute or in disdainful rejection of it he did not express to
me
»Now my dear Miss Summerson and my dear Mr Richard« said Mr Skimpole
gaily innocently and confidingly as he looked at his drawing with his head on
one side »here you see me utterly incapable of helping myself and entirely in
your hands I only ask to be free The butterflies are free Mankind will surely
not deny to Harold Skimpole what it concedes to the butterflies«
»My dear Miss Summerson« said Richard in a whisper »I have ten pounds
that I received from Mr Kenge I must try what that will do«
I possessed fifteen pounds odd shillings which I had saved from my
quarterly allowance during several years I had always thought that some
accident might happen which would throw me suddenly without any relation or
any property on the world and had always tried to keep some little money by
me that I might not be quite penniless I told Richard of my having this little
store and having no present need of it and I asked him delicately to inform
Mr Skimpole while I should be gone to fetch it that we would have the
pleasure of paying his debt
When I came back Mr Skimpole kissed my hand and seemed quite touched Not
on his own account I was again aware of that perplexing and extraordinary
contradiction but on ours as if personal considerations were impossible with
him and the contemplation of our happiness alone affected him Richard begging
me for the greater grace of the transaction as he said to settle with
Coavinses as Mr Skimpole now jocularly called him I counted out the money
and received the necessary acknowledgment This too delighted Mr Skimpole
His compliments were so delicately administered that I blushed less than I
might have done and settled with the stranger in the white coat without making
any mistakes He put the money in his pocket and shortly said »Well then
Ill wish you a good evening miss«
»My friend« said Mr Skimpole standing with his back to the fire after
giving up the sketch when it was half finished »I should like to ask you
something without offence«
I think the reply was »Cut away then«
»Did you know this morning now that you were coming out on this errand«
said Mr Skimpole
»Knowd it yesday aftnoon at teatime« said Coavinses
»It didnt affect your appetite Didnt make you at all uneasy«
»Not a bit« said Coavinses »I knowd if you wos missed today you
wouldnt be missed tomorrow A day makes no such odds«
»But when you came down here« proceeded Mr Skimpole »it was a fine day
The sun was shining the wind was blowing the lights and shadows were passing
across the fields the birds were singing«
»Nobody said they warnt in my hearing« returned Coavinses
»No« observed Mr Skimpole »But what did you think upon the road«
»Wot do you mean« growled Coavinses with an appearance of strong
resentment »Think Ive got enough to do and little enough to get for it
without thinking Thinking« with profound contempt
»Then you didnt think at all events« proceeded Mr Skimpole »to this
effect Harold Skimpole loves to see the sun shine loves to hear the wind blow
loves to watch the changing lights and shadows loves to hear the birds those
choristers in Nature's great cathedral And does it seem to me that I am about
to deprive Harold Skimpole of his share in such possessions which are his only
birthright You thought nothing to that effect«
»I certainly did NOT« said Coavinses whose doggedness in utterly
renouncing the idea was of that intense kind that he could only give adequate
expression to it by putting a long interval between each word and accompanying
the last with a jerk that might have dislocated his neck
»Very odd and very curious the mental process is, in you men of business«
said Mr Skimpole thoughtfully »Thank you my friend Good night«
As our absence had been long enough already to seem strange downstairs I
returned at once and found Ada sitting at work by the fireside talking to her
cousin John Mr Skimpole presently appeared and Richard shortly after him I
was sufficiently engaged during the remainder of the evening in taking my
first lesson in backgammon from Mr Jarndyce who was very fond of the game and
from whom I wished of course to learn it as quickly as I could in order that I
might be of the very small use of being able to play when he had no better
adversary But I thought occasionally when Mr Skimpole played some fragments
of his own compositions or when both at the piano and the violoncello and at
our table he preserved with an absence of all effort his delightful spirits
and his easy flow of conversation that Richard and I seemed to retain the
transferred impression of having been arrested since dinner and that it was
very curious altogether
It was late before we separated for when Ada was going at eleven oclock
Mr Skimpole went to the piano and rattled hilariously that the best of all
ways to lengthen our days was to steal a few hours from Night my dear It was
past twelve before he took his candle and his radiant face out of the room and
I think he might have kept us there if he had seen fit until daybreak Ada and
Richard were lingering for a few moments by the fire wondering whether Mrs
Jellyby had yet finished her dictation for the day when Mr Jarndyce who had
been out of the room returned
»Oh dear me whats this whats this« he said rubbing his head and
walking about with his goodhumoured vexation »Whats this they tell me Rick
my boy Esther my dear what have you been doing Why did you do it How could
you do it How much apiece was it The winds round again I feel it all over
me«
We neither of us quite knew what to answer
»Come Rick come I must settle this before I sleep How much are you out
of pocket You two made the money up you know Why did you How could you O
Lord yes its due east must be«
»Really sir« said Richard »I dont think it would be honourable in me to
tell you Mr Skimpole relied upon us «
»Lord bless you my dear boy He relies upon everybody« said Mr Jarndyce
giving his head a great rub and stopping short
»Indeed sir«
»Everybody And hell be in the same scrape again next week« said Mr
Jarndyce walking again at a great pace with a candle in his hand that had gone
out »Hes always in the same scrape He was born in the same scrape I verily
believe that the announcement in the newspapers when his mother was confined
was On Tuesday last at her residence in Botheration Buildings Mrs Skimpole of
a son in difficulties«
Richard laughed heartily but added »Still sir I dont want to shake his
confidence or to break his confidence and if I submit to your better knowledge
again that I ought to keep his secret I hope you will consider before you
press me any more Of course if you do press me sir I shall know I am wrong
and will tell you«
»Well« cried Mr Jarndyce stopping again and making several absent
endeavours to put his candlestick in his pocket »I here Take it away my
dear I dont know what I am about with it its all the wind invariably has
that effect I wont press you Rick you may be right But really to get
hold of you and Esther and to squeeze you like a couple of tender young Saint
Michaels oranges Itll blow a gale in the course of the night«
He was now alternately putting his hands into his pockets as if he were
going to keep them there a long time and taking them out again and vehemently
rubbing them all over his head
I ventured to take this opportunity of hinting that Mr Skimpole being in
all such matters quite a child
»Eh my dear« said Mr Jarndyce catching at the word
» Being quite a child sir« said I »and so different from other people «
»You are right« said Mr Jarndyce brightening »Your womans wit hits the
mark He is a child an absolute child I told you he was a child you know
when I first mentioned him«
Certainly Certainly we said
»And he is a child Now isnt he« asked Mr Jarndyce brightening more and
more
He was indeed we said
»When you come to think of it its the height of childishness in you I
mean me « said Mr Jarndyce »to regard him for a moment as a man You cant
make him responsible The idea of Harold Skimpole with designs or plans or
knowledge of consequences Ha ha ha«
It was so delicious to see the clouds about his bright face clearing and to
see him so heartily pleased and to know as it was impossible not to know that
the source of his pleasure was the goodness which was tortured by condemning or
mistrusting or secretly accusing any one that I saw the tears in Adas eyes
while she echoed his laugh and felt them in my own
»Why what a cods head and shoulders I am« said Mr Jarndyce »to require
reminding of it The whole business shows the child from beginning to end
Nobody but a child would have thought of singling you two out for parties in the
affair Nobody but a child would have thought of your having the money If it
had been a thousand pounds it would have been just the same« said Mr
Jarndyce with his whole face in a glow
We all confirmed it from our nights experience
»To be sure to be sure« said Mr Jarndyce »However Rick Esther and you
too Ada for I dont know that even your little purse is safe from his
inexperience I must have a promise all round that nothing of this sort shall
ever be done anymore No advances Not even sixpences«
We all promised faithfully Richard with a merry glance at me touching his
pocket as if to remind me that there was no danger of our transgressing
»As to Skimpole« said Mr Jarndyce »a habitable dolls house with good
board and a few tin people to get into debt with and borrow money of would set
the boy up in life He is in a childs sleep by this time I suppose its time
I should take my craftier head to my more worldly pillow Good night my dears
God bless you«
He peeped in again with a smiling face before we had lighted our candles
and said »O I have been looking at the weathercock I find it was a false
alarm about the wind Its in the south« And went away singing to himself
Ada and I agreed as we talked together for a little while upstairs that
this caprice about the wind was a fiction and that he used the pretence to
account for any disappointment he could not conceal rather than he would blame
the real cause of it or disparage or depreciate any one We thought this very
characteristic of his eccentric gentleness and of the difference between him
and those petulant people who make the weather and the winds particularly that
unlucky wind which he had chosen for such a different purpose the
stalkinghorses of their splenetic and gloomy humours
Indeed so much affection for him had been added in this one evening to my
gratitude that I hoped I already began to understand him through that mingled
feeling Any seeming inconsistencies in Mr Skimpole or in Mrs Jellyby I
could not expect to be able to reconcile having so little experience or
practical knowledge Neither did I try for my thoughts were busy when I was
alone with Ada and Richard and with the confidence I had seemed to receive
concerning them My fancy made a little wild by the wind perhaps would not
consent to be all unselfish either though I would have persuaded it to be so
if I could It wandered back to my godmothers house and came along the
intervening track raising up shadowy speculations which had sometimes trembled
there in the dark as to what knowledge Mr Jarndyce had of my earliest history
even as to the possibility of his being my father though that idle dream was
quite gone now
It was all gone now I remembered getting up from the fire It was not for
me to muse over bygones but to act with a cheerful spirit and a grateful heart
So I said to myself »Esther Esther Esther Duty my dear« and gave my little
basket of housekeeping keys such a shake that they sounded like little bells
and rang me hopefully to bed
Chapter VII
The Ghosts Walk
While Esther sleeps and while Esther wakes it is still wet weather down at the
place in Lincolnshire The rain is ever falling drip drip drip by day and
night upon the broad flagged terracepavement The Ghosts Walk The weather is
so very bad down in Lincolnshire that the liveliest imagination can scarcely
apprehend its ever being fine again Not that there is any superabundant life of
imagination on the spot for Sir Leicester is not here and truly even if he
were would not do much for it in that particular but is in Paris with my
Lady and solitude with dusky wings sits brooding upon Chesney Wold
There may be some motions of fancy among the lower animals at Chesney Wold
The horses in the stables the long stables in a barren redbrick courtyard
where there is a great bell in a turret and a clock with a large face which
the pigeons who live near it and who love to perch upon its shoulders seem to
be always consulting they may contemplate some mental pictures of fine weather
on occasions and may be better artists at them than the grooms The old roan
so famous for crosscountry work turning his large eyeball to the grated window
near his rack may remember the fresh leaves that glisten there at other times
and the scents that stream in and may have a fine run with the hounds while
the human helper clearing out the next stall never stirs beyond his pitchfork
and birchbroom The grey whose place is opposite the door and who with an
impatient rattle of his halter pricks his ears and turns his head so wistfully
when it is opened and to whom the opener says »Woa grey then steady
Noabody wants you today« may know it quite as well as the man The whole
seemingly monotonous and uncompanionable halfdozen stabled together may pass
the long wet hours when the door is shut in livelier communication than is
held in the servants hall or at the Dedlock Arms or may even beguile the
time by improving perhaps corrupting the pony in the loosebox in the corner
So the mastiff dozing in his kennel in the courtyard with his large head
on his paws may think of the hot sunshine when the shadows of the
stablebuildings tire his patience out by changing and leave him at one time
of the day no broader refuge than the shadow of his own house where he sits on
end panting and growling short and very much wanting something to worry
besides himself and his chain So now halfwaking and allwinking he may
recall the house full of company the coachhouses full of vehicles the stables
full of horses and the outbuildings full of attendants upon horses until he
is undecided about the present and comes forth to see how it is Then with
that impatient shake of himself he may growl in the spirit »Rain rain rain
Nothing but rain and no family here« as he goes in again and lies down with
a gloomy yawn
So with the dogs in the kennelbuildings across the park who have their
restless fits and whose doleful voices when the wind has been very obstinate
have even made it known in the house itself upstairs downstairs and in my
ladys chamber They may hunt the whole countryside while the raindrops are
pattering round their inactivity So the rabbits with their selfbetraying
tails frisking in and out of holes at roots of trees may be lively with ideas
of the breezy days when their ears are blown about or of those seasons of
interest when there are sweet young plants to gnaw The turkey in the
poultryyard always troubled with a classgrievance probably Christmas may
be reminiscent of that summermorning wrongfully taken from him when he got
into the lane among the felled trees where there was a barn and barley The
discontented goose who stoop to pass under the old gateway twenty feet high
may gabble out if we only knew it a waddling preference for weather when the
gateway casts its shadow on the ground
Be this as it may there is not much fancy otherwise stirring at Chesney
Wold If there be a little at any odd moment it goes like a little noise in
that old echoing place a long way and usually leads off to ghosts and mystery
It has rained so hard and rained so long down in Lincolnshire that Mrs
Rouncewell the old housekeeper at Chesney Wold has several times taken off her
spectacles and cleaned them to make certain that the drops were not upon the
glasses Mrs Rouncewell might have been sufficiently assured by hearing the
rain but that she is rather deaf which nothing will induce her to believe She
is a fine old lady handsome stately wonderfully neat and has such a back and
such a stomacher that if her stays should turn out when she dies to have been a
broad oldfashioned family firegrate nobody who knows her would have cause to
be surprised Weather affects Mrs Rouncewell little The house is there in all
weathers and the house as she expresses it »is what she looks at« She sits
in her room in a side passage on the ground floor with an arched window
commanding a smooth quadrangle adorned at regular intervals with smooth round
trees and smooth round blocks of stone as if the trees were going to play at
bowls with the stones and the whole house reposes on her mind She can open it
on occasion and be busy and fluttered but it is shutup now and lies on the
breadth of Mrs Rouncewells ironbound bosom in a majestic sleep
It is the next difficult thing to an impossibility to imagine Chesney Wold
without Mrs Rouncewell but she has only been here fifty years Ask her how
long this rainy day and she shall answer »fifty year three months and a
fortnight by the blessing of Heaven if I live till Tuesday« Mr Rouncewell
died some time before the decease of the pretty fashion of pigtails and
modestly hid his own if he took it with him in a corner of the churchyard in
the park near the mouldy porch He was born in the markettown and so was his
young widow Her progress in the family began in the time of the last Sir
Leicester and originated in the stillroom
The present representative of the Dedlocks is an excellent master He
supposes all his dependants to be utterly bereft of individual characters
intentions or opinions and is persuaded that he was born to supersede the
necessity of their having any If he were to make a discovery to the contrary
he would be simply stunned would never recover himself most likely except to
gasp and die But he is an excellent master still holding it a part of his
state to be so He has a great liking for Mrs Rouncewell he says she is a most
respectable creditable woman He always shakes hands with her when he comes
down to Chesney Wold and when he goes away and if he were very ill or if he
were knocked down by accident or run over or placed in any situation
expressive of a Dedlock at a disadvantage he would say if he could speak
»Leave me and send Mrs Rouncewell here« feeling his dignity at such a pass
safer with her than with anybody else
Mrs Rouncewell has known trouble She has had two sons of whom the younger
ran wild and went for a soldier and never came back Even to this hour Mrs
Rouncewells calm hands lose their composure when she speaks of him and
unfolding themselves from her stomacher hover about her in an agitated manner
as she says what a likely lad what a fine lad what a gay goodhumoured
clever lad he was Her second son would have been provided for at Chesney Wold
and would have been made steward in due season but he took when he was a
schoolboy to constructing steamengines out of saucepans and setting birds to
draw their own water with the least possible amount of labour so assisting
them with artful contrivance of hydraulic pressure that a thirsty canary had
only in a literal sense to put his shoulder to the wheel and the job was
done This propensity gave Mrs Rouncewell great uneasiness She felt it with a
mothers anguish to be a move in the Wat Tyler direction well knowing that Sir
Leicester had that general impression of an aptitude for any art to which smoke
and a tall chimney might be considered essential But the doomed young rebel
otherwise a mild youth and very persevering showing no sign of grace as he
got older but on the contrary constructing a model of a powerloom she was
fain with many tears to mention his backslidings to the baronet »Mrs
Rouncewell« said Sir Leicester »I can never consent to argue as you know
with any one on any subject You had better get rid of your boy you had better
get him into some Works The iron country farther north is I suppose the
congenial direction for a boy with these tendencies« Farther north he went and
farther north he grew up and if Sir Leicester Dedlock ever saw him when he
came to Chesney Wold to visit his mother or ever thought of him afterwards it
is certain that he only regarded him as one of a body of some odd thousand
conspirators swarthy and grim who were in the habit of turning out by
torchlight two or three nights in the week for unlawful purposes
Nevertheless Mrs Rouncewells son has in the course of nature and art
grown up and established himself and married and called unto him Mrs
Rouncewells grandson who being out of his apprenticeship and home from a
journey in far countries whither he was sent to enlarge his knowledge and
complete his preparations for the venture of this life stands leaning against
the chimneypiece this very day in Mrs Rouncewells room at Chesney Wold
»And again and again I am glad to see you Watt And once again I am
glad to see you Watt« says Mrs Rouncewell »You are a fine young fellow You
are like your poor uncle George Ah« Mrs Rouncewells hands unquiet as usual
on this reference
»They say I am like my father grandmother«
»Like him also my dear but most like your poor uncle George And your
dear father« Mrs Rouncewell folds her hands again »He is well«
»Thriving grandmother in every way«
»I am thankful« Mrs Rouncewell is fond of her son but has a plaintive
feeling towards him much as if he were a very honourable soldier who had gone
over to the enemy
»He is quite happy« says she
»Quite«
»I am thankful So he has brought you up to follow in his ways and has sent
you into foreign countries and the like Well he knows best There may be a
world beyond Chesney Wold that I dont understand Though I am not young
either And I have seen a quantity of good company too«
»Grandmother« says the young man changing the subject »what a very pretty
girl that was I found with you just now You called her Rosa«
»Yes child She is daughter of a widow in the village Maids are so hard to
teach nowadays that I have put her about me young Shes an apt scholar and
will do well She shows the house already very pretty She lives with me at my
table here«
»I hope I have not driven her away«
»She supposes we have family affairs to speak about I dare say She is very
modest It is a fine quality in a young woman And scarcer« says Mrs
Rouncewell expanding her stomacher to its utmost limits »than it formerly
was«
The young man inclines his head in acknowledgment of the precepts of
experience. Mrs Rouncewell listens
»Wheels« says she They have long been audible to the younger ears of her
companion »What wheels on such a day as this for gracious sake«
After a short interval a tap at the door »Come in« A darkeyed
darkhaired shy village beauty comes in so fresh in her rosy and yet
delicate bloom that the drops of rain which have beaten on her hair look like
the dew upon a flower fresh gathered
»What company is this Rosa« says Mrs Rouncewell
»Its two young men in a gig maam who want to see the house yes and if
you please I told them so« in quick reply to a gesture of dissent from the
housekeeper »I went to the halldoor and told them it was the wrong day and
the wrong hour but the young man who was driving took off his hat in the wet
and begged me to bring this card to you«
»Read it my dear Watt« says the housekeeper
Rosa is so shy as she gives it to him that they drop it between them and
almost knock their foreheads together as they pick it up Rosa is shyer than
before
»Mr Guppy« is all the information the card yields
»Guppy« repeats Mrs Rouncewell »Mr Guppy Nonsense I never heard of
him«
»If you please he told me that« says Rosa »But he said that he and the
other young gentleman came from London only last night by the mail on business
at the magistrates meeting ten miles off this morning and that as their
business was soon over and they had heard a great deal said of Chesney Wold
and really didnt know what to do with themselves they had come through the wet
to see it They are lawyers He says he is not in Mr Tulkinghorns office but
he is sure he may make use of Mr Tulkinghorns name if necessary« Finding
now she leaves off that she has been making quite a long speech Rosa is shyer
than ever
Now Mr Tulkinghorn is in a manner part and parcel of the place and
besides is supposed to have made Mrs Rouncewells will The old lady relaxes
consents to the admission of the visitors as a favour and dismisses Rosa The
grandson however being smitten by a sudden wish to see the house himself
proposes to join the party The grandmother who is pleased that he should have
that interest accompanies him though to do him justice he is exceedingly
unwilling to trouble her
»Much obliged to you maam« says Mr Guppy divesting himself of his wet
dreadnought in the hall »Us London lawyers dont often get an out and when we
do we like to make the most of it you know«
The old housekeeper with a gracious severity of deportment waves her hand
towards the great staircase Mr Guppy and his friend follow Rosa Mrs
Rouncewell and her grandson follow them a young gardener goes before to open
the shutters
As is usually the case with people who go over houses Mr Guppy and his
friend are dead beat before they have well begun They straggle about in wrong
places look at wrong things dont care for the right things gape when more
rooms are opened exhibit profound depression of spirits and are clearly
knocked up In each successive chamber that they enter Mrs Rouncewell who is
as upright as the house itself rests apart in a windowseat or other such
nook and listens with stately approval to Rosas exposition Her grandson is so
attentive to it that Rosa is shyer than ever and prettier Thus they pass on
from room to room raising the pictured Dedlocks for a few brief minutes as the
young gardener admits the light and reconsigning them to their graves as he
shuts it out again It appears to the afflicted Mr Guppy and his inconsolable
friend that there is no end to the Dedlocks whose family greatness seems to
consist in their never having done anything to distinguish themselves for seven
hundred years
Even the long drawingroom of Chesney Wold cannot revive Mr Guppys
spirits He is so low that he droops on the threshold and has hardly strength
of mind to enter But a portrait over the chimneypiece painted by the
fashionable artist of the day acts upon him like a charm He recovers in a
moment He stares at it with uncommon interest he seems to be fixed and
fascinated by it
»Dear me« says Mr Guppy »Whos that«
»The picture over the fireplace« says Rosa »is the portrait of the present
Lady Dedlock It is considered a perfect likeness and the best work of the
master«
»Blest« says Mr Guppy staring in a kind of dismay at his friend »if I
can ever have seen her Yet I know her Has the picture been engraved miss«
»The picture has never been engraved Sir Leicester has always refused
permission«
»Well« says Mr Guppy in a low voice »Ill be shot if it aint very
curious how well I know that picture So thats Lady Dedlock is it«
»The picture on the right is the present Sir Leicester Dedlock The picture
on the left is his father the late Sir Leicester«
Mr Guppy has no eyes for either of these magnates »Its unaccountable to
me« he says still staring at the portrait »how well I know that picture Im
dashed« adds Mr Guppy looking round »if I dont think I must have had a
dream of that picture you know«
As no one present takes any especial interest in Mr Guppys dreams the
probability is not pursued But he still remains so absorbed by the portrait
that he stands immoveable before it until the young gardener has closed the
shutters when he comes out of the room in a dazed state that is an odd though
a sufficient substitute for interest and follows into the succeeding rooms with
a confused stare as if he were looking everywhere for Lady Dedlock again
He sees no more of her He sees her rooms which are the last shown as
being very elegant and he looks out of the windows from which she looked out
not long ago upon the weather that bored her to death All things have an end
even houses that people take infinite pains to see and are tired of before they
begin to see them He has come to the end of the sight and the fresh village
beauty to the end of her description which is always this
»The terrace below is much admired It is called from an old story in the
family The Ghosts Walk«
»No« says Mr Guppy greedily curious »whats the story miss Is it
anything about a picture«
»Pray tell us the story« says Watt in a half whisper
»I dont know it sir« Rosa is shyer than ever
»It is not related to visitors it is almost forgotten« says the
housekeeper advancing »It has never been more than a family anecdote«
»Youll excuse my asking again if it has anything to do with a picture
maam« observes Mr Guppy »because I do assure you that the more I think of
that picture the better I know it without knowing how I know it«
The story has nothing to do with a picture the housekeeper can guarantee
that Mr Guppy is obliged to her for the information and is moreover
generally obliged He retires with his friend guided down another staircase by
the young gardener and presently is heard to drive away It is now dusk Mrs
Rouncewell can trust to the discretion of her two young hearers and may tell
them how the terrace came to have that ghostly name She seats herself in a
large chair by the fastdarkening window and tells them
»In the wicked days my dears of King Charles the First I mean of
course in the wicked days of the rebels who leagued themselves against that
excellent King Sir Morbury Dedlock was the owner of Chesney Wold Whether
there was any account of a ghost in the family before those days I cant say I
should think it very likely indeed«
Mrs Rouncewell holds this opinion because she considers that a family of
such antiquity and importance has a right to a ghost She regards a ghost as one
of the privileges of the upper classes a genteel distinction to which the
common people have no claim
»Sir Morbury Dedlock« says Mrs Rouncewell »was I have no occasion to
say on the side of the blessed martyr But it is supposed that his Lady who
had none of the family blood in her veins favoured the bad cause It is said
that she had relations among King Charless enemies that she was in
correspondence with them and that she gave them information When any of the
country gentlemen who followed His Majestys cause met here it is said that my
Lady was always nearer to the door of their councilroom than they supposed Do
you hear a sound like a footstep passing along the terrace Watt«
Rosa draws nearer to the housekeeper
»I hear the raindrip on the stones« replies the young man »and I hear a
curious echo I suppose an echo which is very like a halting step«
The housekeeper gravely nods and continues
»Partly on account of this division between them and partly on other
accounts Sir Morbury and his Lady led a troubled life She was a lady of a
haughty temper They were not well suited to each other in age or character and
they had no children to moderate between them After her favourite brother a
young gentleman was killed in the civil wars by Sir Morburys near kinsman
her feeling was so violent that she hated the race into which she had married
When the Dedlocks were about to ride out from Chesney Wold in the Kings cause
she is supposed to have more than once stolen down into the stables in the dead
of night and lamed their horses and the story is that once at such an hour
her husband saw her gliding down the stairs and followed her into the stall
where his own favourite horse stood There he seized her by the wrist and in a
struggle or in a fall or through the horse being frightened and lashing out
she was lamed in the hip and from that hour began to pine away«
The housekeeper has dropped her voice to a little more than a whisper
»She had been a lady of a handsome figure and a noble carriage She never
complained of the change she never spoke to any one of being crippled or of
being in pain but day by day she tried to walk upon the terrace and with the
help of the stone balustrade went up and down up and down up and down in sun
and shadow with greater difficulty every day At last one afternoon her
husband to whom she had never on any persuasion opened her lips since that
night standing at the great south window saw her drop upon the pavement He
hastened down to raise her but she repulsed him as he bent over her and
looking at him fixedly and coldly said I will die here where I have walked And
I will walk here though I am in my grave I will walk here until the pride of
this house is humbled And when calamity or when disgrace is coming to it let
the Dedlocks listen for my step«
Watt looks at Rosa Rosa in the deepening gloom looks down upon the ground
half frightened and half shy
»There and then she died And from those days« says Mrs Rouncewell »the
name has come down The Ghosts Walk If the tread is an echo it is an echo
that is only heard after dark and is often unheard for a long while together
But it comes back from time to time and so sure as there is sickness or death
in the family it will be heard then«
» And disgrace grandmother « says Watt
»Disgrace never comes to Chesney Wold« returns the housekeeper
Her grandson apologises with »True True«
»That is the story Whatever the sound is it is a worrying sound« says
Mrs Rouncewell getting up from her chair »and what is to be noticed in it
is that it must be heard My Lady who is afraid of nothing admits that when
it is there it must be heard You cannot shut it out Watt there is a tall
French clock behind you placed there a purpose that has a loud beat when it
is in motion and can play music You understand how those things are managed«
»Pretty well grandmother I think«
»Set it agoing«
Watt sets it agoing music and all
»Now come hither« says the housekeeper »Hither child towards my Ladys
pillow I am not sure that it is dark enough yet but listen Can you hear the
sound upon the terrace through the music and the beat and everything«
»I certainly can«
»So my Lady says«
Chapter VIII
Covering a Multitude of Sins
It was interesting when I dressed before daylight to peep out of window where
my candles were reflected in the black panes like two beacons and finding all
beyond still enshrouded in the indistinctness of last night to watch how it
turned out when the day came on As the prospect gradually revealed itself, and
disclosed the scene over which the wind had wandered in the dark like my memory
over my life I had a pleasure in discovering the unknown objects that had been
around me in my sleep At first they were faintly discernible in the mist and
above them the later stars still glimmered That pale interval over the picture
began to enlarge and fill up so fast that at every new peep I could have
found enough to look at for an hour Imperceptibly my candles became the only
incongruous part of the morning the dark places in my room all melted away and
the day shone bright upon a cheerful landscape prominent in which the old Abbey
Church with its massive tower threw a softer train of shadow on the view than
seemed compatible with its rugged character But so from rough outsides I hope
I have learnt serene and gentle influences often proceed
Every part of the house was in such order and every one was so attentive to
me that I had no trouble with my two bunches of keys though what with trying
to remember the contents of each little storeroom drawer and cupboard and
what with making notes on a slate about jams and pickles and preserves and
bottles and glass and china and a great many other things and what with
being generally a methodical oldmaidish sort of foolish little person I was
so busy that I could not believe it was breakfasttime when I heard the bell
ring Away I ran however and made tea as I had already been installed into
the responsibility of the teapot and then as they were all rather late and
nobody was down yet I thought I would take a peep at the garden and get some
knowledge of that too I found it quite a delightful place in front the pretty
avenue and drive by which we had approached and where bythebye we had cut
up the gravel so terribly with our wheels that I asked the gardener to roll it
at the back the flowergarden with my darling at her window up there throwing
it open to smile out at me as if she would have kissed me from that distance
Beyond the flowergarden was a kitchengarden and then a paddock and then a
snug little rickyard and then a dear little farmyard As to the House itself
with its three peaks in the roof its variousshaped windows some so large
some so small and all so pretty its trelliswork against the southfront for
roses and honeysuckle and its homely comfortable welcoming look it was as
Ada said when she came out to meet me with her arm through that of its master
worthy of her cousin John a bold thing to say though he only pinched her dear
cheek for it
Mr Skimpole was as agreeable at breakfast as he had been overnight There
was honey on the table and it led him into a discourse about Bees He had no
objection to honey he said and I should think he had not for he seemed to
like it but he protested against the overweening assumptions of Bees He
didnt at all see why the busy Bee should be proposed as a model to him he
supposed the Bee liked to make honey or he wouldnt do it nobody asked him
It was not necessary for the Bee to make such a merit of his tastes If every
confectioner went buzzing about the world banging against everything that came
in his way and egotistically calling upon everybody to take notice that he was
going to his work and must not be interrupted the world would be quite an
unsupportable place Then after all it was a ridiculous position to be smoked
out of your fortune with brimstone as soon as you had made it You would have a
very mean opinion of a Manchester man if he spun cotton for no other purpose
He must say he thought a Drone the embodiment of a pleasanter and wiser idea
The Drone said unaffectedly »You will excuse me I really cannot attend to the
shop I find myself in a world in which there is so much to see and so short a
time to see it in that I must take the liberty of looking about me and begging
to be provided for by somebody who doesnt want to look about him« This
appeared to Mr Skimpole to be the Drone philosophy and he thought it a very
good philosophy always supposing the Drone to be willing to be on good terms
with the Bee which so far as he knew the easy fellow always was if the
consequential creature would only let him and not be so conceited about his
honey
He pursued this fancy with the lightest foot over a variety of ground and
made us all merry though again he seemed to have as serious a meaning in what
he said as he was capable of having I left them still listening to him when I
withdrew to attend to my new duties They had occupied me for some time and I
was passing through the passages on my return with my basket of keys on my arm
when Mr Jarndyce called me into a small room next his bedchamber which I
found to be in part a little library of books and papers and in part quite a
little museum of his boots and shoes and hatboxes
»Sit down my dear« said Mr Jarndyce »This you must know is the
Growlery When I am out of humour I come and growl here«
»You must be here very seldom sir« said I
»O you dont know me« he returned »When I am deceived or disappointed in
the wind and its Easterly I take refuge here The Growlery is the bestused
room in the house You are not aware of half my humours yet My dear how you
are trembling«
I could not help it I tried very hard but being alone with that benevolent
presence and meeting his kind eyes and feeling so happy and so honoured
there and my heart so full
I kissed his hand I dont know what I said or even that I spoke He was
disconcerted and walked to the window I almost believed with an intention of
jumping out until he turned and I was reassured by seeing in his eyes what he
had gone there to hide He gently patted me on the head and I sat down
»There There« he said »Thats over Pooh Dont be foolish«
»It shall not happen again sir« I returned »but at first it is difficult
«
»Nonsense« he said »its easy easy Why not I hear of a good little
orphan girl without a protector and I take it into my head to be that
protector She grows up and more than justifies my good opinion and I remain
her guardian and her friend What is there in all this So so Now we have
cleared off old scores and I have before me thy pleasant trusting trusty face
again«
I said to myself »Esther my dear you surprise me This really is not what
I expected of you« and it had such a good effect that I folded my hands upon
my basket and quite recovered myself Mr Jarndyce expressing his approval in
his face began to talk to me as confidentially as if I had been in the habit of
conversing with him every morning for I dont know how long I almost felt as if
I had
»Of course Esther« he said »you dont understand this Chancery business«
And of course I shook my head
»I dont know who does« he returned »The Lawyers have twisted it into such
a state of bedevilment that the original merits of the case have long
disappeared from the face of the earth Its about a Will and the trusts under
a Will or it was once Its about nothing but Costs now We are always
appearing and disappearing and swearing and interrogating and filing and
crossfiling and arguing and sealing and motioning and referring and
reporting and revolving about the Lord Chancellor and all his satellites and
equitably waltzing ourselves off to dusty death about Costs Thats the great
question All the rest by some extraordinary means has melted away«
»But it was sir« said I to bring him back for he began to rub his head
»about a Will«
»Why yes it was about a Will when it was about anything« he returned »A
certain Jarndyce in an evil hour made a great fortune and made a great Will
In the question how the trusts under that Will are to be administered the
fortune left by the Will is squandered away the legatees under the Will are
reduced to such a miserable condition that they would be sufficiently punished
if they had committed an enormous crime in having money left them and the Will
itself is made a dead letter All through the deplorable cause everything that
everybody in it except one man knows already is referred to that only one man
who dont know it to find out all through the deplorable cause everybody
must have copies over and over again of everything that has accumulated about
it in the way of cartloads of papers or must pay for them without having them
which is the usual course for nobody wants them and must go down the middle
and up again through such an infernal countrydance of costs and fees and
nonsense and corruption as was never dreamed of in the wildest visions of a
Witchs Sabbath Equity sends questions to Law Law sends questions back to
Equity Law finds it cant do this Equity finds it cant do that neither can
so much as say it cant do anything without this solicitor instructing and this
counsel appearing for A, and that solicitor instructing and that counsel
appearing for B and so on through the whole alphabet like the history of the
Apple Pie And thus through years and years and lives and lives everything
goes on constantly beginning over and over again and nothing ever ends And we
cant get out of the suit on any terms for we are made parties to it and must
be parties to it whether we like it or not But it wont do to think of it
When my great uncle poor Tom Jarndyce began to think of it it was the
beginning of the end«
»The Mr Jarndyce sir whose story I have heard«
He nodded gravely »I was his heir and this was his house Esther When I
came here it was bleak indeed He had left the signs of his misery upon it«
»How changed it must be now« I said
»It had been called before his time the Peaks He gave it its present
name and lived here shut up day and night poring over the wicked heaps of
papers in the suit and hoping against hope to disentangle it from its
mystification and bring it to a close In the meantime the place became
dilapidated the wind whistled through the cracked walls the rain fell through
the broken roof the weeds choked the passage to the rotting door When I
brought what remained of him home here the brains seemed to me to have been
blown out of the house too it was so shattered and ruined«
He walked a little to and fro after saying this to himself with a shudder
and then looked at me and brightened and came and sat down again with his
hands in his pockets
»I told you this was the Growlery my dear Where was I«
I reminded him at the hopeful change he had made in Bleak House
»Bleak House true There is in that city of London there some property of
ours which is much at this day what Bleak House was then I say property of
ours meaning of the Suits but I ought to call it the property of Costs for
Costs is the only power on earth that will ever get anything out of it now or
will ever know it for anything but an eyesore and a heartsore It is a street of
perishing blind houses with their eyes stoned out without a pane of glass
without so much as a windowframe with the bare blank shutters tumbling from
their hinges and falling asunder the iron rails peeling away in flakes of rust
the chimneys sinking in the stone steps to every door and every door might be
Deaths Door turning stagnant green the very crutches on which the ruins are
propped decaying Although Bleak House was not in Chancery its master was and
it was stamped with the same seal These are the Great Seals impressions my
dear all over England the children know them«
»How changed it is« I said again
»Why so it is« he answered much more cheerfully »and it is wisdom in you
to keep me to the bright side of the picture« The idea of my wisdom »These
are things I never talk about or even think about excepting in the Growlery
here If you consider it right to mention them to Rick and Ada« looking
seriously at me »you can I leave it to your discretion Esther«
»I hope sir« said I
»I think you had better call me Guardian my dear«
I felt that I was choking again I taxed myself with it »Esther now you
know you are« when he feigned to say this slightly as if it were a whim
instead of a thoughtful tenderness But I gave the housekeeping keys the least
shake in the world as a reminder to myself and folding my hands in a still more
determined manner on the basket looked at him quietly
»I hope Guardian« said I »that you may not trust too much to my
discretion I hope you may not mistake me I am afraid it will be a
disappointment to you to know that I am not clever but it really is the truth
and you would soon find it out if I had not the honesty to confess it«
He did not seem at all disappointed quite the contrary He told me with a
smile all over his face that he knew me very well indeed and that I was quite
clever enough for him
»I hope I may turn out so« said I »but I am much afraid of it Guardian«
»You are clever enough to be the good little woman of our lives here my
dear« he returned playfully »the little old woman of the Childs I dont
mean Skimpoles Rhyme
Little old woman and whither so high
To sweep the cobwebs out of the sky
You will sweep them so neatly out of our sky in the course of your
housekeeping Esther that one of these days we shall have to abandon the
Growlery and nail up the door«
This was the beginning of my being called Old Woman and Little Old Woman
and Cobweb and Mrs Shipton and Mother Hubbard and Dame Durden and so many
names of that sort that my own name soon became quite lost among them
»However« said Mr Jarndyce »to return to our gossip Heres Rick a fine
young fellow full of promise Whats to be done with him«
O my goodness the idea of asking my advice on such a point
»Here he is Esther« said Mr Jarndyce comfortably putting his hands into
his pockets and stretching out his legs »He must have a profession he must
make some choice for himself There will be a world more Wiglomeration about it
I suppose but it must be done«
»More what Guardian« said I
»More Wiglomeration« said he »Its the only name I know for the thing He
is a ward in Chancery my dear Kenge and Carboy will have something to say
about it Master Somebody a sort of ridiculous Sexton digging graves for the
merits of causes in a back room at the end of Quality Court Chancery Lane
will have something to say about it Counsel will have something to say about
it the Chancellor will have something to say about it the Satellites will have
something to say about it they will all have to be handsomely feed all round
about it the whole thing will be vastly ceremonious wordy unsatisfactory and
expensive and I call it in general Wiglomeration How mankind ever came to be
afflicted with Wiglomeration or for whose sins these young people ever fell
into a pit of it I dont know so it is«
He began to rub his head again and to hint that he felt the wind But it
was a delightful instance of his kindness towards me that whether he rubbed his
head or walked about or did both his face was sure to recover its benignant
expression as it looked at mine and he was sure to turn comfortable again and
put his hands in his pockets and stretch out his legs
»Perhaps it would be best first of all« said I »to ask Mr Richard what
he inclines to himself«
»Exactly so« he returned »Thats what I mean You know just accustom
yourself to talk it over with your tact and in your quiet way with him and
Ada and see what you all make of it We are sure to come at the heart of the
matter by your means little woman«
I really was frightened at the thought of the importance I was attaining
and the number of things that were being confided to me I had not meant this at
all I had meant that he should speak to Richard But of course I said nothing
in reply except that I would do my best though I feared I really felt it
necessary to repeat this that he thought me much more sagacious than I was At
which my guardian only laughed the pleasantest laugh I ever heard
»Come« he said rising and pushing back his chair »I think we may have
done with the Growlery for one day Only a concluding word Esther my dear do
you wish to ask me anything«
He looked so attentively at me that I looked attentively at him and felt
sure I understood him
»About myself sir« said I
»Yes«
»Guardian« said I venturing to put my hand which was suddenly colder than
I could have wished in his »nothing I am quite sure that if there were
anything I ought to know or had any need to know I should not have to ask you
to tell it to me If my whole reliance and confidence were not placed in you I
must have a hard heart indeed I have nothing to ask you nothing in the world«
He drew my hand through his arm and we went away to look for Ada From that
hour I felt quite easy with him quite unreserved quite content to know no
more quite happy
We lived at first rather a busy life at Bleak House for we had to become
acquainted with many residents in and out of the neighbourhood who knew Mr
Jarndyce It seemed to Ada and me that everybody knew him who wanted to do
anything with anybody elses money It amazed us when we began to sort his
letters and to answer some of them for him in the Growlery of a morning to
find how the great object of the lives of nearly all his correspondents appeared
to be to form themselves into committees for getting in and laying out money
The ladies were as desperate as the gentlemen indeed I think they were even
more so They threw themselves into committees in the most impassioned manner
and collected subscriptions with a vehemence quite extraordinary It appeared to
us that some of them must pass their whole lives in dealing out
subscriptioncards to the whole Postoffice Directory shilling cards
halfcrown cards halfsovereign cards penny cards They wanted everything
They wanted wearing apparel they wanted linen rags they wanted money they
wanted coals they wanted soup they wanted interest they wanted autographs
they wanted flannel they wanted whatever Mr Jarndyce had or had not Their
objects were as various as their demands They were going to raise new
buildings they were going to pay off debts on old buildings they were going to
establish in a picturesque building engraving of proposed West Elevation
attached the Sisterhood of Mediæval Marys they were going to give a
testimonial to Mrs Jellyby they were going to have their Secretarys portrait
painted and presented to his motherinlaw whose deep devotion to him was well
known they were going to get up everything I really believe from five hundred
thousand tracts to an annuity and from a marble monument to a silver teapot
They took a multitude of titles They were the Women of England the Daughters
of Britain the Sisters of all the Cardinal Virtues separately the Females of
America the Ladies of a hundred denominations They appeared to be always
excited about canvassing and electing They seemed to our poor wits and
according to their own accounts to be constantly polling people by tens of
thousands yet never bringing their candidates in for anything It made our
heads ache to think on the whole what feverish lives they must lead
Among the ladies who were most distinguished for this rapacious benevolence
if I may use the expression was a Mrs Pardiggle who seemed as I judged
from the number of her letters to Mr Jarndyce to be almost as powerful a
correspondent as Mrs Jellyby herself We observed that the wind always changed
when Mrs Pardiggle became the subject of conversation and that it invariably
interrupted Mr Jarndyce and prevented his going any farther when he had
remarked that there were two classes of charitable people one the people who
did a little and made a great deal of noise the other the people who did a
great deal and made no noise at all We were therefore curious to see Mrs
Pardiggle suspecting her to be a type of the former class and were glad when
she called one day with her five young sons
She was a formidable style of lady with spectacles a prominent nose and a
loud voice who had the effect of wanting a great deal of room And she really
did for she knocked down little chairs with her skirts that were quite a great
way off As only Ada and I were at home we received her timidly for she seemed
to come in like cold weather and to make the little Pardiggles blue as they
followed
»These young ladies« said Mrs Pardiggle with great volubility after the
first salutations »are my five boys You may have seen their names in a printed
subscription list perhaps more than one in the possession of our esteemed
friend Mr Jarndyce Egbert my eldest twelve is the boy who sent out his
pocketmoney to the amount of fiveandthreepence to the Tockahoopo Indians
Oswald my second tenandahalf is the child who contributed
twoandninepence to the Great National Smithers Testimonial Francis my third
nine oneandsixpencehalfpenny Felix my fourth seven eightpence to the
Superannuated Widows Alfred my youngest five has voluntarily enrolled
himself in the Infant Bonds of Joy and is pledged never through life to use
tobacco in any form«
We had never seen such dissatisfied children It was not merely that they
were weazened and shrivelled though they were certainly that too but they
looked absolutely ferocious with discontent At the mention of the Tockahoopo
Indians I could really have supposed Egbert to be one of the most baleful
members of that tribe he gave me such a savage frown The face of each child
as the amount of his contribution was mentioned darkened in a peculiarly
vindictive manner but his was by far the worst I must except however the
little recruit into the Infant Bonds of Joy who was stolidly and evenly
miserable
»You have been visiting I understand« said Mrs Pardiggle »at Mrs
Jellybys«
We said yes we had passed one night there
»Mrs Jellyby« pursued the lady always speaking in the same demonstrative
loud hard tone so that her voice impressed my fancy as if it had a sort of
spectacles on too and I may take the opportunity of remarking that her
spectacles were made the less engaging by her eyes being what Ada called choking
eyes meaning very prominent »Mrs Jellyby is a benefactor to society and
deserves a helping hand My boys have contributed to the African project
Egbert oneand six being the entire allowance of nine weeks Oswald
oneandapennyhalfpenny being the same the rest according to their little
means Nevertheless I do not go with Mrs Jellyby in all things I do not go
with Mrs Jellyby in her treatment of her young family It has been noticed It
has been observed that her young family are excluded from participation in the
objects to which she is devoted She may be right she may be wrong but right
or wrong this is not my course with my young family I take them everywhere«
I was afterwards convinced and so was Ada that from the illconditioned
eldest child these words extorted a sharp yell He turned it off into a yawn
but it began as a yell
»They attend Matins with me very prettily done at halfpast six oclock
in the morning all the year round including of course the depth of winter«
said Mrs Pardiggle rapidly »and they are with me during the revolving duties
of the day I am a School lady I am a Visiting lady I am a Reading lady I am
a Distributing lady I am on the local Linen Box Committee and many general
Committees and my canvassing alone is very extensive perhaps no ones more
so But they are my companions everywhere and by these means they acquire that
knowledge of the poor and that capacity of doing charitable business in general
in short that taste for the sort of thing which will render them in after
life a service to their neighbours and a satisfaction to themselves My young
family are not frivolous they expend the entire amount of their allowance in
subscriptions under my direction and they have attended as many public
meetings and listened to as many lectures orations and discussions as
generally fall to the lot of few grown people Alfred five who as I
mentioned has of his own election joined the Infant Bonds of Joy was one of
the very few children who manifested consciousness on that occasion after a
fervid address of two hours from the chairman of the evening«
Alfred glowered at us as if he never could or would forgive the injury of
that night
»You may have observed Miss Summerson« said Mrs Pardiggle »in some of
the lists to which I have referred in the possession of our esteemed friend Mr
Jarndyce that the names of my young family are concluded with the name of OA
Pardiggle FRS one pound That is their father We usually observe the same
routine I put down my mite first then my young family enrol their
contributions according to their ages and their little means and then Mr
Pardiggle brings up the rear Mr Pardiggle is happy to throw in his limited
donation under my direction and thus things are made not only pleasant to
ourselves but we trust improving to others«
Suppose Mr Pardiggle were to dine with Mr Jellyby and suppose Mr Jellyby
were to relieve his mind after dinner to Mr Pardiggle would Mr Pardiggle in
return make any confidential communication to Mr Jellyby I was quite confused
to find myself thinking this but it came into my head
»You are very pleasantly situated here« said Mrs Pardiggle
We were glad to change the subject and going to the window pointed out
the beauties of the prospect on which the spectacles appeared to me to rest
with curious indifference
»You know Mr Gusher« said our visitor
We were obliged to say that we had not the pleasure of Mr Gushers
acquaintance
»The loss is yours I assure you« said Mrs Pardiggle with her commanding
deportment »He is a very fervid impassioned speaker full of fire Stationed
in a waggon on this lawn now which from the shape of the land is naturally
adapted to a public meeting he would improve almost any occasion you could
mention for hours and hours By this time young ladies« said Mrs Pardiggle
moving back to her chair and overturning as if by invisible agency a little
round table at a considerable distance with my workbasket on it »by this time
you have found me out I dare say«
This was really such a confusing question that Ada looked at me in perfect
dismay As to the guilty nature of my own consciousness after what I had been
thinking it must have been expressed in the colour of my cheeks
»Found out I mean« said Mrs Pardiggle »the prominent point in my
character I am aware that it is so prominent as to be discoverable immediately
I lay myself open to detection I know Well I freely admit I am a woman of
business I love hard work I enjoy hard work The excitement does me good I am
so accustomed and inured to hard work that I dont know what fatigue is«
We murmured that it was very astonishing and very gratifying or something
to that effect I dont think we knew what it was either but this is what our
politeness expressed
»I do not understand what it is to be tired you cannot tire me if you try«
said Mrs Pardiggle »The quantity of exertion which is no exertion to me the
amount of business which I regard as nothing that I go through sometimes
astonishes myself I have seen my young family and Mr Pardiggle quite worn
out with witnessing it when I may truly say I have been as fresh as a lark«
If that darkvisaged eldest boy could look more malicious than he had
already looked this was the time when he did it I observed that he doubled his
right fist and delivered a secret blow into the crown of his cap which was
under his left arm
»This gives me a great advantage when I am making my rounds« said Mrs
Pardiggle »If I find a person unwilling to hear what I have to say I tell that
person directly I am incapable of fatigue my good friend I am never tired
and I mean to go on until I have done It answers admirably Miss Summerson I
hope I shall have your assistance in my visiting rounds immediately and Miss
Clares very soon«
At first I tried to excuse myself for the present on the general ground of
having occupations to attend to which I must not neglect But as this was an
ineffectual protest I then said more particularly that I was not sure of my
qualifications That I was inexperienced in the art of adapting my mind to minds
very differently situated and addressing them from suitable points of view
That I had not that delicate knowledge of the heart which must be essential to
such a work That I had much to learn myself before I could teach others and
that I could not confide in my good intentions alone For these reasons I
thought it best to be as useful as I could and to render what kind services I
could to those immediately about me and to try to let that circle of duty
gradually and naturally expand itself All this I said with anything but
confidence because Mrs Pardiggle was much older than I and had great
experience, and was so very military in her manners
»You are wrong Miss Summerson« said she »but perhaps you are not equal to
hard work or the excitement of it and that makes a vast difference If you
would like to see how I go through my work I am now about with my young
family to visit a brickmaker in the neighbourhood a very bad character and
shall be glad to take you with me Miss Clare also if she will do me the
favour«
Ada and I interchanged looks and as we were going out in any case
accepted the offer When we hastily returned from putting on our bonnets we
found the young family languishing in a corner and Mrs Pardiggle sweeping
about the room knocking down nearly all the light objects it contained Mrs
Pardiggle took possession of Ada and I followed with the family
Ada told me afterwards that Mrs Pardiggle talked in the same loud tone
that indeed I overheard all the way to the brickmakers about an exciting
contest which she had for two or three years waged against another lady
relative to the bringing in of their rival candidates for a pension somewhere
There had been a quantity of printing and promising and proxying and polling
and it appeared to have imparted great liveliness to all concerned except the
pensioners who were not elected yet
I am very fond of being confided in by children and am happy in being
usually favoured in that respect but on this occasion it gave me great
uneasiness As soon as we were out of doors Egbert with the manner of a little
footpad demanded a shilling of me on the ground that his pocketmoney was
boned from him On my pointing out the great impropriety of the word especially
in connexion with his parent for he added sulkily »By her« he pinched me and
said »O then Now Who are you You wouldnt like it I think What does she
make a sham for and pretend to give me money and take it away again Why do
you call it my allowance and never let me spend it« These exasperating
questions so inflamed his mind and the minds of Oswald and Francis that they
all pinched me at once and in a dreadfully expert way screwing up such little
pieces of my arms that I could hardly forbear crying out Felix at the same
time stamped upon my toes And the Bond of Joy who on account of always
having the whole of his little income anticipated stood in fact pledged to
abstain from cakes as well as tobacco so swelled with grief and rage when we
passed a pastrycooks shop that he terrified me by becoming purple I never
underwent so much both in body and mind in the course of a walk with young
people as from these unnaturally constrained children when they paid me the
compliment of being natural
I was glad when we came to the brickmakers house though it was one of a
cluster of wretched hovels in a brickfield with pigsties close to the broken
windows and miserable little gardens before the doors growing nothing but
stagnant pools Here and there an old tub was put to catch the droppings of
rainwater from a roof or they were banked up with mud into a little pond like
a large dirtpie At the doors and windows some men and women lounged or
prowled about and took little notice of us except to laugh to one another, or
to say something as we passed about gentlefolks minding their own business and
not troubling their heads and muddying their shoes with coming to look after
other peoples
Mrs Pardiggle leading the way with a great show of moral determination
and talking with much volubility about the untidy habits of the people though I
doubted if the best of us could have been tidy in such a place conducted us
into a cottage at the farthest corner the groundfloor room of which we nearly
filled Besides ourselves there were in this damp offensive room a woman with
a black eye nursing a poor little gasping baby by the fire a man all stained
with clay and mud and looking very dissipated lying at full length on the
ground smoking a pipe a powerful young man fastening a collar on a dog and a
bold girl doing some kind of washing in very dirty water They all looked up at
us as we came in and the woman seemed to turn her face towards the fire as if
to hide her bruised eye nobody gave us any welcome
»Well my friends« said Mrs Pardiggle but her voice had not a friendly
sound I thought it was much too businesslike and systematic »How do you do
all of you I am here again I told you you couldnt tire me you know I am
fond of hard work and am true to my word«
»There ant« growled the man on the floor whose head rested on his hand as
he stared at us »any more on you to come in is there«
»No my friend« said Mrs Pardiggle seating herself on one stool and
knocking down another »We are all here«
»Because I thought there warnt enough of you perhaps« said the man with
his pipe between his lips as he looked round upon us
The young man and the girl both laughed Two friends of the young man whom
we had attracted to the doorway and who stood there with their hands in their
pockets echoed the laugh noisily
»You cant tire me good people« said Mrs Pardiggle to these latter »I
enjoy hard work and the harder you make mine the better I like it«
»Then make it easy for her« growled the man upon the floor »I wants it
done and over I wants a end of these liberties took with my place I wants a
end of being drawed like a badger Now youre agoing to pollpry and question
according to custom I know what youre agoing to be up to Well You havent
got no occasion to be up to it Ill save you the trouble Is my daughter
awashin Yes she is awashin Look at the water Smell it Thats wot we
drinks How do you like it and what do you think of gin instead Ant my place
dirty Yes it is dirty its natrally dirty and its natrally onwholesome
and weve had five dirty and onwholesome children as is all dead infants and
so much the better for them and for us besides Have I read the little book wot
you left No I ant read the little book wot you left There ant nobody here
as knows how to read it and if there wos it wouldnt be suitable to me Its a
book fit for a babby and Im not a babby If you was to leave me a doll I
shouldnt nuss it How have I been conducting of myself Why Ive been drunk
for three days and Id a been drunk four if Id a had the money Dont I never
mean for to go to church No I dont never mean for to go to church I
shouldnt be expected there if I did the beadles too genteel for me And how
did my wife get that black eye Why I giv it her and if she says I didnt
shes a Lie«
He had pulled his pipe out of his mouth to say all this and he now turned
over on his other side and smoked again Mrs Pardiggle who had been regarding
him through her spectacles with a forcible composure calculated I could not
help thinking to increase his antagonism pulled out a good book as if it were
a constables staff and took the whole family into custody I mean into
religious custody of course but she really did it as if she were an
inexorable moral Policeman carrying them all off to a stationhouse
Ada and I were very uncomfortable We both felt intrusive and out of place
and we both thought that Mrs Pardiggle would have got on infinitely better if
she had not had such a mechanical way of taking possession of people The
children sulked and stared the family took no notice of us whatever except
when the young man made the dog bark which he usually did when Mrs Pardiggle
was most emphatic We both felt painfully sensible that between us and these
people there was an iron barrier which could not be removed by our new friend
By whom or how it could be removed we did not know but we knew that Even
what she read and said seemed to us to be ill chosen for such auditors if it
had been imparted ever so modestly and with ever so much tact As to the little
book to which the man on the floor had referred we acquired a knowledge of it
afterwards and Mr Jarndyce said he doubted if Robinson Crusoe could have read
it though he had had no other on his desolate island
We were much relieved under these circumstances when Mrs Pardiggle left
off The man on the floor then turning his head round again said morosely
»Well Youve done have you«
»For today I have my friend But I am never fatigued I shall come to you
again in your regular order« returned Mrs Pardiggle with demonstrative
cheerfulness
»So long as you goes now« said he folding his arms and shutting his eyes
with an oath »you may do wot you like«
Mrs Pardiggle accordingly rose and made a little vortex in the confined
room from which the pipe itself very narrowly escaped Taking one of her young
family in each hand and telling the others to follow closely and expressing
her hope that the brickmaker and all his house would be improved when she saw
them next she then proceeded to another cottage I hope it is not unkind in me
to say that she certainly did make in this as in everything else a show that
was not conciliatory of doing charity by wholesale and of dealing in it to a
large extent
She supposed that we were following her but as soon as the space was left
clear we approached the woman sitting by the fire to ask if the baby were ill
She only looked at it as it lay on her lap We had observed before that
when she looked at it she covered her discoloured eye with her hand as though
she wished to separate any association with noise and violence and
illtreatment from the poor little child
Ada whose gentle heart was moved by its appearance bent down to touch its
little face As she did so I saw what happened and drew her back The child
died
»O Esther« cried Ada sinking on her knees beside it »Look here O Esther
my love the little thing The suffering quiet pretty little thing I am so
sorry for it I am so sorry for the mother I never saw a sight so pitiful as
this before O baby baby«
Such compassion such gentleness as that with which she bent down weeping
and put her hand upon the mothers might have softened any mothers heart that
ever beat The woman at first gazed at her in astonishment and then burst into
tears
Presently I took the light burden from her lap did what I could to make the
babys rest the prettier and gentler laid it on a shelf and covered it with my
own handkerchief We tried to comfort the mother and we whispered to her what
Our Saviour said of children She answered nothing but sat weeping weeping
very much
When I turned I found that the young man had taken out the dog and was
standing at the door looking in upon us with dry eyes but quiet The girl was
quiet too and sat in a corner looking on the ground The man had risen He
still smoked his pipe with an air of defiance but he was silent
An ugly woman very poorly clothed hurried in while I was glancing at them
and coming straight up to the mother said »Jenny Jenny« The mother rose on
being so addressed and fell upon the womans neck
She also had upon her face and arms the marks of illusage She had no kind
of grace about her but the grace of sympathy but when she condoled with the
woman and her own tears fell she wanted no beauty I say condoled but her
only words were »Jenny Jenny« All the rest was in the tone in which she said
them
I thought it very touching to see these two women coarse and shabby and
beaten so united to see what they could be to one another; to see how they
felt for one another; how the heart of each to each was softened by the hard
trials of their lives I think the best side of such people is almost hidden
from us What the poor are to the poor is little known excepting to themselves
and GOD
We felt it better to withdraw and leave them uninterrupted We stole out
quietly and without notice from any one except the man He was leaning against
the wall near the door and finding that there was scarcely room for us to pass
went out before us He seemed to want to hide that he did this on our account
but we perceived that he did and thanked him He made no answer
Ada was so full of grief all the way home and Richard whom we found at
home was so distressed to see her in tears though he said to me when she was
not present how beautiful it was too that we arranged to return at night with
some little comforts and repeat our visit at the brickmakers house We said as
little as we could to Mr Jarndyce but the wind changed directly
Richard accompanied us at night to the scene of our morning expedition On
our way there we had to pass a noisy drinkinghouse where a number of men were
flocking about the door Among them and prominent in some dispute was the
father of the little child At a short distance we passed the young man and the
dog in congenial company The sister was standing laughing and talking with
some other young women at the corner of the row of cottages but she seemed
ashamed and turned away as we went by
We left our escort within sight of the brickmakers dwelling and proceeded
by ourselves When we came to the door we found the woman who had brought such
consolation with her standing there looking anxiously out
»Its you young ladies is it« she said in a whisper »Im awatching for
my master My hearts in my mouth If he was to catch me away from home hed
pretty near murder me«
»Do you mean your husband« said I
»Yes miss my master Jennys asleep quite worn out Shes scarcely had
the child off her lap poor thing these seven days and nights except when Ive
been able to take it for a minute or two«
As she gave way for us she went softly in and put what we had brought
near the miserable bed on which the mother slept No effort had been made to
clean the room it seemed in its nature almost hopeless of being clean but the
small waxen form from which so much solemnity diffused itself had been
composed afresh and washed and neatly dressed in some fragments of white
linen and on my handkerchief which still covered the poor baby a little bunch
of sweet herbs had been laid by the same rough scarred hands so lightly so
tenderly
»May Heaven reward you« we said to her »You are a good woman«
»Me young ladies« she returned with surprise »Hush Jenny Jenny«
The mother had moaned in her sleep and moved The sound of the familiar
voice seemed to calm her again She was quiet once more
How little I thought when I raised my handkerchief to look upon the tiny
sleeper underneath and seemed to see a halo shine around the child through
Adas drooping hair as her pity bent her head how little I thought in whose
unquiet bosom that handkerchief would come to lie after covering the motionless
and peaceful breast I only thought that perhaps the Angel of the child might
not be all unconscious of the woman who replaced it with so compassionate a
hand not all unconscious of her presently when we had taken leave and left
her at the door by turns looking and listening in terror for herself and
saying in her old soothing manner »Jenny Jenny«
Chapter IX
Signs and Tokens
I dont know how it is I seem to be always writing about myself I mean all the
time to write about other people and I try to think about myself as little as
possible and I am sure when I find myself coming into the story again I am
really vexed and say »Dear dear you tiresome little creature I wish you
wouldnt« but it is all of no use I hope any one who may read what I write
will understand that if these pages contain a great deal about me I can only
suppose it must be because I have really something to do with them and cant be
kept out
My darling and I read together and worked and practised and found so much
employment for our time that the winter days flew by us like brightwinged
birds Generally in the afternoons and always in the evenings Richard gave us
his company Although he was one of the most restless creatures in the world he
certainly was very fond of our society
He was very very very fond of Ada I mean it and I had better say it at
once I had never seen any young people falling in love before but I found them
out quite soon I could not say so of course or show that I knew anything
about it On the contrary I was so demure and used to seem so unconscious
that sometimes I considered within myself while I was sitting at work whether I
was not growing quite deceitful
But there was no help for it All I had to do was to be quiet and I was as
quiet as a mouse They were as quiet as mice too so far as any words were
concerned but the innocent manner in which they relied more and more upon me
as they took more and more to one another, was so charming that I had great
difficulty in not showing how it interested me
»Our dear little old woman is such a capital old woman« Richard would say
coming up to meet me in the garden early with his pleasant laugh and perhaps
the least tinge of a blush »that I cant get on without her Before I begin my
harumscarum day grinding away at those books and instruments and then
galloping up hill and down dale all the country round like a highwayman it
does me so much good to come and have a steady walk with our comfortable friend
that here I am again«
»You know Dame Durden dear« Ada would say at night with her head upon my
shoulder and the firelight shining in her thoughtful eyes »I dont want to
talk when we come upstairs here Only to sit a little while thinking with
your dear face for company and to hear the wind and remember the poor sailors
at sea «
Ah Perhaps Richard was going to be a sailor We had talked it over very
often now and there was some talk of gratifying the inclination of his
childhood for the sea Mr Jarndyce had written to a relation of the family a
great Sir Leicester Dedlock for his interest in Richards favour generally
and Sir Leicester had replied in a gracious manner »that he would be happy to
advance the prospects of the young gentleman if it should ever prove to be
within his power which was not at all probable and that my Lady sent her
compliments to the young gentleman to whom she perfectly remembered that she
was allied by remote consanguinity and trusted that he would ever do his duty
in any honourable profession to which he might devote himself«
»So I apprehend its pretty clear« said Richard to me »that I shall have
to work my own way Never mind Plenty of people have had to do that before now
and have done it I only wish I had the command of a clipping privateer to
begin with and could carry off the Chancellor and keep him on short allowance
until he gave judgment in our cause Hed find himself growing thin if he
didnt look sharp«
With a buoyancy and hopefulness and a gaiety that hardly ever flagged
Richard had a carelessness in his character that quite perplexed me
principally because he mistook it in such a very odd way for prudence It
entered into all his calculations about money in a singular manner which I
dont think I can better explain than by reverting for a moment to our loan to
Mr Skimpole
Mr Jarndyce had ascertained the amount either from Mr Skimpole himself or
from Coavinses and had placed the money in my hands with instructions to me to
retain my own part of it and hand the rest to Richard The number of little acts
of thoughtless expenditure which Richard justified by the recovery of his ten
pounds and the number of times he talked to me as if he had saved or realised
that amount would form a sum in simple addition
»My prudent Mother Hubbard why not« he said to me when he wanted without
the least consideration to bestow five pounds on the brickmaker »I made ten
pounds clear out of Coavinses business«
»How was that« said I
»Why I got rid of ten pounds which I was quite content to get rid of and
never expected to see any more You dont deny that«
»No« said I
»Very well then I came into possession of ten pounds «
»The same ten pounds« I hinted
»That has nothing to do with it« returned Richard »I have got ten pounds
more than I expected to have and consequently I can afford to spend it without
being particular«
In exactly the same way when he was persuaded out of the sacrifice of these
five pounds by being convinced that it would do no good he carried that sum to
his credit and drew upon it
»Let me see« he would say »I saved five pounds out of the brickmakers
affair so if I have a good rattle to London and back in a postchaise and put
that down at four pounds I shall have saved one And its a very good thing to
save one let me tell you a penny saved is a penny got«
I believe Richards was as frank and generous a nature as there possibly can
be He was ardent and brave and in the midst of all his wild restlessness was
so gentle that I knew him like a brother in a few weeks His gentleness was
natural to him and would have shown itself abundantly even without Adas
influence but with it he became one of the most winning of companions always
so ready to be interested and always so happy sanguine and lighthearted I
am sure that I sitting with them and walking with them and talking with them
and noticing from day to day how they went on falling deeper and deeper in
love and saying nothing about it and each shyly thinking that this love was
the greatest of secrets perhaps not yet suspected even by the other I am sure
that I was scarcely less enchanted than they were and scarcely less pleased
with the pretty dream
We were going on in this way when one morning at breakfast Mr Jarndyce
received a letter and looking at the superscription said »From Boythorn Aye
aye« and opened and read it with evident pleasure announcing to us in a
parenthesis when he was about halfway through that Boythorn was coming down
on a visit Now who was Boythorn we all thought And I dare say we all
thought too I am sure I did for one would Boythorn at all interfere with
what was going forward
»I went to school with this fellow Lawrence Boythorn« said Mr Jarndyce
tapping the letter as he laid it on the table »more than fiveandforty years
ago He was then the most impetuous boy in the world and he is now the most
impetuous man He was then the loudest boy in the world and he is now the
loudest man He was then the heartiest and sturdiest boy in the world and he is
now the heartiest and sturdiest man He is a tremendous fellow«
»In stature sir« asked Richard
»Pretty well Rick in that respect« said Mr Jarndyce »being some ten
years older than I and a couple of inches taller with his head thrown back
like an old soldier his stalwart chest squared his hands like a clean
blacksmiths and his lungs theres no simile for his lungs Talking
laughing or snoring they make the beams of the house shake«
As Mr Jarndyce sat enjoying the image of his friend Boythorn we observed
the favourable omen that there was not the least indication of any change in the
wind
»But its the inside of the man the warm heart of the man the passion of
the man the fresh blood of the man Rick and Ada and little Cobweb too for
you are all interested in a visitor that I speak of« he pursued »His
language is as sounding as his voice He is always in extremes perpetually in
the superlative degree In his condemnation he is all ferocity You might
suppose him to be an Ogre from what he says and I believe he has the
reputation of one with some people There I tell you no more of him beforehand
You must not be surprised to see him take me under his protection for he has
never forgotten that I was a low boy at school and that our friendship began in
his knocking two of my head tyrants teeth out he says six before breakfast
Boythorn and his man« to me »will be here this afternoon my dear«
I took care that the necessary preparations were made for Mr Boythorns
reception and we looked forward to his arrival with some curiosity The
afternoon wore away however and he did not appear The dinnerhour arrived
and still he did not appear The dinner was put back an hour and we were
sitting round the fire with no light but the blaze when the halldoor suddenly
burst open and the hall resounded with these words uttered with the greatest
vehemence and in a stentorian tone
»We have been misdirected Jarndyce by a most abandoned ruffian who told
us to take the turning to the right instead of to the left He is the most
intolerable scoundrel on the face of the earth His father must have been a most
consummate villain ever to have such a son I would have had that fellow shot
without the least remorse«
»Did he do it on purpose« Mr Jarndyce inquired
»I have not the slightest doubt that the scoundrel has passed his whole
existence in misdirecting travellers« returned the other »By my soul I
thought him the worstlooking dog I had ever beheld when he was telling me to
take the turning to the right And yet I stood before that fellow face to face
and didnt knock his brains out«
»Teeth you mean« said Mr Jarndyce
»Ha ha ha« laughed Mr Lawrence Boythorn really making the whole house
vibrate »What you have not forgotten it yet Ha ha ha And that was
another most consummate vagabond By my soul the countenance of that fellow
when he was a boy was the blackest image of perfidy cowardice and cruelty
ever set up as a scarecrow in a field of scoundrels If I were to meet that most
unparalleled despot in the streets tomorrow I would fell him like a rotten
tree«
»I have no doubt of it« said Mr Jarndyce »Now will you come upstairs«
»By my soul Jarndyce« returned his guest who seemed to refer to his
watch »if you had been married I would have turned back at the gardengate
and gone away to the remotest summits of the Himalaya Mountains sooner than I
would have presented myself at this unseasonable hour«
»Not quite so far I hope« said Mr Jarndyce
»By my life and honour yes« cried the visitor »I wouldnt be guilty of
the audacious insolence of keeping a lady of the house waiting all this time
for any earthly consideration I would infinitely rather destroy myself
infinitely rather«
Talking thus they went upstairs and presently we heard him in his bedroom
thundering »Ha ha ha« and again »Ha ha ha« until the flattest echo in the
neighbourhood seemed to catch the contagion and to laugh as enjoyingly as he
did or as we did when we heard him laugh
We all conceived a prepossession in his favour for there was a sterling
quality in this laugh and in his vigorous healthy voice and in the roundness
and fulness with which he uttered every word he spoke and in the very fury of
his superlatives which seemed to go off like blank cannons and hurt nothing
But we were hardly prepared to have it so confirmed by his appearance when Mr
Jarndyce presented him He was not only a very handsome old gentleman upright
and stalwart as he had been described to us with a massive grey head a fine
composure of face when silent a figure that might have become corpulent but for
his being so continually in earnest that he gave it no rest and a chin that
might have subsided into a double chin but for the vehement emphasis in which it
was constantly required to assist but he was such a true gentleman in his
manner so chivalrously polite his face was lighted by a smile of so much
sweetness and tenderness and it seemed so plain that he had nothing to hide
but showed himself exactly as he was incapable as Richard said of anything
on a limited scale and firing away with those blank great guns because he
carried no small arms whatever that really I could not help looking at him
with equal pleasure as he sat at dinner whether he smilingly conversed with Ada
and me or was led by Mr Jarndyce into some great volley of superlatives or
threw up his head like a bloodhound and gave out that tremendous Ha ha ha
»You have brought your bird with you I suppose« said Mr Jarndyce
»By Heaven he is the most astonishing bird in Europe« replied the other
»He is the most wonderful creature I wouldnt take ten thousand guineas for
that bird I have left an annuity for his sole support in case he should
outlive me He is in sense and attachment a phenomenon. And his father before
him was one of the most astonishing birds that ever lived«
The subject of this laudation was a very little canary who was so tame that
he was brought down by Mr Boythorns man on his forefinger and after taking
a gentle flight round the room alighted on his masters head To hear Mr
Boythorn presently expressing the most implacable and passionate sentiments
with this fragile mite of a creature quietly perched on his forehead was to
have a good illustration of his character I thought
»By my soul Jarndyce« he said very gently holding up a bit of bread to
the canary to peck at »if I were in your place I would seize every Master in
Chancery by the throat tomorrow morning and shake him until his money rolled
out of his pockets and his bones rattled in his skin I would have a settlement
out of somebody by fair means or by foul If you would empower me to do it I
would do it for you with the greatest satisfaction« All this time the very
small canary was eating out of his hand
»I thank you Lawrence but the suit is hardly at such a point at present«
returned Mr Jarndyce laughing »that it would be greatly advanced even by the
legal process of shaking the Bench and the whole Bar«
»There never was such an infernal cauldron as that Chancery on the face of
the earth« said Mr Boythorn »Nothing but a mine below it on a busy day in
term time with all its records rules and precedents collected in it and
every functionary belonging to it also high and low upward and downward from
its son the AccountantGeneral to its father the Devil and the whole blown to
atoms with ten thousand hundredweight of gunpowder would reform it in the
least«
It was impossible not to laugh at the energetic gravity with which he
recommended this strong measure of reform When we laughed he threw up his
head and shook his broad chest and again the whole country seemed to echo to
his Ha ha ha It had not the least effect in disturbing the bird whose sense
of security was complete and who hopped about the table with its quick head now
on this side and now on that turning its bright sudden eye on its master as if
he were no more than another bird
»But how do you and your neighbour get on about the disputed right of way«
said Mr Jarndyce »You are not free from the toils of the law yourself«
»The fellow has brought actions against me for trespass and I have brought
actions against him for trespass« returned Mr Boythorn »By Heaven he is the
proudest fellow breathing It is morally impossible that his name can be Sir
Leicester It must be Sir Lucifer«
»Complimentary to our distant relation« said my Guardian laughingly to Ada
and Richard
»I would beg Miss Clares pardon and Mr Carstones pardon« resumed our
visitor »if I were not reassured by seeing in the fair face of the lady and
the smile of the gentleman that it is quite unnecessary and that they keep
their distant relation at a comfortable distance«
»Or he keeps us« suggested Richard
»By my soul« exclaimed Mr Boythorn suddenly firing another volley »that
fellow is and his father was and his grandfather was the most stiffnecked
arrogant imbecile pigheaded numskull ever by some inexplicable mistake of
Nature, born in any station of life but a walkingsticks The whole of that
family are the most solemnly conceited and consummate blockheads But its no
matter he should not shut up my path if he were fifty baronets melted into one
and living in a hundred Chesney Wolds one within another like the ivory balls
in a Chinese carving The fellow by his agent or secretary or somebody
writes to me Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet presents his compliments to Mr
Lawrence Boythorn and has to call his attention to the fact that the green
pathway by the old parsonagehouse now the property of Mr Lawrence Boythorn
is Sir Leicesters right of way being in fact a portion of the park of Chesney
Wold and that Sir Leicester finds it convenient to close up the same I write
to the fellow Mr Lawrence Boythorn presents his compliments to Sir Leicester
Dedlock Baronet and has to call his attention to the fact that he totally
denies the whole of Sir Leicester Dedlocks positions on every possible subject
and has to add in reference to closing up the pathway that he will be glad to
see the man who may undertake to do it The fellow sends a most abandoned
villain with one eye to construct a gateway I play upon that execrable
scoundrel with a fireengine until the breath is nearly driven out of his body
The fellow erects a gate in the night I chop it down and burn it in the
morning He sends his myrmidons to come over the fence and pass and repass I
catch them in humane man traps fire split peas at their legs play upon them
with the engine resolve to free mankind from the insupportable burden of the
existence of those lurking ruffians He brings actions for trespass I bring
actions for trespass He brings actions for assault and battery I defend them
and continue to assault and batter Ha ha ha«
To hear him say all this with unimaginable energy one might have thought
him the angriest of mankind To see him at the very same time looking at the
bird now perched upon his thumb and softly smoothing its feathers with his
forefinger one might have thought him the gentlest To hear him laugh and see
the broad good nature of his face then one might have supposed that he had not
a care in the world or a dispute or a dislike but that his whole existence
was a summer joke
»No no« he said »no closing up of my paths by any Dedlock Though I
willingly confess« here he softened in a moment »that Lady Dedlock is the most
accomplished lady in the world to whom I would do any homage that a plain
gentleman and no baronet with a head seven hundred years thick may A man who
joined his regiment at twenty and within a week challenged the most imperious
and presumptuous coxcomb of a commanding officer that ever drew the breath of
life through a tight waist and got broke for it is not the man to be walked
over by all the Sir Lucifers dead or alive locked or unlocked Ha ha ha«
»Nor the man to allow his junior to be walked over either« said my
Guardian
»Most assuredly not« said Mr Boythorn clapping him on the shoulder with
an air of protection that had something serious in it though he laughed »He
will stand by the low boy always Jarndyce you may rely upon him But
speaking of this trespass with apologies to Miss Clare and Miss Summerson for
the length at which I have pursued so dry a subject is there nothing for me
from your men Kenge and Carboy«
»I think not Esther« said Mr Jarndyce
»Nothing Guardian«
»Much obliged« said Mr Boythorn »Had no need to ask after even my slight
experience of Miss Summersons forethought for every one about her« They all
encouraged me they were determined to do it »I inquired because coming from
Lincolnshire I of course have not yet been in town and I thought some letters
might have been sent down here I dare say they will report progress tomorrow
morning«
I saw him so often in the course of the evening which passed very
pleasantly contemplate Richard and Ada with an interest and a satisfaction that
made his fine face remarkably agreeable as he sat at a little distance from the
piano listening to the music and he had small occasion to tell us that he was
passionately fond of music for his face showed it that I asked my Guardian
as we sat at the backgammon board whether Mr Boythorn had ever been married
»No« said he »No«
»But he meant to be« said I
»How did you find out that« he returned with a smile
»Why Guardian« I explained not without reddening a little at hazarding
what was in my thoughts »there is something so tender in his manner after all
and he is so very courtly and gentle to us and «
Mr Jarndyce directed his eyes to where he was sitting as I have just
described him
I said no more
»You are right little woman« he answered »He was all but married once
Long ago And once«
»Did the lady die«
»No but she died to him That time has had its influence on all his later
life Would yon suppose him to have a head and a heart full of romance yet«
»I think Guardian I might have supposed so But it is easy to say that
when you have told me so«
»He has never since been what he might have been« said Mr Jarndyce »and
now you see him in his age with no one near him but his servant and his little
yellow friend Its your throw my dear«
I felt from my Guardians manner that beyond this point I could not pursue
the subject without changing the wind I therefore forbore to ask any further
questions I was interested but not curious I thought a little while about
this old love story in the night when I was awakened by Mr Boythorns lusty
snoring and I tried to do that very difficult thing imagine old people young
again and invested with the graces of youth But I fell asleep before I had
succeeded and dreamed of the days when I lived in my godmothers house I am
not sufficiently acquainted with such subjects to know whether it is at all
remarkable that I almost always dreamed of that period of my life
With the morning there came a letter from Messrs Kenge and Carboy to Mr
Boythorn informing him that one of their clerks would wait upon him at noon As
it was the day of the week on which I paid the bills and added up my books and
made all the household affairs as compact as possible I remained at home while
Mr Jarndyce Ada and Richard took advantage of a very fine day to make a
little excursion Mr Boythorn was to wait for Kenge and Carboys clerk and
then was to go on foot to meet them on their return
Well I was full of business examining tradesmens books adding up
columns paying money filing receipts and I dare say making a great bustle
about it when Mr Guppy was announced and shown in I had had some idea that
the clerk who was to be sent down might be the young gentleman who had met me
at the coachoffice and I was glad to see him because he was associated with
my present happiness
I scarcely knew him again he was so uncommonly smart He had an entirely
new suit of glossy clothes on a shining hat lilackid gloves a neckerchief of
a variety of colours a large hothouse flower in his buttonhole and a thick
gold ring on his little finger Besides which he quite scented the diningroom
with bearsgrease and other perfumery He looked at me with an attention that
quite confused me when I begged him to take a seat until the servant should
return and as he sat there crossing and uncrossing his legs in a corner and I
asked him if he had had a pleasant ride and hoped that Mr Kenge was well I
never looked at him but I found him looking at me in the same scrutinising and
curious way
When the request was brought to him that he would go upstairs to Mr
Boythorns room I mentioned that he would find lunch prepared for him when he
came down of which Mr Jarndyce hoped he would partake He said with some
embarrassment holding the handle of the door »Shall I have the honour of
finding you here miss« I replied yes I should be there and he went out with
a bow and another look
I thought him only awkward and shy for he was evidently much embarrassed
and I fancied that the best thing I could do would be to wait until I saw that
he had everything he wanted and then to leave him to himself The lunch was
soon brought but it remained for some time on the table The interview with Mr
Boythorn was a long one and a stormy one too I should think for although his
room was at some distance I heard his loud voice every now and then like a high
wind and evidently blowing perfect broadsides of denunciation
At last Mr Guppy came back looking something the worse for the conference
»My eye miss« he said in a low voice »hes a Tartar«
»Pray take some refreshment sir« said I
Mr Guppy sat down at the table and began nervously sharpening the
carvingknife on the carvingfork still looking at me as I felt quite sure
without looking at him in the same unusual manner The sharpening lasted so
long that at last I felt a kind of obligation on me to raise my eyes in order
that I might break the spell under which he seemed to labour of not being able
to leave off
He immediately looked at the dish and began to carve
»What will you take yourself miss Youll take a morsel of something«
»No thank you« said I
»Shant I give you a piece of anything at all miss« said Mr Guppy
hurriedly drinking off a glass of wine
»Nothing thank you« said I »I have only waited to see that you have
everything you want Is there anything I can order for you«
»No I am much obliged to you miss Im sure Ive everything that I can
require to make me comfortable at least I not comfortable Im never that«
he drank off two more glasses of wine one after another
I thought I had better go
»I beg your pardon miss« said Mr Guppy rising when he saw me rise »But
would you allow me the favour of a minutes private conversation«
Not knowing what to say I sat down again
»What follows is without prejudice miss« said Mr Guppy anxiously
bringing a chair towards my table
»I dont understand what you mean« said I wondering
»Its one of our law terms miss You wont make any use of it to my
detriment at Kenge and Carboys or elsewhere If our conversation shouldnt
lead to anything I am to be as I was and am not to be prejudiced in my
situation or worldly prospects In short its in total confidence«
»I am at a loss sir« said I »to imagine what you can have to communicate
in total confidence to me whom you have never seen but once but I should be
very sorry to do you any injury«
»Thank you miss Im sure of it thats quite sufficient« All this time
Mr Guppy was either planing his forehead with his handkerchief or tightly
rubbing the palm of his left hand with the palm of his right »If you would
excuse my taking another glass of wine miss I think it might assist me in
getting on without a continual choke that cannot fail to be mutually
unpleasant«
He did so and came back again I took the opportunity of moving well behind
my table
»You wouldnt allow me to offer you one would you miss« said Mr Guppy
apparently refreshed
»Not any« said I
»Not half a glass« said Mr Guppy »quarter No Then to proceed My
present salary Miss Summerson at Kenge and Carboys is two pound aweek When
I first had the happiness of looking upon you it was onefifteen and had stood
at that figure for a lengthened period A rise of five has since taken place
and a further rise of five is guaranteed at the expiration of a term not
exceeding twelve months from the present date My mother has a little property
which takes the form of a small life annuity upon which she lives in an
independent though unassuming manner in the Old Street Road She is eminently
calculated for a motherinlaw She never interferes is all for peace and her
disposition easy She has her failings as who has not but I never knew her
do it when company was present at which time you may freely trust her with
wines spirits or malt liquors My own abode is lodgings at Penton Place
Pentonville It is lowly but airy open at the back and considered one of the
ealthiest outlets Miss Summerson In the mildest language I adore you Would
you be so kind as to allow me as I may say to file a declaration to make an
offer«
Mr Guppy went down on his knees I was well behind my table and not much
frightened I said »Get up from that ridiculous position immediately sir or
you will oblige me to break my implied promise and ring the bell«
»Hear me out miss« said Mr Guppy folding his hands
»I cannot consent to hear another word sir« I returned »unless you get up
from the carpet directly and go and sit down at the table as you ought to do
if you have any sense at all«
He looked piteously but slowly rose and did so
»Yet what a mockery it is miss« he said with his hand upon his heart and
shaking his head at me in a melancholy manner over the tray »to be stationed
behind food at such a moment The soul recoils from food at such a moment
miss«
»I beg you to conclude« said I »you have asked me to hear you out and I
beg you to conclude«
»I will miss« said Mr Guppy »As I love and honour so likewise I obey
Would that I could make Thee the subject of that vow before the shrine«
»That is quite impossible« said I »and entirely out of the question«
»I am aware« said Mr Guppy leaning forward over the tray and regarding
me as I again strangely felt though my eyes were not directed to him with his
late intent look »I am aware that in a worldly point of view according to all
appearances my offer is a poor one But Miss Summerson Angel No dont
ring I have been brought up in a sharp school and am accustomed to a variety
of general practice Though a young man I have ferreted out evidence got up
cases and seen lots of life Blest with your hand what means might I not find
of advancing your interests and pushing your fortunes What might I not get to
know nearly concerning you I know nothing now certainly but what might I
not if I had your confidence and you set me on«
I told him that he addressed my interest or what he supposed to be my
interest quite as unsuccessfully as he addressed my inclination and he would
now understand that I requested him if he pleased to go away immediately
»Cruel miss« said Mr Guppy »hear but another word I think you must have
seen that I was struck with those charms on the day when I waited at the
Whytorseller I think you must have remarked that I could not forbear a tribute
to those charms when I put up the steps of the ackneycoach It was a feeble
tribute to Thee but it was well meant Thy image has ever since been fixed in
my breast I have walked up and down of an evening opposite Jellybys house
only to look upon the bricks that once contained Thee This out of today quite
an unnecessary out so far as the attendance which was its pretended object
went was planned by me alone for Thee alone If I speak of interest it is only
to recommend myself and my respectful wretchedness Love was before it and is
before it«
»I should be pained Mr Guppy« said I rising and putting my hand upon the
bellrope »to do you or any one who was sincere the injustice of slighting
any honest feeling however disagreeably expressed If you have really meant to
give me a proof of your good opinion though illtimed and misplaced I feel
that I ought to thank you I have very little reason to be proud and I am not
proud I hope« I think I added without very well knowing what I said »that
you will now go away as if you had never been so exceedingly foolish and attend
to Messrs Kenge and Carboys business«
»Half a minute miss« cried Mr Guppy checking me as I was about to ring
»This has been without prejudice«
»I will never mention it« said I »unless you should give me future
occasion to do so«
»A quarter of a minute miss In case you should think better at any time
however distant thats no consequence for my feelings can never alter of
anything I have said particularly what might I not do Mr William Guppy
eightyseven Penton Place or if removed or dead of blighted hopes or
anything of that sort care of Mrs Guppy three hundred and two Old Street
Road will be sufficient«
I rang the bell the servant came and Mr Guppy laying his written card
upon the table and making a dejected bow departed Raising my eyes as he went
out I once more saw him looking at me after he had passed the door
I sat there for another hour or more finishing my books and payments and
getting through plenty of business Then I arranged my desk and put
everything away and was so composed and cheerful that I thought I had quite
dismissed this unexpected incident But when I went upstairs to my own room I
surprised myself by beginning to laugh about it and then surprised myself still
more by beginning to cry about it In short I was in a flutter for a little
while and felt as if an old chord had been more coarsely touched than it ever
had been since the days of the dear old doll long buried in the garden
Chapter X
The LawWriter
On the eastern borders of Chancery Lane that is to say more particularly in
Cooks Court Cursitor Street Mr Snagsby LawStationer pursues his lawful
calling In the shade of Cooks Court at most times a shady place Mr Snagsby
has dealt in all sorts of blank forms of legal process in skins and rolls of
parchment in paper foolscap brief draft brown white whiteybrown and
blotting in stamps in officequills pens ink Indiarubber pounce pins
pencils sealingwax and wafers in red tape and green ferret in pocketbooks
almanacks diaries and law lists in string boxes rulers inkstands glass
and leaden penknives scissors bodkins and other small officecutlery in
short in articles too numerous to mention ever since he was out of his time
and went into partnership with Peffer On that occasion Cooks Court was in a
manner revolutionised by the new inscription in fresh paint PEFFER and SNAGSBY
displacing the timehonoured and not easily to be deciphered legend PEFFER
only For smoke which is the London ivy had so wreathed itself round Peffers
name and clung to his dwellingplace that the affectionate parasite quite
overpowered the parent tree
Peffer is never seen in Cooks Court now He is not expected there for he
has been recumbent this quarter of a century in the churchyard of St Andrews
Holborn with the waggons and hackneycoaches roaring past him all the day and
half the night like one great dragon If he ever steal forth when the dragon is
at rest to air himself again in Cooks Court until admonished to return by the
crowing of the sanguine cock in the cellar at the little dairy in Cursitor
Street whose ideas of daylight it would be curious to ascertain since he knows
from his personal observation next to nothing about it if Peffer ever do
revisit the pale glimpes of Cooks Court which no lawstationer in the trade
can positively deny he comes invisibly and no one is the worse or wiser
In his lifetime and likewise in the period of Snagsbys time of seven long
years there dwelt with Peffer in the same lawstationering premises a niece
a short shrewd niece something too violently compressed about the waist and
with a sharp nose like a sharp autumn evening inclining to be frosty towards
the end The CooksCourtiers had a rumour flying among them that the mother of
this niece did in her daughters childhood moved by too jealous a solicitude
that her figure should approach perfection lace her up every morning with her
maternal foot against the bedpost for a stronger hold and purchase and
further that she exhibited internally pints of vinegar and lemonjuice which
acids they held had mounted to the nose and temper of the patient With
whichsoever of the many tongues of Rumour this frothy report originated it
either never reached or never influenced the ears of young Snagsby who
having wooed and won its fair subject on his arrival at mans estate entered
into two partnerships at once So now in Cooks Court Cursitor Street Mr
Snagsby and the niece are one and the niece still cherishes her figure which
however tastes may differ is unquestionably so far precious that there is
mighty little of it
Mr and Mrs Snagsby are not only one bone and one flesh but to the
neighbours thinking one voice too That voice appearing to proceed from Mrs
Snagsby alone is heard in Cooks Court very often Mr Snagsby otherwise than
as he finds expression through these dulcet tones is rarely heard He is a
mild bald timid man with a shining head and a scrubby clump of black hair
sticking out at the back He tends to meekness and obesity As he stands at his
door in Cooks Court in his grey shopcoat and black calico sleeves looking up
at the clouds or stands behind a desk in his dark shop with a heavy flat
ruler snipping and slicing at sheepskin in company with his two prentices he
is emphatically a retiring and unassuming man From beneath his feet at such
times as from a shrill ghost unquiet in its grave there frequently arise
complainings and lamentations in the voice already mentioned and haply on some
occasions when these reach a sharper pitch than usual Mr Snagsby mentions to
the prentices »I think my little woman is agiving it to Guster«
This proper name so used by Mr Snagsby has before now sharpened the wit
of the CooksCourtiers to remark that it ought to be the name of Mrs Snagsby
seeing that she might with great force and expression be termed a Guster in
compliment to her stormy character It is however the possession and the only
possession except fifty shillings per annum and a very small box indifferently
filled with clothing of a lean young woman from a workhouse by some supposed
to have been christened Augusta who although she was farmed or contracted
for during her growing time by an amiable benefactor of his species resident
at Tooting and cannot fail to have been developed under the most favourable
circumstances has fits which the parish cant account for
Guster really aged three or four and twenty but looking a round ten years
older goes cheap with this unaccountable drawback of fits and is so
apprehensive of being returned on the hands of her patron saint that except
when she is found with her head in the pail or the sink or the copper or the
dinner or anything else that happens to be near her at the time of her seizure
she is always at work She is a satisfaction to the parents and guardians of the
prentices who feel that there is little danger of her inspiring tender
emotions in the breast of youth she is a satisfaction to Mrs Snagsby who can
always find fault with her she is a satisfaction to Mr Snagsby who thinks it
a charity to keep her The lawstationers establishment is in Gusters eyes a
Temple of plenty and splendour She believes the little drawingroom upstairs
always kept as one may say with its hair in papers and its pinafore on to be
the most elegant apartment in Christendom The view it commands of Cooks Court
at one end not to mention a squint into Cursitor Street and of Coavinses the
sheriffs officers backyard at the other she regards as a prospect of
unequalled beauty The portraits it displays in oil and plenty of it too of
Mr Snagsby looking at Mrs Snagsby and of Mrs Snagsby looking at Mr Snagsby
are in her eyes as achievements of Raphael or Titian Guster has some
recompenses for her many privations
Mr Snagsby refers everything not in the practical mysteries of the business
to Mrs Snagsby She manages the money reproaches the Taxgatherers appoints
the times and places of devotion on Sundays licenses Mr Snagsbys
entertainments and acknowledges no responsibility as to what she thinks fit to
provide for dinner insomuch that she is the high standard of comparison among
the neighbouring wives a long way down Chancery Lane on both sides and even
out in Holborn who in any domestic passages of arms habitually call upon
their husbands to look at the difference between their the wives position and
Mrs Snagsbys and their the husbands behaviour and Mr Snagsbys Rumour
always flying batlike about Cooks Court and skimming in and out at
everybodys windows does say that Mrs Snagsby is jealous and inquisitive and
that Mr Snagsby is sometimes worried out of house and home and that if he had
the spirit of a mouse he wouldnt stand it It is even observed that the wives
who quote him to their selfwilled husbands as a shining example in reality
look down upon him and that nobody does so with greater superciliousness than
one particular lady whose lord is more than suspected of laying his umbrella on
her as an instrument of correction But these vague whisperings may arise from
Mr Snagsbys being in his way rather a meditative and poetical man loving to
walk in Staple Inn in the summer time and to observe how countrified the
sparrows and the leaves are; also to lounge about the Rolls Yard of a Sunday
afternoon and to remark if in good spirits that there were old times once
and that youd find a stone coffin or two now under that chapel hell be
bound if you was to dig for it He solaces his imagination too by thinking of
the many Chancellors and Vices and Masters of the Rolls who are deceased and
he gets such a flavour of the country out of telling the two prentices how he
has heard say that a brook as clear as crystial once ran right down the middle
of Holborn when Turnstile really was a turnstile leading slap away into the
meadows gets such a flavour of the country out of this that he never wants to
go there
The day is closing in and the gas is lighted but is not yet fully
effective for it is not quite dark Mr Snagsby standing at his shopdoor
looking up at the clouds sees a crow who is out late skim westward over the
slice of sky belonging to Cooks Court The crow flies straight across Chancery
Lane and Lincolns Inn Garden into Lincolns Inn Fields
Here in a large house formerly a house of state lives Mr Tulkinghorn It
is let off in sets of chambers now and in those shrunken fragments of its
greatness lawyers lie like maggots in nuts But its roomy staircases passages
and antechambers still remain and even its painted ceilings where Allegory
in Roman helmet and celestial linen sprawls among balustrades and pillars
flowers clouds and biglegged boys and makes the head ache as would seem to
be Allegorys object always more or less Here among his many boxes labelled
with transcendent names lives Mr Tulkinghorn when not speechlessly at home in
countryhouses where the great ones of the earth are bored to death Here he is
today quiet at his table An Oyster of the old school whom nobody can open
Like as he is to look at so is his apartment in the dusk of the present
afternoon Rusty out of date withdrawing from attention able to afford it
Heavy broadbacked oldfashioned mahogany and horsehair chairs not easily
lifted obsolete tables with spindlelegs and dusty baize covers presentation
prints of the holders of great titles in the last generation or the last but
one environ him A thick and dingy Turkeycarpet muffles the floor where he
sits attended by two candles in oldfashioned silver candlesticks that give a
very insufficient light to his large room The titles on the backs of his books
have retired into the binding everything that can have a lock has got one no
key is visible Very few loose papers are about He has some manuscript near
him but is not referring to it With the round top of an inkstand and two
broken bits of sealingwax he is silently and slowly working out whatever train
of indecision is in his mind Now the inkstand top is in the middle now the
red bit of sealingwax now the black bit Thats not it Mr Tulkinghorn must
gather them all up and begin again
Here beneath the painted ceiling with foreshortened Allegory staring down
at his intrusion as if it meant to swoop upon him and he cutting it dead Mr
Tulkinghorn has at once his house and office He keeps no staff only one
middleaged man usually a little out at elbows who sits in a high Pew in the
hall and is rarely overburdened with business Mr Tulkinghorn is not in a
common way He wants no clerks He is a great reservoir of confidences not to
be so tapped His clients want him he is all in all Drafts that he requires to
be drawn are drawn by specialpleaders in the Temple on mysterious
instructions fair copies that he requires to be made are made at the
stationers expense being no consideration The middleaged man in the Pew
knows scarcely more of the affairs of the Peerage than any crossingsweeper in
Holborn
The red bit the black bit the inkstand top the other inkstand top the
little sandbox So You to the middle you to the right you to the left This
train of indecision must surely be worked out now or never Now Mr
Tulkinghorn gets up adjusts his spectacles puts on his hat puts the
manuscript in his pocket goes out tells the middleaged man out at elbows »I
shall be back presently« Very rarely tells him anything more explicit
Mr Tulkinghorn goes as the crow came not quite so straight but nearly
to Cooks Court Cursitor Street To Snagsbys LawStationers Deeds engrossed
and copied LawWriting executed in all its branches etc etc etc
It is somewhere about five or six oclock in the afternoon and a balmy
fragrance of warm tea hovers in Cooks Court It hovers about Snagsbys door
The hours are early there dinner at halfpast one and supper at halfpast
nine Mr Snagsby was about to descend into the subterranean regions to take
tea when he looked out of his door just now and saw the crow who was out late
»Master at home«
Guster is minding the shop for the prentices take tea in the kitchen with
Mr and Mrs Snagsby consequently, the robemakers two daughters combing
their curls at the two glasses in the two secondfloor windows of the opposite
house are not driving the two prentices to distraction as they fondly
suppose but are merely awakening the unprofitable admiration of Guster whose
hair wont grow and never would and it is confidently thought never will
»Master at home« says Mr Tulkinghorn
Master is at home and Guster will fetch him Guster disappears glad to get
out of the shop which she regards with mingled dread and veneration as a
storehouse of awful implements of the great torture of the law a place not to
be entered after the gas is turned off
Mr Snagsby appears greasy warm herbaceous and chewing Bolts a bit of
bread and butter Says »Bless my soul sir Mr Tulkinghorn«
»I want half a word with you Snagsby«
»Certainly sir Dear me sir why didnt you send your young man round for
me Pray walk into the back shop sir« Snagsby has brightened in a moment
The confined room strong of parchmentgrease is warehouse countinghouse
and copyingoffice Mr Tulkinghorn sits facing round on a stool at the desk
»Jarndyce and Jarndyce Snagsby«
»Yes sir« Mr Snagsby turns up the gas and coughs behind his hand
modestly anticipating profit Mr Snagsby as a timid man is accustomed to
cough with a variety of expressions and so to save words
»You copied some affidavits in that cause for me lately«
»Yes sir we did«
»There was one of them« says Mr Tulkinghorn carelessly feeling tight
unopenable Oyster of the old school in the wrong coatpocket »the
handwriting of which is peculiar and I rather like As I happened to be
passing and thought I had it about me I looked in to ask you but I havent
got it No matter any other time will do Ah here it is I looked in to ask
you who copied this«
»Who copied this sir« says Mr Snagsby taking it laying it flat on the
desk and separating all the sheets at once with a twirl and a twist of the left
hand peculiar to lawstationers »We gave this out sir We were giving out
rather a large quantity of work just at that time I can tell you in a moment
who copied it sir by referring to my Book«
Mr Snagsby takes his Book down from the safe makes another bolt of the bit
of bread and butter which seemed to have stopped short eyes the affidavit
aside and brings his right forefinger travelling down a page of the Book
»Jewby Packer Jarndyce«
»Jarndyce Here we are sir« says Mr Snagsby »To be sure I might have
remembered it This was given out sir to a Writer who lodges just over on the
opposite side of the lane«
Mr Tulkinghorn has seen the entry found it before the Lawstationer read
it while the forefinger was coming down the hill
»What do you call him Nemo« says Mr Tulkinghorn
»Nemo sir Here it is Fortytwo folio Given out on the Wednesday night
at eight oclock brought in on the Thursday morning at half after nine«
»Nemo« repeats Mr Tulkinghorn »Nemo is Latin for no one«
»It must be English for some one sir I think« Mr Snagsby submits with
his deferential cough »It is a persons name Here it is you see sir
Fortytwo folio Given out Wednesday night eight oclock brought in Thursday
morning half after nine«
The tail of Mr Snagsbys eye becomes conscious of the head of Mrs Snagsby
looking in at the shopdoor to know what he means by deserting his tea Mr
Snagsby addresses an explanatory cough to Mrs Snagsby as who should say »My
dear a customer«
»Half after nine sir« repeats Mr Snagsby »Our lawwriters who live by
jobwork are a queer lot and this may not be his name but its the name he
goes by I remember now sir that he gives it in a written advertisement he
sticks up down at the Rule Office and the Kings Bench Office and the Judges
Chambers and so forth You know the kind of document sir wanting employ«
Mr Tulkinghorn glances through the little window at the back of Coavinses
the sheriffs officers where lights shine in Coavinses windows Coavinses
coffeeroom is at the back and the shadows of several gentlemen under a cloud
loom cloudily upon the blinds Mr Snagsby takes the opportunity of slightly
turning his head to glance over his shoulder at his little woman and to make
apologetic motions with his mouth to this effect »Tulkinghorn rich
influential«
»Have you given this man work before« asks Mr Tulkinghorn
»O dear yes sir Work of yours«
»Thinking of more important matters I forget where you said he lived«
»Across the lane sir In fact he lodges at a « Mr Snagsby makes another
bolt as if the bit of bread and butter were insurmountable »at a rag and
bottle shop«
»Can you show me the place as I go back«
»With the greatest pleasure sir«
Mr Snagsby pulls off his sleeves and his grey coat pulls on his black
coat takes his hat from its peg »Oh here is my little woman« he says aloud
»My dear will you be so kind as to tell one of the lads to look after the shop
while I step across the lane with Mr Tulkinghorn Mrs Snagsby sir I shant
be two minutes my love«
Mrs Snagsby bends to the lawyer retires behind the counter peeps at them
through the windowblind goes softly into the back office refers to the
entries in the book still lying open Is evidently curious
»You will find that the place is rough sir« says Mr Snagsby walking
deferentially in the road and leaving the narrow pavement to the lawyer »and
the party is very rough But theyre a wild lot in general sir The advantage
of this particular man is that he never wants sleep Hell go at it right on
end if you want him to as long as ever you like«
It is quite dark now and the gaslamps have acquired their full effect
Jostling against clerks going to post the days letters and against counsel and
attorneys going home to dinner and against plaintiffs and defendants and
suitors of all sorts and against the general crowd in whose way the forensic
wisdom of ages has interposed a million of obstacles to the transaction of the
commonest business of life diving through law and equity and through that
kindred mystery the street mud which is made of nobody knows what and
collects about us nobody knows whence or how we only knowing in general that
when there is too much of it we find it necessary to shovel it away the
lawyer and the lawstationer come to a Rag and Bottle shop and general emporium
of much disregarded merchandise lying and being in the shadow of the wall of
Lincolns Inn and kept as is announced in paint to all whom it may concern
by one Krook
»This is where he lives sir« says the lawstationer
»This is where he lives is it« says the lawyer unconcernedly »Thank you«
»Are you not going in sir«
»No thank you no I am going on to the Fields at present Good evening
Thank you« Mr Snagsby lifts his hat and returns to his little woman and his
tea
But Mr Tulkinghorn does not go on to the Fields at present He goes a short
way turns back comes again to the shop of Mr Krook and enters it straight
It is dim enough with a blotheaded candle or so in the windows and an old man
and a cat sitting in the back part by a fire The old man rises and comes
forward with another blotheaded candle in his hand
»Pray is your lodger within«
»Male or female sir« says Mr Krook
»Male The person who does copying«
Mr Krook has eyed his man narrowly Knows him by sight Has an indistinct
impression of his aristocratic repute
»Did you wish to see him sir«
»Yes«
»Its what I seldom do myself« says Mr Krook with a grin »Shall I call
him down But its a weak chance if hed come sir«
»Ill go up to him then« says Mr Tulkinghorn
»Second floor sir Take the candle Up there« Mr Krook with his cat
beside him stands at the bottom of the staircase looking after Mr
Tulkinghorn »Hi hi« he says when Mr Tulkinghorn has nearly disappeared
The lawyer looks down over the handrail The cat expands her wicked mouth and
snarls at him
»Order Lady Jane Behave yourself to visitors my lady You know what they
say of my lodger« whispers Krook going up a step or two
»What do they say of him«
»They say he has sold himself to the Enemy but you and I know better he
dont buy Ill tell you what though my lodger is so blackhumoured and gloomy
that I believe hed as soon make that bargain as any other Dont put him out
sir Thats my advice«
Mr Tulkinghorn with a nod goes on his way He comes to the dark door on the
second floor He knocks receives no answer opens it and accidentally
extinguishes his candle in doing so
The air of the room is almost bad enough to have extinguished it if he had
not It is a small room nearly black with soot and grease and dirt In the
rusty skeleton of a grate pinched at the middle as if Poverty had gripped it a
red coke fire burns low In the corner by the chimney stand a deal table and a
broken desk a wilderness marked with a rain of ink In another corner a ragged
old portmanteau on one of the two chairs serves for cabinet or wardrobe no
larger one is needed for it collapses like the cheeks of a starved man The
floor is bare except that one old mat trodden to shreds of ropeyarn lies
perishing upon the hearth No curtain veils the darkness of the night but the
discoloured shutters are drawn together and through the two gaunt holes pierced
in them famine might be staring in the Banshee of the man upon the bed
For on a low bed opposite the fire a confusion of dirty patchwork
leanribbed ticking and coarse sacking the lawyer hesitating just within the
doorway sees a man He lies there dressed in shirt and trousers with bare
feet He has a yellow look in the spectral darkness of a candle that has
guttered down until the whole length of its wick still burning has doubled
over and left a tower of windingsheet above it His hair is ragged mingling
with his whiskers and his beard the latter ragged too and grown like the
scum and mist around him in neglect Foul and filthy as the room is foul and
filthy as the air is it is not easy to perceive what fumes those are which most
oppress the senses in it but through the general sickliness and faintness and
the odour of stale tobacco there comes into the lawyers mouth the bitter
vapid taste of opium
»Hallo my friend« he cries and strikes his iron candlestick against the
door
He thinks he has awakened his friend He lies a little turned away but his
eyes are surely open
»Hallo my friend« he cries again »Hallo Hallo«
As he rattles on the door the candle which has drooped so long goes out
and leaves him in the dark with the gaunt eyes in the shutters staring down
upon the bed
Chapter XI
Our Dear Brother
A touch on the lawyers wrinkled hand as he stands in the dark room
irresolute makes him start and say »Whats that«
»Its me« returns the old man of the house whose breath is in his ear
»Cant you wake him«
»No«
»What have you done with your candle«
»Its gone out Here it is«
Krook takes it goes to the fire stoops over the red embers and tries to
get a light The dying ashes have no light to spare and his endeavours are
vain Muttering after an ineffectual call to his lodger that he will go
downstairs and bring a lighted candle from the shop the old man departs Mr
Tulkinghorn for some new reason that he has does not await his return in the
room but on the stairs outside
The welcome light soon shines upon the wall as Krook comes slowly up with
his greeneyed cat following at his heels »Does the man generally sleep like
this« inquires the lawyer in a low voice »Hi I dont know« says Krook
shaking his head and lifting his eyebrows »I know next to nothing of his
habits except that he keeps himself very close«
Thus whispering they both go in together As the light goes in the great
eyes in the shutters darkening seem to close Not so the eyes upon the bed
»God save us« exclaims Mr Tulkinghorn »He is dead«
Krook drops the heavy hand he has taken up so suddenly that the arm swings
over the bedside
They look at one another for a moment
»Send for some doctor Call for Miss Flite up the stairs sir Heres poison
by the bed Call out for Flite will you« says Krook with his lean hands
spread out above the body like a vampires wings
Mr Tulkinghorn hurries to the landing and calls »Miss Flite Flite Make
haste here whoever you are Flite« Krook follows him with his eyes and
while he is calling finds opportunity to steal to the old portmanteau and
steal back again
»Run Flite run The nearest doctor Run« So Mr Krook addresses a crazy
little woman who is his female lodger who appears and vanishes in a breath
who soon returns accompanied by a testy medical man brought from his dinner
with a broad snuffy upper lip and a broad Scotch tongue
»Ey Bless the hearts o ye« says the medical man looking up at them after
a moments examination »Hes just as dead as Phairy«
Mr Tulkinghorn standing by the old portmanteau inquires if he has been
dead any time
»Any time sir« says the medical gentleman »Its probable he wull have
been dead aboot three hours«
»About that time I should say« observes a dark young man on the other
side of the bed
»Air you in the maydickle prayfession yourself sir« inquires the first
The dark young man says yes
»Then Ill just tak my depairture« replies the other »for Im nae gude
here« With which remark he finishes his brief attendance and returns to
finish his dinner The dark young surgeon passes the candle across and across
the face and carefully examines the lawwriter who has established his
pretensions to his name by becoming indeed No one
»I knew this person by sight very well« says he »He has purchased opium
of me for the last year and a half Was anybody present related to him«
glancing round upon the three bystanders
»I was his landlord« grimly answers Krook taking the candle from the
surgeons outstretched hand »He told me once I was the nearest relation he
had«
»He has died« says the surgeon »of an overdose of opium there is no
doubt The room is strongly flavoured with it There is enough here now« taking
an old teapot from Mr Krook »to kill a dozen people«
»Do you think he did it on purpose« asks Krook
»Took the overdose«
»Yes« Krook almost smacks his lips with the unction of a horrible interest
»I cant say I should think it unlikely as he has been in the habit of
taking so much But nobody can tell He was very poor I suppose«
»I suppose he was His room dont look rich« says Krook who might have
changed eyes with his cat as he casts his sharp glance around »But I have
never been in it since he had it and he was too close to name his circumstances
to me«
»Did he owe you any rent«
»Six weeks«
»He will never pay it« says the young man resuming his examination »It is
beyond a doubt that he is indeed as dead as Pharaoh and to judge from his
appearance and condition I should think it a happy release Yet he must have
been a good figure when a youth and I dare say goodlooking« He says this
not unfeelingly while sitting on the bedsteads edge with his face towards
that other face and his hand upon the region of the heart »I recollect once
thinking there was something in his manner uncouth as it was that denoted a
fall in life Was that so« he continues looking round
Krook replies »You might as well ask me to describe the ladies whose heads
of hair I have got in sacks downstairs Than that he was my lodger for a year
and a half and lived or didnt live by lawwriting I know no more of him«
During this dialogue Mr Tulkinghorn has stood aloof by the old
portmanteau with his hands behind him equally removed to all appearance from
all three kinds of interest exhibited near the bed from the young surgeons
professional interest in death noticeable as being quite apart from his remarks
on the deceased as an individual from the old mans unction and the little
crazy womans awe His imperturbable face has been as inexpressive as his rusty
clothes One could not even say he has been thinking all this while He has
shown neither patience nor impatience nor attention nor abstraction He has
shown nothing but his shell As easily might the tone of a delicate musical
instrument be inferred from its case as the tone of Mr Tulkinghorn from his
case
He now interposes addressing the young surgeon in his unmoved
professional way
»I looked in here« he observes »just before you with the intention of
giving this deceased man whom I never saw alive some employment at his trade
of copying I had heard of him from my stationer Snagsby of Cooks Court
Since no one here knows anything about him it might be as well to send for
Snagsby Ah« to the little crazy woman who has often seen him in Court and
whom he has often seen and who proposes in frightened dumbshow to go for the
lawstationer »Suppose you do«
While she is gone the surgeon abandons his hopeless investigation and
covers its subject with the patchwork counterpane Mr Krook and he interchange
a word or two Mr Tulkinghorn says nothing but stands ever near the old
portmanteau
Mr Snagsby arrives hastily in his grey coat and his black sleeves »Dear
me dear me« he says »and it has come to this has it Bless my soul«
»Can you give the person of the house any information about this unfortunate
creature Snagsby« inquires Mr Tulkinghorn »He was in arrears with his rent
it seems And he must be buried you know«
»Well sir« says Mr Snagsby coughing his apologetic cough behind his
hand »I really dont know what advice I could offer except sending for the
beadle«
»I dont speak of advice« returns Mr Tulkinghorn »I could advise «
»No one better sir I am sure« says Mr Snagsby with his deferential
cough
»I speak of affording some clue to his connexions or to where he came from
or to anything concerning him«
»I assure you sir« says Mr Snagsby after prefacing his reply with his
cough of general propitiation »that I no more know where he came from than I
know «
»Where he has gone to perhaps« suggests the surgeon to help him out
A pause Mr Tulkinghorn looking at the lawstationer Mr Krook with his
mouth open looking for somebody to speak next
»As to his connexions sir« says Mr Snagsby »if a person was to say to
me Snagsby heres twenty thousand pound down ready for you in the Bank of
England if youll only name one of em I couldnt do it sir About a year and
a half ago to the best of my belief at the time when he first came to lodge at
the present rag and bottle shop «
»That was the time« says Krook with a nod
»About a year and a half ago« says Mr Snagsby strengthened »he came into
our place one morning after breakfast and finding my little woman which I
name Mrs Snagsby when I use that appellation in our shop produced a specimen
of his handwriting and gave her to understand that he was in want of copying
work to do and was not to put too fine a point upon it « a favourite apology
for plainspeaking with Mr Snagsby which he always offers with a sort of
argumentative frankness »hard up My little woman is not in general partial to
strangers particular not to put too fine a point upon it when they want
anything But she was rather took by something about this person whether by his
being unshaved or by his hair being in want of attention or by what other
ladies reasons I leave you to judge and she accepted of the specimen and
likewise of the address My little woman hasnt a good ear for names« proceeds
Mr Snagsby after consulting his cough of consideration behind his hand »and
she considered Nemo equally the same as Nimrod In consequence of which she got
into a habit of saying to me at meals Mr Snagsby you havent found Nimrod any
work yet or Mr Snagsby why didnt you give that eightandthirty Chancery
folio in Jarndyce to Nimrod or such like And that is the way he gradually
fell into jobwork at our place and that is the most I know of him except that
he was a quick hand and a hand not sparing of nightwork and that if you gave
him out say fiveandforty folio on the Wednesday night you would have it
brought in on the Thursday morning All of which « Mr Snagsby concludes by
politely motioning with his hat towards the bed as much as to add »I have no
doubt my honourable friend would confirm if he were in a condition to do it«
»Hadnt you better see« says Mr Tulkinghorn to Krook »whether he had any
papers that may enlighten you There will be an Inquest and you will be asked
the question You can read«
»No I cant« returns the old man with a sudden grin
»Snagsby« says Mr Tulkinghorn »look over the room for him He will get
into some trouble or difficulty otherwise Being here Ill wait if you make
haste and then I can testify on his behalf if it should ever be necessary
that all was fair and right If you will hold the candle for Mr Snagsby my
friend hell soon see whether there is anything to help you«
»In the first place heres an old portmanteau sir« says Snagsby
Ah to be sure so there is Mr Tulkinghorn does not appear to have seen it
before though he is standing so close to it and though there is very little
else Heaven knows
The marinestore merchant holds the light and the lawstationer conducts
the search The surgeon leans against the corner of the chimneypiece Miss
Flite peeps and trembles just within the door The apt old scholar of the old
school with his dull black breeches tied with ribbons at the knees his large
black waistcoat his longsleeved black coat and his wisp of limp white
neckerchief tied in the bow the Peerage knows so well stands in exactly the
same place and attitude
There are some worthless articles of clothing in the old portmanteau there
is a bundle of pawnbrokers duplicates those turnpike tickets on the road of
Poverty there is a crumpled paper smelling of opium on which are scrawled
rough memoranda as took such a day so many grains took such another day
so many more begun some time ago as if with the intention of being regularly
continued but soon left off There are a few dirty scraps of newspapers all
referring to Coroners Inquests there is nothing else They search the
cupboard and the drawer of the inksplashed table There is not a morsel of an
old letter or of any other writing in either The young surgeon examines the
dress on the lawwriter A knife and some odd halfpence are all he finds Mr
Snagsbys suggestion is the practical suggestion after all and the beadle must
be called in
So the little crazy lodger goes for the beadle and the rest come out of the
room »Dont leave the cat there« says the surgeon »that wont do« Mr Krook
therefore drives her out before him and she goes furtively downstairs winding
her lithe tail and licking her lips
»Good night« says Mr Tulkinghorn and goes home to Allegory and
meditation
By this time the news has got into the court Groups of its inhabitants
assemble to discuss the thing and the outposts of the army of observation
principally boys are pushed forward to Mr Krooks window which they closely
invest A policeman has already walked up to the room and walked down again to
the door where he stands like a tower only condescending to see the boys at
his base occasionally but whenever he does see them they quail and fall back
Mrs Perkins who has not been for some weeks on speaking terms with Mrs Piper
in consequence of an unpleasantness originating in young Perkins having fetched
young Piper a crack renews her friendly intercourse on this auspicious
occasion The potboy at the corner who is a privileged amateur as possessing
official knowledge of life and having to deal with drunken men occasionally
exchanges confidential communications with the policeman and has the appearance
of an impregnable youth unassailable by truncheons and unconfinable in
stationhouses People talk across the court out of window and bareheaded
scouts come hurrying in from Chancery Lane to know whats the matter The
general feeling seems to be that its a blessing Mr Krook warnt made away with
first mingled with a little natural disappointment that he was not In the
midst of this sensation the beadle arrives
The beadle though generally understood in the neighbourhood to be a
ridiculous institution is not without a certain popularity for the moment if
it were only as a man who is going to see the body The policeman considers him
an imbecile civilian a remnant of the barbarous watchmentimes but gives him
admission as something that must be borne with until Government shall abolish
him The sensation is heightened as the tidings spread from mouth to mouth that
the beadle is on the ground and has gone in
Byandby the beadle comes out once more intensifying the sensation which
has rather languished in the interval He is understood to be in want of
witnesses for the Inquest tomorrow who can tell the Coroner and Jury anything
whatever respecting the deceased Is immediately referred to innumerable people
who can tell nothing whatever Is made more imbecile by being constantly
informed that Mrs Greens son was a law-writer hisself and knowed him better
than anybody which son of Mrs Greens appears on inquiry to be at the
present time aboard a vessel bound for China three months out but considered
accessible by telegraph on application to the Lords of the Admiralty Beadle
goes into various shops and parlours examining the inhabitants always shutting
the door first and by exclusion delay and general idiotcy exasperating the
public Policeman seen to smile to potboy Public loses interest and undergoes
reaction Taunts the beadle in shrill youthful voices with having boiled a
boy choruses fragments of a popular song to that effect and importing that the
boy was made into soup for the workhouse Policeman at last finds it necessary
to support the law and seize a vocalist who is released upon the flight of the
rest on condition of his getting out of this then come and cutting it a
condition he immediately observes So the sensation dies off for the time and
the unmoved policeman to whom a little opium more or less is nothing with
his shining hat stiff stock inflexible greatcoat stout belt and bracelet
and all things fitting pursues his lounging way with a heavy tread beating the
palms of his white gloves one against the other and stopping now and then at a
streetcorner to look casually about for anything between a lost child and a
murder
Under cover of the night the feebleminded beadle comes flitting about
Chancery Lane with his summonses in which every Jurors name is wrongly spelt
and nothing rightly spelt but the beadles own name which nobody can read or
wants to know The summonses served and his witnesses forewarned the beadle
goes to Mr Krooks to keep a small appointment he has made with certain
paupers who presently arriving are conducted upstairs where they leave the
great eyes in the shutter something new to stare at in that last shape which
earthly lodgings take for No one and for Every one
And all that night the coffin stands ready by the old portmanteau and the
lonely figure on the bed whose path in life has lain through fiveandforty
years lies there with no more track behind him that any one can trace than a
deserted infant
Next day the court is all alive is like a fair as Mrs Perkins more than
reconciled to Mrs Piper says in amicable conversation with that excellent
woman The Coroner is to sit in the firstfloor room at the Sols Arms where
the Harmonic Meetings take place twice aweek and where the chair is filled by
a gentleman of professional celebrity faced by Little Swills the comic
vocalist who hopes according to the bill in the window that his friends will
rally round him and support firstrate talent The Sols Arms does a brisk
stroke of business all the morning Even children so require sustaining under
the general excitement that a pieman who has established himself for the
occasion at the corner of the court says his brandyballs go off like smoke
What time the beadle hovering between the door of Mr Krooks establishment and
the door of the Sols Arms shows the curiosity in his keeping to a few discreet
spirits and accepts the compliment of a glass of ale or so in return
At the appointed hour arrives the Coroner for whom the Jurymen are waiting
and who is received with a salute of skittles from the good dry skittleground
attached to the Sols Arms The Coroner frequents more publichouses than any
man alive The smell of sawdust beer tobaccosmoke and spirits is
inseparable in his vocation from death in its most awful shapes He is conducted
by the beadle and the landlord to the Harmonic Meeting Room where he puts his
hat on the piano and takes a Windsorchair at the head of a long table formed
of several short tables put together and ornamented with glutinous rings in
endless involutions made by pots and glasses As many of the Jury as can crowd
together at the table sit there The rest get among the spittoons and pipes or
lean against the piano Over the Coroners head is a small iron garland the
pendant handle of a bell which rather gives the Majesty of the Court the
appearance of going to be hanged presently
Call over and swear the Jury While the ceremony is in progress sensation
is created by the entrance of a chubby little man in a large shirtcollar with
a moist eye and an inflamed nose who modestly takes a position near the door
as one of the general public but seems familiar with the room too A whisper
circulates that this is Little Swills It is considered not unlikely that he
will get up an imitation of the Coroner and make it the principal feature of
the Harmonic Meeting in the evening
»Well gentlemen « the Coroner begins
»Silence there will you« says the beadle Not to the Coroner though it
might appear so
»Well gentlemen« resumes the Coroner »You are impanelled here to inquire
into the death of a certain man Evidence will be given before you as to the
circumstances attending that death and you will give your verdict according to
the skittles they must be stopped you know beadle evidence and not
according to anything else The first thing to be done is to view the body«
»Make way there« cries the beadle
So they go out in a loose procession something after the manner of a
straggling funeral and make their inspection in Mr Krooks back second floor
from which a few of the Jurymen retire pale and precipitately The beadle is
very careful that two gentlemen not very neat about the cuffs and buttons for
whose accommodation he has provided a special little table near the Coroner in
the Harmonic Meeting Room should see all that is to be seen For they are the
public chroniclers of such inquiries by the line and he is not superior to the
universal human infirmity but hopes to read in print what »Mooney the active
and intelligent beadle of the district« said and did and even aspires to see
the name of Mooney as familiarly and patronisingly mentioned as the name of the
Hangman is according to the latest examples
Little Swills is waiting for the Coroner and Jury on their return Mr
Tulkinghorn also Mr Tulkinghorn is received with distinction and seated near
the Coroner between that high judicial officer a bagatelleboard and the
coalbox The inquiry proceeds The Jury learn how the subject of their inquiry
died and learn no more about him »A very eminent solicitor is in attendance
gentlemen« says the Coroner »who I am informed was accidentally present
when discovery of the death was made but he could only repeat the evidence you
have already heard from the surgeon the landlord the lodger and the
lawstationer and it is not necessary to trouble him Is anybody in attendance
who knows anything more«
Mrs Piper pushed forward by Mrs Perkins Mrs Piper sworn
Anastasia Piper gentlemen Married woman Now Mrs Piper what have you
got to say about this
Why Mrs Piper has a good deal to say chiefly in parentheses and without
punctuation but not much to tell Mrs Piper lives in the court which her
husband is a cabinetmaker and it has long been well beknown among the
neighbours counting from the day next but one before the halfbaptising of
Alexander James Piper aged eighteen months and four days old on accounts of not
being expected to live such was the sufferings gentlemen of that child in his
gums as the Plaintive so Mrs Piper insists on calling the deceased was
reported to have sold himself Thinks it was the Plaintives air in which that
report originatinin See the Plaintive often and considered as his air was
feariocious and not to be allowed to go about some children being timid and if
doubted hoping Mrs Perkins may be brought forard for she is here and will do
credit to her husband and herself and family Has seen the Plaintive wexed and
worrited by the children for children they will ever be and you cannot expect
them specially if of playful dispositions to be Methoozellers which you was not
yourself On accounts of this and his dark looks has often dreamed as she see
him take a pickaxe from his pocket and split Johnnys head which the child
knows not fear and has repeatually called after him close at his eels Never
however see the Plaintive take a pickaxe or any other wepping far from it Has
seen him hurry away when run and called after as if not partial to children and
never see him speak to neither child nor grown person at any time excepting the
boy that sweeps the crossing down the lane over the way round the corner which
if he was here would tell you that he has been seen aspeaking to him frequent
Says the Coroner is that boy here Says the beadle no sir he is not
here Says the Coroner go and fetch him then In the absence of the active and
intelligent the Coroner converses with Mr Tulkinghorn
O Heres the boy gentlemen
Here he is very muddy very hoarse very ragged Now boy But stop a
minute Caution This boy must be put through a few preliminary paces
Name Jo Nothing else that he knows on Dont know that everybody has two
names Never heerd of sich a think Dont know that Jo is short for a longer
name Thinks it long enough for him He dont find no fault with it Spell it
No He cant spell it No father no mother no friends Never been to school
Whats home Knows a brooms a broom and knows its wicked to tell a lie Dont
recollect who told him about the broom or about the lie but knows both Cant
exactly say whatll be done to him after hes dead if he tells a lie to the
gentlemen here but believes itll be something wery bad to punish him and
serve him right and so hell tell the truth
»This wont do gentlemen« said the Coroner with a melancholy shake of the
head
»Dont you think you can receive his evidence sir« asks an attentive
Juryman
»Out of the question« says the Coroner »You have heard the boy Cant
exactly say wont do you know We cant take that in a Court of Justice
gentlemen Its terrible depravity Put the boy aside«
Boy put aside to the great edification of the audience especially of
Little Swills the Comic Vocalist
Now Is there any other witness No other witness
Very well gentlemen Heres a man unknown proved to have been in the habit
of taking opium in large quantities for a year and a half found dead of too
much opium If you think you have any evidence to lead you to the conclusion
that he committed suicide you will come to that conclusion If you think it is
a case of accidental death you will find a Verdict accordingly
Verdict accordingly Accidental death No doubt Gentlemen you are
discharged Good afternoon
While the Coroner buttons his greatcoat Mr Tulkinghorn and he give
private audience to the rejected witness in a corner
That graceless creature only knows that the dead man whom he recognised
just now by his yellow face and black hair was sometimes hooted and pursued
about the streets That one cold winter night when he the boy was shivering
in a doorway near his crossing the man turned to look at him and came back
and having questioned him and found that he had not a friend in the world
said »Neither have I Not one« and gave him the price of a supper and a
nights lodging That the man had often spoken to him since and asked him
whether he slept sound at night and how he bore cold and hunger and whether he
ever wished to die and similar strange questions That when the man had no
money he would say in passing »I am as poor as you today Jo« but that when
he had any he had always as the boy most heartily believes been glad to give
him some
»He was wery good to me« says the boy wiping his eyes with his wretched
sleeve »Wen I see him alayin so stritched out just now I wished he could
have heerd me tell him so He wos wery good to me he wos«
As he shuffles downstairs Mr Snagsby lying in wait for him puts a
halfcrown in his hand »If you ever see me coming past your crossing with my
little woman I mean a lady « says Mr Snagsby with his finger on his nose
»dont allude to it«
For some little time the Jurymen hang about the Sols Arms colloquially In
the sequel halfadozen are caught up in a cloud of pipesmoke that pervades
the parlour of the Sols Arms two stroll to Hampstead and four engage to go
halfprice to the play at night and top up with oysters Little Swills is
treated on several hands Being asked what he thinks of the proceedings
characterises them his strength lying in a slangular direction as a rummy
start The landlord of the Sols Arms finding Little Swills so popular
commends him highly to the Jurymen and public observing that for a song in
character he dont know his equal and that that mans characterwardrobe would
fill a cart
Thus gradually the Sols Arms melts into the shadowy night and then flares
out of it strong in gas The Harmonic Meeting hour arriving the gentleman of
professional celebrity takes the chair is faced redfaced by Little Swills
their friends rally round them and support firstrate talent In the zenith of
the evening Little Swills says Gentlemen if youll permit me Ill attempt a
short description of a scene of real life that came off here today Is much
applauded and encouraged goes out of the room as Swills comes in as the
Coroner not the least in the world like him describes the Inquest with
recreative intervals of pianoforte accompaniment to the refrain With his the
Coroners tippy tol li doll tippy tol lo doll tippy tol li doll Dee
The jingling piano at last is silent and the Harmonic friends rally round
their pillows Then there is rest around the lonely figure now laid in its last
earthly habitation and it is watched by the gaunt eyes in the shutters through
some quiet hours of night If this forlorn man could have been prophetically
seen lying here by the mother at whose breast he nestled a little child with
eyes upraised to her loving face and soft hand scarcely knowing how to close
upon the neck to which it crept what an impossibility the vision would have
seemed O if in brighter days the nowextinguished fire within him ever
burned for one woman who held him in her heart where is she while these ashes
are above the ground
It is anything but a night of rest at Mr Snagsbys in Cooks Court where
Guster murders sleep by going as Mr Snagsby himself allows not to put too
fine a point upon it out of one fit into twenty The occasion of this seizure
is that Guster has a tender heart and a susceptible something that possibly
might have been imagination but for Tooting and her patron saint Be it what it
may now it was so direfully impressed at teatime by Mr Snagsbys account of
the inquiry at which he had assisted that at suppertime she projected herself
into the kitchen preceded by a flying Dutchcheese and fell into a fit of
unusual duration which she only came out of to go into another and another
and so on through a chain of fits with short intervals between of which she
has pathetically availed herself by consuming them in entreaties to Mrs Snagsby
not to give her warning when she quite comes to and also in appeals to the
whole establishment to lay her down on the stones and go to bed Hence Mr
Snagsby at last hearing the cock at the little dairy in Cursitor Street go into
that disinterested ecstasy of his on the subject of daylight says drawing a
long breath though the most patient of men »I thought you was dead I am
sure«
What question this enthusiastic fowl supposes he settles when he strains
himself to such an extent or why he should thus crow so men crow on various
triumphant public occasions however about what cannot be of any moment to him
is his affair It is enough that daylight comes morning comes noon comes
Then the active and intelligent who has got into the morning papers as
such comes with his pauper company to Mr Krooks and bears off the body of
our dear brother here departed to a hemmedin churchyard pestiferous and
obscene whence malignant diseases are communicated to the bodies of our dear
brothers and sisters who have not departed while our dear brothers and sisters
who hang about official backstairs would to Heaven they had departed are
very complacent and agreeable Into a beastly scrap of ground which a Turk would
reject as a savage abomination and a Caffre would shudder at they bring our
dear brother here departed to receive Christian burial
With houses looking on on every side save where a reeking little tunnel of
a court gives access to the iron gate with every villainy of life in action
close on death and every poisonous element of death in action close on life
here they lower our dear brother down a foot or two here sow him in
corruption to be raised in corruption an avenging ghost at many a
sickbedside a shameful testimony to future ages how civilisation and
barbarism walked this boastful island together
Come night come darkness for you cannot come too soon or stay too long
by such a place as this Come straggling lights into the windows of the ugly
houses and you who do iniquity therein do it at least with this dread scene
shut out Come flame of gas burning so sullenly above the iron gate on which
the poisoned air deposits its witchointment slimy to the touch It is well that
you should call to every passerby »Look here«
With the night comes a slouching figure through the tunnelcourt to the
outside of the iron gate It holds the gate with its hands and looks in between
the bars stands looking in for a little while
It then with an old broom it carries softly sweeps the step and makes the
archway clean It does so very busily and trimly looks in again a little
while and so departs
Jo is it thou Well well Though a rejected witness who cant exactly say
what will be done to him in greater hands than mens thou art not quite in
outer darkness There is something like a distant ray of light in thy muttered
reason for this
»He wos wery good to me he wos«
Chapter XII
On the Watch
It has left off raining down in Lincolnshire at last and Chesney Wold has
taken heart Mrs Rouncewell is full of hospitable cares for Sir Leicester and
my Lady are coming home from Paris The fashionable intelligence has found it
out and communicates the glad tidings to benighted England It has also found
out that they will entertain a brilliant and distinguished circle of the élite
of the beau monde the fashionable intelligence is weak in English but a giant
refreshed in French at the ancient and hospitable family seat in Lincolnshire
For the greater honour of the brilliant and distinguished circle and of
Chesney Wold into the bargain the broken arch of the bridge in the park is
mended and the water now retired within its proper limits and again spanned
gracefully makes a figure in the prospect from the house The clear cold
sunshine glances into the brittle woods and approvingly beholds the sharp wind
scattering the leaves and drying the moss It glides over the park after the
moving shadows of the clouds and chases them and never catches them all day
It looks in at the windows and touches the ancestral portraits with bars and
patches of brightness never contemplated by the painters Athwart the picture
of my Lady over the great chimneypiece it throws a broad bendsinister of
light that strikes down crookedly into the hearth and seems to rend it
Through the same cold sunshine and the same sharp wind my Lady and Sir
Leicester in their travelling chariot my Ladys woman and Sir Leicesters man
affectionate in the rumble start for home With a considerable amount of
jingling and whipcracking and many plunging demonstrations on the part of two
barebacked horses and two Centaurs with glazed hats jackboots and flowing
manes and tails they rattle out of the yard of the Hôtel Bristol in the Place
Vendôme and canter between the sunandshadowchequered colonnade of the Rue de
Rivoli and the garden of the illfated palace of a headless king and queen off
by the Place of Concord and the Elysian Fields and the Gate of the Star out
of Paris
Sooth to say they cannot go away too fast for even here my Lady Dedlock
has been bored to death Concert assembly opera theatre drive nothing is
new to my Lady under the wornout heavens Only last Sunday when poor wretches
were gay within the walls playing with children among the clipped trees and
the statues in the Palace Garden walking a score abreast in the Elysian
Fields made more Elysian by performing dogs and wooden horses between whiles
filtering a few through the gloomy Cathedral of our Lady to say a word or two
at the base of a pillar within flare of a rusty little gridironfull of gusty
little tapers without the walls encompassing Paris with dancing lovemaking
winedrinking tobaccosmoking tombvisiting billiard card and domino
playing quackdoctoring and much murderous refuse animate and inanimate
only last Sunday my Lady in the desolation of Boredom and the clutch of Giant
Despair almost hated her own maid for being in spirits
She cannot therefore go too fast from Paris Weariness of soul lies before
her as it lies behind her Ariel has put a girdle of it round the whole earth
and it cannot be unclasped but the imperfect remedy is always to fly from the
last place where it has been experienced Fling Paris back into the distance
then exchanging it for endless avenues and crossavenues of wintry trees And
when next beheld let it be some leagues away with the Gate of the Star a white
speck glittering in the sun and the city a mere mound in a plain two dark
square towers rising out of it and light and shadow descending on it aslant
like the angels in Jacobs dream
Sir Leicester is generally in a complacent state and rarely bored When he
has nothing else to do he can always contemplate his own greatness It is a
considerable advantage to a man to have so inexhaustible a subject After
reading his letters he leans back in his corner of the carriage and generally
reviews his importance to society
»You have an unusual amount of correspondence this morning« says my Lady
after a long time She is fatigued with reading Has almost read a page in
twenty miles
»Nothing in it though Nothing whatever«
»I saw one of Mr Tulkinghorns long effusions I think«
»You see everything« says Sir Leicester with admiration
»Ha« sighs my Lady »He is the most tiresome of men«
»He sends I really beg your pardon he sends« says Sir Leicester
selecting the letter and unfolding it »a message to you Our stopping to
change horses as I came to his postscript drove it out of my memory I beg
youll excuse me He says « Sir Leicester is so long in taking out his
eyeglass and adjusting it that my Lady looks a little irritated »He says In
the matter of the right of way I beg your pardon thats not the place He
says yes Here I have it He says I beg my respectful compliments to my Lady
who I hope has benefited by the change Will you do me the favour to mention
as it may interest her that I have something to tell her on her return in
reference to the person who copied the affidavit in the Chancery suit which so
powerfully stimulated her curiosity I have seen him«
My Lady leaning forward looks out of her window
»Thats the message« observes Sir Leicester
»I should like to walk a little« says my Lady still looking out of her
window
»Walk« repeats Sir Leicester in a tone of surprise
»I should like to walk a little« says my Lady with unmistakable
distinctness »Please to stop the carriage«
The carriage is stopped the affectionate man alights from the rumble opens
the door and lets down the steps obedient to an impatient motion of my Ladys
hand My Lady alights so quickly and walks away so quickly that Sir Leicester
for all his scrupulous politeness is unable to assist her and is left behind
A space of a minute or two has elapsed before he comes up with her She smiles
looks very handsome takes his arm lounges with him for a quarter of a mile is
very much bored and resumes her seat in the carriage
The rattle and clatter continue through the greater part of three days with
more or less of belljingling and whipcracking and more or less plunging of
Centaurs and barebacked horses Their courtly politeness to each other at the
Hotels where they tarry is the theme of general admiration Though my Lord is a
little aged for my Lady says Madame the hostess of the Golden Ape and though
he might be her amiable father one can see at a glance that they love each
other One observes my Lord with his white hair standing hat in hand to help
my Lady to and from the carriage One observes my Lady how recognisant of my
Lords politeness with an inclination of her gracious head and the concession
of her sogenteel fingers It is ravishing
The sea has no appreciation of great men but knocks them about like the
small fry It is habitually hard upon Sir Leicester whose countenance it
greenly mottles in the manner of sagecheese and in whose aristocratic system
it effects a dismal revolution It is the Radical of Nature to him
Nevertheless his dignity gets over it after stopping to refit and he goes on
with my Lady for Chesney Wold lying only one night in London on the way to
Lincolnshire
Through the same cold sunlight colder as the day declines and through
the same sharp wind sharper as the separate shadows of bare trees gloom
together in the woods and as the Ghosts Walk touched at the western corner by
a pile of fire in the sky resigns itself to coming night they drive into the
park The Rooks swinging in their lofty houses in the elmtree avenue seem to
discuss the question of the occupancy of the carriage as it passes underneath
some agreeing that Sir Leicester and my Lady are come down some arguing with
malcontents who wont admit it now all consenting to consider the question
disposed of now all breaking out again in violent debate incited by one
obstinate and drowsy bird who will persist in putting in a last contradictory
croak Leaving them to swing and caw the travelling chariot rolls on to the
house where fires gleam warmly through some of the windows though not through
so many as to give an inhabited expression to the darkening mass of front But
the brilliant and distinguished circle will soon do that
Mrs Rouncewell is in attendance and receives Sir Leicesters customary
shake of the hand with a profound curtsey
»How do you do Mrs Rouncewell I am glad to see you«
»I hope I have the honour of welcoming you in good health Sir Leicester«
»In excellent health Mrs Rouncewell«
»My Lady is looking charmingly well« says Mrs Rouncewell with another
curtsey
My Lady signifies without profuse expenditure of words that she is as
wearily well as she can hope to be
But Rosa is in the distance behind the housekeeper and my Lady who has
not subdued the quickness of her observation whatever else she may have
conquered asks
»Who is that girl«
»A young scholar of mine my Lady Rosa«
»Come here Rosa« Lady Dedlock beckons her with even an appearance of
interest »Why do you know how pretty you are child« she says touching her
shoulder with her two forefingers
Rosa very much abashed says »No if you please my Lady« and glances up
and glances down and dont know where to look but looks all the prettier
»How old are you«
»Nineteen my Lady«
»Nineteen« repeats my Lady thoughtfully »Take care they dont spoil you by
flattery«
»Yes my Lady«
My Lady taps her dimpled cheek with the same delicate gloved fingers and
goes on to the foot of the oak staircase where Sir Leicester pauses for her as
her knightly escort A staring old Dedlock in a panel as large as life and as
dull looks as if he didnt know what to make of it which was probably his
general state of mind in the days of Queen Elizabeth
That evening in the housekeepers room Rosa can do nothing but murmur Lady
Dedlocks praises She is so affable so graceful so beautiful so elegant has
such a sweet voice and such a thrilling touch that Rosa can feel it yet Mrs
Rouncewell confirms all this not without personal pride reserving only the one
point of affability Mrs Rouncewell is not quite sure as to that Heaven forbid
that she should say a syllable in dispraise of any member of that excellent
family above all of my Lady whom the whole world admires but if my Lady
would only be a little more free not quite so cold and distant Mrs Rouncewell
thinks she would be more affable
»Tis almost a pity« Mrs Rouncewell adds only almost because it borders
on impiety to suppose that anything could be better than it is in such an
express dispensation as the Dedlock affairs »that my Lady has no family If she
had had a daughter now a grown young lady to interest her I think she would
have had the only kind of excellence she wants«
»Might not that have made her still more proud grandmother« says Watt who
has been home and come back again he is such a good grandson
»More and most my dear« returns the housekeeper with dignity »are words
its not my place to use nor so much as to hear applied to any drawback on
my Lady«
»I beg your pardon grandmother But she is proud is she not«
»If she is she has reason to be The Dedlock family have always reason to
be«
»Well« says Watt »its to be hoped they line out of their PrayerBooks a
certain passage for the common people about pride and vainglory Forgive me
grandmother Only a joke«
»Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock my dear are not fit subjects for joking«
»Sir Leicester is no joke by any means« says Watt »and I humbly ask his
pardon I suppose grandmother that even with the family and their guests down
here there is no objection to my prolonging my stay at the Dedlock Arms for a
day or two as any other traveller might«
»Surely none in the world child«
»I am glad of that« says Watt »because I have an inexpressible desire to
extend my knowledge of this beautiful neighbourhood«
He happens to glance at Rosa who looks down and is very shy indeed But
according to the old superstition it should be Rosas ears that burn and not
her fresh bright cheeks for my Ladys maid is holding forth about her at this
moment with surpassing energy
My Ladys maid is a Frenchwoman of twoandthirty from somewhere in the
southern country about Avignon and Marseilles a largeeyed brown woman with
black hair who would be handsome but for a certain feline mouth and general
uncomfortable tightness of face rendering the jaws too eager and the skull too
prominent There is something indefinably keen and wan about her anatomy and
she has a watchful way of looking out of the corners of her eyes without turning
her head which could be pleasantly dispensed with especially when she is in
an illhumour and near knives Through all the good taste of her dress and
little adornments these objections so express themselves that she seems to go
about like a very neat SheWolf imperfectly tamed Besides being accomplished in
all the knowledge appertaining to her post she is almost an Englishwoman in her
acquaintance with the language consequently she is in no want of words to
shower upon Rosa for having attracted my Ladys attention and she pours them
out with such grim ridicule as she sits at dinner that her companion the
affectionate man is rather relieved when she arrives at the spoon stage of that
performance
Ha ha ha She Hortense been in my Ladys service since five years and
always kept at the distance and this doll this puppet caressed absolutely
caressed by my Lady on the moment of her arriving at the house Ha ha ha
»And do you know how pretty you are child« »No my Lady« You are right
there »And how old are you child And take care they do not spoil you by
flattery child« O how droll It is the best thing altogether
In short it is such an admirable thing that Mademoiselle Hortense cant
forget it but at meals for days afterwards even among her countrywomen and
others attached in like capacity to the troop of visitors relapses into silent
enjoyment of the joke an enjoyment expressed in her own convivial manner by
an additional tightness of face thin elongation of compressed lips and
sidewise look which intense appreciation of humour is frequently reflected in
my Ladys mirrors when my Lady is not among them
All the mirrors in the house are brought into action now many of them after
a long blank They reflect handsome faces simpering faces youthful faces
faces of threescoreand ten that will not submit to be old the entire
collection of faces that have come to pass a January week or two at Chesney
Wold and which the fashionable intelligence a mighty hunter before the Lord
hunts with a keen scent from their breaking cover at the Court of St Jamess
to their being run down to Death The place in Lincolnshire is all alive By
day guns and voices are heard ringing in the woods horsemen and carriages
enliven the park roads servants and hangerson pervade the Village and the
Dedlock Arms Seen by night from distant openings in the trees the row of
windows in the long drawingroom where my Ladys picture hangs over the great
chimneypiece is like a row of jewels set in a black frame On Sunday the
chill little church is almost warmed by so much gallant company and the general
flavour of the Dedlock dust is quenched in delicate perfumes
The brilliant and distinguished circle comprehends within it no contracted
amount of education sense courage honour beauty and virtue Yet there is
something a little wrong about it in despite of its immense advantages What
can it be
Dandyism There is no King George the Fourth now mores the pity to set
the dandy fashion there are no clearstarched jacktowel neckcloths no
shortwaisted coats no false calves no stays There are no caricatures now
of effeminate Exquisites so arrayed swooning in opera boxes with excess of
delight and being revived by other dainty creatures poking longnecked
scentbottles at their noses There is no beau whom it takes four men at once to
shake into his buckskins or who goes to see all the executions or who is
troubled with the self-reproach of having once consumed a pea But is there
Dandyism in the brilliant and distinguished circle notwithstanding Dandyism of
a more mischievous sort that has got below the surface and is doing less
harmless things than jacktowelling itself and stopping its own digestion to
which no rational person need particularly object
Why yes It cannot be disguised There are at Chesney Wold this January
week some ladies and gentlemen of the newest fashion who have set up a
Dandyism in Religion for instance Who in mere lackadaisical want of an
emotion have agreed upon a little dandy talk about the Vulgar wanting faith in
things in general meaning in the things that have been tried and found
wanting as though a low fellow should unaccountably lose faith in a bad
shilling after finding it out Who would make the Vulgar very picturesque and
faithful by putting back the hands upon the Clock of Time and cancelling a few
hundred years of history
There are also ladies and gentlemen of another fashion not so new but very
elegant who have agreed to put a smooth glaze on the world and to keep down
all its realities For whom everything must be languid and pretty Who have
found out the perpetual stoppage Who are to rejoice at nothing and be sorry
for nothing Who are not to be disturbed by ideas On whom even the Fine Arts
attending in powder and walking backward like the Lord Chamberlain must array
themselves in the milliners and tailors patterns of past generations and be
particularly careful not to be in earnest or to receive any impress from the
moving age
Then there is my Lord Boodle of considerable reputation with his party who
has known what office is and who tells Sir Leicester Dedlock with much gravity
after dinner that he really does not see to what the present age is tending A
debate is not what a debate used to be the House is not what the House used to
be even a Cabinet is not what it formerly was He perceives with astonishment
that supposing the present Government to be overthrown the limited choice of
the Crown in the formation of a new Ministry would lie between Lord Coodle and
Sir Thomas Doodle supposing it to be impossible for the Duke of Foodle to act
with Goodle which may be assumed to be the case in consequence of the breach
arising out of that affair with Hoodle Then giving the Home Department and the
Leadership of the House of Commons to Joodle the Exchequer to Koodle the
Colonies to Loodle and the Foreign Office to Moodle what are you to do with
Noodle You cant offer him the Presidency of the Council that is reserved for
Poodle You cant put him in the Woods and Forests that is hardly good enough
for Quoodle What follows? That the country is shipwrecked lost and gone to
pieces as is made manifest to the Patriotism of Sir Leicester Dedlock because
you cant provide for Noodle
On the other hand the Right Honourable William Buffy M P contends
across the table with some one else that the shipwreck of the country about
which there is no doubt it is only the manner of it that is in question is
attributable to Cuffy If you had done with Cuffy what you ought to have done
when he first came into Parliament and had prevented him from going over to
Duffy you would have got him into alliance with Fuffy you would have had with
you the weight attaching as a smart debater to Guffy you would have brought to
bear upon the elections the wealth of Huffy you would have got in for three
counties Juffy Kuffy and Luffy and you would have strengthened your
administration by the official knowledge and the business habits of Muffy All
this instead of being as you now are dependent on the mere caprice of Puffy
As to this point and as to some minor topics there are differences of
opinion but it is perfectly clear to the brilliant and distinguished circle
all round that nobody is in question but Boodle and his retinue and Buffy and
his retinue These are the great actors for whom the stage is reserved A People
there are no doubt a certain large number of supernumeraries who are to be
occasionally addressed and relied upon for shouts and choruses as on the
theatrical stage but Boodle and Buffy their followers and families their
heirs executors administrators and assigns are the born firstactors
managers and leaders and no others can appear upon the scene for ever and
ever
In this too there is perhaps more Dandyism at Chesney Wold than the
brilliant and distinguished circle will find good for itself in the long run
For it is even with the stillest and politest circles as with the circle the
necromancer draws around him very strange appearances may be seen in active
motion outside With this difference that being realities and not phantoms
there is the greater danger of their breaking in
Chesney Wold is quite full anyhow so full that a burning sense of injury
arises in the breasts of illlodged ladiesmaids and is not to be
extinguished Only one room is empty It is a turret chamber of the third order
of merit plainly but comfortably furnished and having an oldfashioned
business air It is Mr Tulkinghorns room and is never bestowed on anybody
else for he may come at any time He is not come yet It is his quiet habit to
walk across the park from the village in fine weather to drop into this room
as if he had never been out of it since he was last seen there to request a
servant to inform Sir Leicester that he is arrived in case he should be wanted
and to appear ten minutes before dinner in the shadow of the librarydoor He
sleeps in his turret with a complaining flagstaff over his head and has some
leads outside on which any fine morning when he is down here his black figure
may be seen walking before breakfast like a larger species of rook
Every day before dinner my Lady looks for him in the dusk of the library
but he is not there Every day at dinner my Lady glances down the table for the
vacant place that would be waiting to receive him if he had just arrived but
there is no vacant place Every night my Lady casually asks her maid
»Is Mr Tulkinghorn come«
Every night the answer is »No my Lady not yet«
One night while having her hair undressed my Lady loses herself in deep
thought after this reply until she sees her own brooding face in the opposite
glass and a pair of black eyes curiously observing her
»Be so good as to attend« says my Lady then addressing the reflection of
Hortense »to your business You can contemplate your beauty at another time«
»Pardon It was your Ladyships beauty«
»That« says my Lady »you neednt contemplate at all«
At length one afternoon a little before sunset when the bright groups of
figures which have for the last hour or two enlivened the Ghosts Walk are all
dispersed and only Sir Leicester and my Lady remain upon the terrace Mr
Tulkinghorn appears He comes towards them at his usual methodical pace which
is never quickened never slackened He wears his usual expressionless mask if
it be a mask and carries family secrets in every limb of his body and every
crease of his dress Whether his whole soul is devoted to the great or whether
he yields them nothing beyond the services he sells is his personal secret He
keeps it as he keeps the secrets of his clients he is his own client in that
matter and will never betray himself
»How do you do Mr Tulkinghorn« says Sir Leicester giving him his hand
Mr Tulkinghorn is quite well Sir Leicester is quite well My Lady is quite
well All highly satisfactory The lawyer with his hands behind him walks at
Sir Leicesters side along the terrace My Lady walks upon the other side
»We expected you before« says Sir Leicester A gracious observation As
much as to say »Mr Tulkinghorn we remember your existence when you are not
here to remind us of it by your presence We bestow a fragment of our minds upon
you sir you see«
Mr Tulkinghorn comprehending it inclines his head and says he is much
obliged
»I should have come down sooner« he explains »but that I have been much
engaged with those matters in the several suits between yourself and Boythorn«
»A man of a very illregulated mind« observes Sir Leicester with severity
»An extremely dangerous person in any community A man of a very low character
of mind«
»He is obstinate« says Mr Tulkinghorn
»It is natural to such a man to be so« says Sir Leicester looking most
profoundly obstinate himself »I am not at all surprised to hear it«
»The only question is« pursues the lawyer »whether you will give up
anything«
»No sir« replies Sir Leicester »Nothing I give up«
»I dont mean anything of importance That of course I know you would not
abandon I mean any minor point«
»Mr Tulkinghorn« returns Sir Leicester »there can be no minor point
between myself and Mr Boythorn If I go farther and observe that I cannot
readily conceive how any right of mine can be a minor point I speak not so much
in reference to myself as an individual as in reference to the family position
I have it in charge to maintain«
Mr Tulkinghorn inclines his head again »I have now my instructions« he
says »Mr Boythorn will give us a good deal of trouble «
»It is the character of such a mind Mr Tulkinghorn« Sir Leicester
interrupts him »to give trouble An exceedingly illconditioned levelling
person A person who fifty years ago would probably have been tried at the Old
Bailey for some demagogue proceeding and severely punished if not« adds Sir
Leicester after a moments pause »if not hanged drawn and quartered«
Sir Leicester appears to discharge his stately breast of a burden in
passing this capital sentence as if it were the next satisfactory thing to
having the sentence executed
»But night is coming on« says he »and my Lady will take cold My dear let
us go in«
As they turn towards the halldoor Lady Dedlock addresses Mr Tulkinghorn
for the first time
»You sent me a message respecting the person whose writing I happened to
inquire about It was like you to remember the circumstance I had quite
forgotten it Your message reminded me of it again I cant imagine what
association I had with a hand like that but I surely had some«
»You had some« Mr Tulkinghorn repeats
»O yes« returns my Lady carelessly »I think I must have had some And did
you really take the trouble to find out the writer of that actual thing what
is it Affidavit«
»Yes«
»How very odd«
They pass into a sombre breakfastroom on the ground floor lighted in the
day by two deep windows It is now twilight The fire glows brightly on the
panelled wall and palely on the windowglass where through the cold
reflection of the blaze the colder landscape shudders in the wind and a grey
mist creeps along the only traveller besides the waste of clouds
My Lady lounges in a great chair in the chimneycorner and Sir Leicester
takes another great chair opposite The lawyer stands before the fire with his
hand out at arms length shading his face He looks across his arm at my Lady
»Yes« he says »I inquired about the man and found him And what is very
strange I found him «
»Not to be any outoftheway person I am afraid« Lady Dedlock languidly
anticipates
»I found him dead«
»O dear me« remonstrated Sir Leicester Not so much shocked by the fact as
by the fact of the fact being mentioned
»I was directed to his lodging a miserable povertystricken place and I
found him dead«
»You will excuse me Mr Tulkinghorn« observes Sir Leicester »I think the
less said «
»Pray Sir Leicester let me hear the story out« it is my Lady speaking
»It is quite a story for twilight How very shocking Dead«
Mr Tulkinghorn reasserts it by another inclination of his head »Whether
by his own hand «
»Upon my honour« cries Sir Leicester »Really«
»Do let me hear the story« says my Lady
»Whatever you desire my dear But I must say «
»No you mustnt say Go on Mr Tulkinghorn«
Sir Leicesters gallantry concedes the point though he still feels that to
bring this sort of squalor among the upper classes is really really
»I was about to say« resumes the lawyer with undisturbed calmness »that
whether he had died by his own hand or not it was beyond my power to tell you
I should amend that phrase however by saying that he had unquestionably died
of his own act though whether by his own deliberate intention or by mischance
can never certainly be known The Coroners jury found that he took the poison
accidentally«
»And what kind of man« my Lady asks »was this deplorable creature«
»Very difficult to say« returns the lawyer shaking his head »He had lived
so wretchedly and was so neglected with his gipsy colour and his wild black
hair and beard that I should have considered him the commonest of the common
The surgeon had a notion that he had once been something better both in
appearance and condition«
»What did they call the wretched being«
»They called him what he had called himself but no one knew his name«
»Not even any one who had attended on him«
»No one had attended on him He was found dead In fact I found him«
»Without any clue to anything more«
»Without any there was« says the lawyer meditatively »an old portmanteau
but No there were no papers«
During the utterance of every word of this short dialogue Lady Dedlock and
Mr Tulkinghorn without any other alteration in their customary deportment
have looked very steadily at one another as was natural perhaps in the
discussion of so unusual a subject Sir Leicester has looked at the fire with
the general expression of the Dedlock on the staircase The story being told he
renews his stately protest saying that as it is quite clear that no
association in my Ladys mind can possibly be traceable to this poor wretch
unless he was a beggingletter writer he trusts to hear no more about a
subject so far removed from my Ladys station
»Certainly a collection of horrors« says my Lady gathering up her mantles
and furs »but they interest one for the moment Have the kindness Mr
Tulkinghorn to open the door for me«
Mr Tulkinghorn does so with deference and holds it open while she passes
out She passes close to him with her usual fatigued manner and insolent
grace They meet again at dinner again next day again for many days in
succession Lady Dedlock is always the same exhausted deity surrounded by
worshippers and terribly liable to be bored to death even while presiding at
her own shrine Mr Tulkinghorn is always the same speechless repository of
noble confidences so oddly out of place and yet so perfectly at home They
appear to take as little note of one another, as any two people enclosed within
the same walls could But whether each evermore watches and suspects the
other evermore mistrustful of some great reservation whether each is evermore
prepared at all points for the other and never to be taken unawares what each
would give to know how much the other knows all this is hidden for the time
in their own hearts
Chapter XIII
Esthers Narrative
We held many consultations about what Richard was to be first without Mr
Jarndyce as he had requested and afterwards with him but it was a long time
before we seemed to make progress Richard said he was ready for anything When
Mr Jarndyce doubted whether he might not already be too old to enter the Navy
Richard said he had thought of that and perhaps he was When Mr Jarndyce asked
him what he thought of the Army Richard said he had thought of that too and
it wasnt a bad idea When Mr Jarndyce advised him to try and decide within
himself whether his old preference for the sea was an ordinary boyish
inclination or a strong impulse Richard answered Well he really had tried
very often and he couldnt make out
»How much of this indecision of character« Mr Jarndyce said to me »is
chargeable on that incomprehensible heap of uncertainty and procrastination on
which he has been thrown from his birth I dont pretend to say but that
Chancery among its other sins is responsible for some of it I can plainly
see It has engendered or confirmed in him a habit of putting off and trusting
to this that and the other chance without knowing what chance and
dismissing everything as unsettled uncertain and confused The character of
much older and steadier people may be even changed by the circumstances
surrounding them It would be too much to expect that a boys in its formation
should be the subject of such influences and escape them«
I felt this to be true though if I may venture to mention what I thought
besides I thought it much to be regretted that Richards education had not
counteracted those influences or directed his character He had been eight
years at a public school and had learnt I understood to make Latin Verses of
several sorts in the most admirable manner But I never heard that it had been
anybodys business to find out what his natural bent was or where his failings
lay or to adapt any kind of knowledge to him He had been adapted to the
Verses and had learnt the art of making them to such perfection that if he had
remained at school until he was of age I suppose he could only have gone on
making them ever and over again unless he had enlarged his education by
forgetting how to do it Still although I had no doubt that they were very
beautiful and very improving and very sufficient for a great many purposes of
life and always remembered all through life I did doubt whether Richard would
not have profited by some one studying him a little instead of his studying
them quite so much
To be sure I knew nothing of the subject and do not even now know whether
the young gentlemen of classic Rome or Greece made verses to the same extent
or whether the young gentlemen of any country ever did
»I havent the least idea« said Richard musing »what I had better be
Except that I am quite sure I dont want to go into the Church its a tossup«
»You have no inclination in Mr Kenges way« suggested Mr Jarndyce
»I dont know that sir« replied Richard »I am fond of boating Articled
clerks go a good deal on the water Its a capital profession«
»Surgeon « suggested Mr Jarndyce
»Thats the thing sir« cried Richard
I doubt if he had ever once thought of it before
»Thats the thing sir« repeated Richard with the greatest enthusiasm »We
have got it at last M R C S«
He was not to be laughed out of it though he laughed at it heartily He
said he had chosen his profession and the more he thought of it the more he
felt that his destiny was clear the art of healing was the art of all others
for him Mistrusting that he only came to this conclusion because having never
had much chance of finding out for himself what he was fitted for and having
never been guided to the discovery he was taken by the newest idea and was
glad to get rid of the trouble of consideration I wondered whether the Latin
Verses often ended in this or whether Richards was a solitary case
Mr Jarndyce took great pains to talk with him seriously and to put it to
his good sense not to deceive himself in so important a matter Richard was a
little grave after these interviews but invariably told Ada and me that it was
all right and then began to talk about something else
»By Heaven« cried Mr Boythorn who interested himself strongly in the
subject though I need not say that for he could do nothing weakly »I rejoice
to find a young gentleman of spirit and gallantry devoting himself to that noble
profession The more spirit there is in it the better for mankind and the
worse for those mercenary taskmasters and low tricksters who delight in putting
that illustrious art at a disadvantage in the world By all that is base and
despicable« cried Mr Boythorn »the treatment of Surgeons aboard ship is such
that I would submit the legs both legs of every member of the Admiralty
Board to a compound fracture and render it a transportable offence in any
qualified practitioner to set them if the system were not wholly changed in
eightandforty hours«
»Wouldnt you give them a week« asked Mr Jarndyce
»No« cried Mr Boythorn firmly »Not on any consideration Eightandforty
hours As to Corporations Parishes VestryBoards and similar gatherings of
jolterheaded clods who assemble to exchange such speeches that by Heaven
they ought to be worked in quicksilver mines for the short remainder of their
miserable existence if it were only to prevent their detestable English from
contaminating a language spoken in the presence of the Sun as to those
fellows who meanly take advantage of the ardour of gentlemen in the pursuit of
knowledge, to recompense the inestimable services of the best years of their
lives their long study and their expensive education with pittances too small
for the acceptance of clerks I would have the necks of every one of them wrung
and their skulls arranged in Surgeons Hall for the contemplation of the whole
profession in order that its younger members might understand from actual
measurement in early life how thick skulls may become«
He wound up this vehement declaration by looking round upon us with a most
agreeable smile and suddenly thundering Ha ha ha over and over again until
anybody else might have been expected to be quite subdued by the exertion
As Richard still continued to say that he was fixed in his choice after
repeated periods for consideration had been recommended by Mr Jarndyce and had
expired and he still continued to assure Ada and me in the same final manner
that it was all right it became advisable to take Mr Kenge into council Mr
Kenge therefore came down to dinner one day and leaned back in his chair and
turned his eyeglasses over and over and spoke in a sonorous voice and did
exactly what I remembered to have seen him do when I was a little girl
»Ah« said Mr Kenge »Yes Well A very good profession Mr Jarndyce a
very good profession«
»The course of study and preparation requires to be diligently pursued«
observed my Guardian with a glance at Richard
»O no doubt« said Mr Kenge »Diligently«
»But that being the case more or less with all pursuits that are worth
much« said Mr Jarndyce »it is not a special consideration which another
choice would be likely to escape«
»Truly« said Mr Kenge »And Mr Richard Carstone who has so meritoriously
acquitted himself in the shall I say the classic shades in which his youth
had been passed will no doubt apply the habits if not the principles and
practice of versification in that tongue in which a poet was said unless I
mistake to be born not made to the more eminently practical field of action
on which he enters«
»You may rely upon it« said Richard in his offhand manner »that I shall
go at it and do my best«
»Very well Mr Jarndyce« said Mr Kenge gently nodding his head »Really
when we are assured by Mr Richard that he means to go at it and to do his
best« nodding feelingly and smoothly over those expressions »I would submit to
you that we have only to inquire into the best mode of carrying out the object
of his ambition Now with reference to placing Mr Richard with some
sufficiently eminent practitioner Is there any one in view at present«
»No one Rick I think« said my Guardian
»No one sir« said Richard
»Quite so« observed Mr Kenge »As to situation now Is there any
particular feeling on that head«
»Nno« said Richard
»Quite so« observed Mr Kenge again
»I should like a little variety« said Richard » I mean a good range of
experience.«
»Very requisite no doubt« returned Mr Kenge »I think this may be easily
arranged Mr Jarndyce We have only in the first place to discover a
sufficiently eligible practitioner and as soon as we make our want and
shall I add our ability to pay a premium known our only difficulty will be
in the selection of one from a large number We have only in the second place
to observe those little formalities which are rendered necessary by our time of
life and our being under the guardianship of the Court We shall soon be
shall I say in Mr Richards own lighthearted manner going at it to our
hearts content It is a coincidence« said Mr Kenge with a tinge of
melancholy in his smile »one of those coincidences which may or may not require
an explanation beyond our present limited faculties that I have a cousin in the
medical profession He might be deemed eligible by you and might be disposed to
respond to this proposal I can answer for him as little as for you but he
might«
As this was an opening in the prospect it was arranged that Mr Kenge
should see his cousin And as Mr Jarndyce had before proposed to take us to
London for a few weeks it was settled next day that we should make our visit at
once and combine Richards business with it
Mr Boythorn leaving us within a week we took up our abode at a cheerful
lodging near Oxford Street over an upholsterers shop London was a great
wonder to us and we were out for hours and hours at a time seeing the sights
which appeared to be less capable of exhaustion than we were We made the round
of the principal theatres too with great delight and saw all the plays that
were worth seeing I mention this because it was at the theatre that I began to
be made uncomfortable again by Mr Guppy
I was sitting in front of the box one night with Ada and Richard was in the
place he liked best behind Adas chair when happening to look down into the
pit I saw Mr Guppy with his hair flattened down upon his head and woe
depicted in his face looking up at me I felt all through the performance
that he never looked at the actors but constantly looked at me and always with
a carefully prepared expression of the deepest misery and the profoundest
dejection
It quite spoiled my pleasure for that night because it was so very
embarrassing and so very ridiculous But from that time forth we never went to
the play without my seeing Mr Guppy in the pit always with his hair straight
and flat his shirtcollar turned down and a general feebleness about him If
he were not there when we went in and I began to hope he would not come and
yielded myself for a little while to the interest of the scene I was certain to
encounter his languishing eyes when I least expected it and from that time to
be quite sure that they were fixed upon me all the evening
I really cannot express how uneasy this made me If he would only have
brushed up his hair or turned up his collar it would have been bad enough but
to know that that absurd figure was always gazing at me and always in that
demonstrative state of despondency put such a constraint upon me that I did not
like to laugh at the play or to cry at it or to move or to speak I seemed
able to do nothing naturally As to escaping Mr Guppy by going to the back of
the box I could not bear to do that because I knew Richard and Ada relied on
having me next them and that they could never have talked together so happily
if anybody else had been in my place So there I sat not knowing where to look
for wherever I looked I knew Mr Guppys eyes were following me and
thinking of the dreadful expense to which this young man was putting himself on
my account
Sometimes I thought of telling Mr Jarndyce Then I feared that the young
man would lose his situation and that I might ruin him Sometimes I thought of
confiding in Richard but was deterred by the possibility of his fighting Mr
Guppy and giving him black eyes Sometimes I thought should I frown at him
or shake my head Then I felt I could not do it Sometimes I considered whether
I should write to his mother but that ended in my being convinced that to open
a correspondence would be to make the matter worse I always came to the
conclusion finally that I could do nothing Mr Guppys perseverance all this
time not only produced him regularly at any theatre to which we went but
caused him to appear in the crowd as we were coming out and even to get up
behind our fly where I am sure I saw him two or three times struggling among
the most dreadful spikes After we got home he haunted a post opposite our
house The upholsterers where we lodged being at the corner of two streets
and my bedroom window being opposite the post I was afraid to go near the
window when I went upstairs lest I should see him as I did one moonlight
night leaning against the post and evidently catching cold If Mr Guppy had
not been fortunately for me engaged in the daytime I really should have had
no rest from him
While we were making this round of gaieties in which Mr Guppy so
extraordinarily participated the business which had helped to bring us to town
was not neglected Mr Kenges cousin was a Mr Bayham Badger who had a good
practice at Chelsea and attended a large public Institution besides He was
quite willing to receive Richard into his house and to superintend his studies
and as it seemed that those could be pursued advantageously under Mr Badgers
roof and Mr Badger liked Richard and as Richard said he liked Mr Badger well
enough an agreement was made the Lord Chancellors consent was obtained and
it was all settled
On the day when matters were concluded between Richard and Mr Badger we
were all under engagement to dine at Mr Badgers house We were to be merely a
family party Mrs Badgers note said and we found no lady there but Mrs
Badger herself She was surrounded in the drawingroom by various objects
indicative of her painting a little playing the piano a little playing the
guitar a little playing the harp a little singing a little working a little
reading a little writing poetry a little and botanising a little She was a
lady of about fifty I should think youthfully dressed and of a very fine
complexion If I add to the little list of her accomplishments that she rouged
a little I do not mean that there was any harm in it
Mr Bayham Badger himself was a pink freshfaced crisplooking gentleman
with a weak voice white teeth light hair and surprised eyes some years
younger I should say than Mrs Bayham Badger He admired her exceedingly but
principally and to begin with on the curious ground as it seemed to us of
her having had three husbands We had barely taken our seats when he said to
Mr Jarndyce quite triumphantly
»You would hardly suppose that I am Mrs Bayham Badgers third«
»Indeed« said Mr Jarndyce
»Her third« said Mr Badger »Mrs Bayham Badger has not the appearance
Miss Summerson of a lady who has had two former husbands«
I said »Not at all«
»And most remarkable men« said Mr Badger in a tone of confidence
»Captain Swosser of the Royal Navy who was Mrs Badgers first husband was a
very distinguished officer indeed The name of Professor Dingo my immediate
predecessor is one of European reputation«
Mrs Badger overheard him and smiled
»Yes my dear« Mr Badger replied to the smile »I was observing to Mr
Jarndyce and Miss Summerson that you had had two former husbands both very
distinguished men And they found it as people generally do difficult to
believe«
»I was barely twenty« said Mrs Badger »when I married Captain Swosser of
the Royal Navy I was in the Mediterranean with him I am quite a Sailor On the
twelfth anniversary of my weddingday I became the wife of Professor Dingo«
»Of European reputation« added Mr Badger in an undertone
»And when Mr Badger and myself were married« pursued Mrs Badger »we were
married on the same day of the year I had become attached to the day«
»So that Mrs Badger has been married to three husbands two of them highly
distinguished men« said Mr Badger summing up the facts »and each time upon
the twentyfirst of March at Eleven in the forenoon«
We all expressed our admiration
»But for Mr Badgers modesty« said Mr Jarndyce »I would take leave to
correct him and say three distinguished men«
»Thank you Mr Jarndyce What I always tell him« observed Mrs Badger
»And my dear« said Mr Badger »what do I always tell you That without any
affectation of disparaging such professional distinction as I may have attained
which our friend Mr Carstone will have many opportunities of estimating I am
not so weak no really« said Mr Badger to us generally »so unreasonable
as to put my reputation on the same footing with such firstrate men as Captain
Swosser and Professor Dingo Perhaps you may be interested Mr Jarndyce«
continued Mr Bayham Badger leading the way into the next drawingroom »in
this portrait of Captain Swosser It was taken on his return home from the
African Station where he had suffered from the fever of the country Mrs
Badger considers it too yellow But its a very fine head A very fine head«
We all echoed »A very fine head«
»I feel when I look at it« said Mr Badger »thats a man I should like to
have seen It strikingly bespeaks the firstclass man that captain Swosser
preeminently was On the other side Professor Dingo I knew him well
attended him in his last illness a speaking likeness Over the piano Mrs
Bayham Badger when Mrs Swosser Over the sofa Mrs Bayham Badger when Mrs
Dingo Of Mrs Bayham Badger in esse I possess the original and have no copy«
Dinner was now announced and we went downstairs It was a very genteel
entertainment very handsomely served But the Captain and the Professor still
ran in Mr Badgers head and as Ada and I had the honour of being under his
particular care we had the full benefit of them
»Water Miss Summerson Allow me Not in that tumbler pray Bring me the
Professors goblet James«
Ada very much admired some artificial flowers under a glass
»Astonishing how they keep« said Mr Badger »They were presented to Mrs
Bayham Badger when she was in the Mediterranean«
He invited Mr Jarndyce to take a glass of claret
»Not that claret« he said »Excuse me This is an occasion and on an
occasion I produce some very special claret I happen to have James Captain
Swossers wine Mr Jarndyce this is a wine that was imported by the Captain
we will not say how many years ago You will find it very curious My dear I
shall be happy to take some of this wine with you Captain Swossers claret to
your mistress James My love your health«
After dinner when we ladies retired we took Mrs Badgers first and second
husband with us Mrs Badger gave us in the drawingroom a Biographical sketch
of the life and services of Captain Swosser before his marriage and a more
minute account of him dating from the time when he fell in love with her at a
ball on board the Crippler given to the officers of that ship when she lay in
Plymouth Harbour
»The dear old Crippler« said Mrs Badger shaking her head »She was a
noble vessel Trim shipshape all a taunto as Captain Swosser used to say
You must excuse me if I occasionally introduce a nautical expression I was
quite a sailor once Captain Swosser loved that craft for my sake When she was
no longer in commission he frequently said that if he were rich enough to buy
her old hulk he would have an inscription let into the timbers of the
quarterdeck where we stood as partners in the dance to mark the spot where he
fell raked fore and aft Captain Swosser used to say by the fire from my
tops It was his naval way of mentioning my eyes«
Mrs Badger shook her head sighed and looked in the glass
»It was a great change from Captain Swosser to Professor Dingo« she
resumed with a plaintive smile »I felt it a good deal at first Such an entire
revolution in my mode of life But custom combined with science particularly
science inured me to it Being the Professors sole companion in his botanical
excursions I almost forgot that I had ever been afloat and became quite
learned It is singular that the Professor was the Antipodes of Captain Swosser
and that Mr Badger is not in the least like either«
We then passed into a narrative of the deaths of Captain Swosser and
Professor Dingo both of whom seem to have had very bad complaints In the
course of it Mrs Badger signified to us that she had never madly loved but
once and that the object of that wild affection never to be recalled in its
fresh enthusiasm was Captain Swosser The Professor was yet dying by inches in
the most dismal manner and Mrs Badger was giving us imitations of his way of
saying with great difficulty »Where is Laura Let Laura give me my toast and
water« when the entrance of the gentlemen consigned him to the tomb
Now I observed that evening as I had observed for some days past that Ada
and Richard were more than ever attached to each others society which was but
natural seeing that they were going to be separated so soon I was therefore
not very much surprised when we got home and Ada and I retired upstairs to
find Ada more silent than usual though I was not quite prepared for her coming
into my arms and beginning to speak to me with her face hidden
»My darling Esther« murmured Ada »I have a great secret to tell you«
A mighty secret my pretty one no doubt
»What is it Ada«
»O Esther you would never guess«
»Shall I try to guess« said I
»O no Dont Pray dont« cried Ada very much startled by the idea of my
doing so
»Now I wonder who it can be about« said I pretending to consider
»Its about« said Ada in a whisper »Its about my cousin Richard«
»Well my own« said I kissing her bright hair which was all I could see
»And what about him«
»O Esther you would never guess«
It was so pretty to have her clinging to me in that way hiding her face
and to know that she was not crying in sorrow but in a little glow of joy and
pride and hope that I would not help her just yet
»He says I know its very foolish we are both so young but he says«
with a burst of tears »that he loves me dearly Esther«
»Does he indeed« said I »I never heard of such a thing Why my pet of
pets I could have told you that weeks and weeks ago«
To see Ada lift up her flushed face in joyful surprise and hold me round
the neck and laugh and cry and blush and laugh was so pleasant
»Why my darling« said I »what a goose you must take me for Your cousin
Richard has been loving you as plainly as he could for I dont know how long«
»And yet you never said a word about it« cried Ada kissing me
»No my love« said I »I waited to be told«
»But now I have told you you dont think it wrong of me do you« returned
Ada She might have coaxed me to say No if I had been the hardesthearted
Duenna in the world Not being that yet I said No very freely
»And now« said I »I know the worst of it«
»O thats not quite the worst of it Esther dear« cried Ada holding me
tighter and laying down her face again upon my breast
»No« said I »Not even that«
»No not even that« said Ada shaking her head
»Why you never mean to say « I was beginning in joke
But Ada looking up and smiling through her tears cried »Yes I do You
know you know I do« and then sobbed out »With all my heart I do With all my
whole heart Esther«
I told her laughing why I had known that too just as well as I had known
the other And we sat before the fire and I had all the talking to myself for a
little while though there was not much of it and Ada was soon quiet and
happy
»Do you think my cousin John knows dear Dame Durden« she asked
»Unless my cousin John is blind my pet« said I »I should think my cousin
John knows pretty well as much as we know«
»We want to speak to him before Richard goes« said Ada timidly »and we
wanted you to advise us and to tell him so Perhaps you wouldnt mind Richards
coming in Dame Durden«
»O Richard is outside is he my dear« said I
»I am not quite certain« returned Ada with a bashful simplicity that would
have won my heart if she had not won it long before »but I think hes waiting
at the door«
There he was of course They brought a chair on either side of me and put
me between them and really seemed to have fallen in love with me instead of
one another; they were so confiding and so trustful and so fond of me They
went on in their own wild way for a little while I never stopped them I
enjoyed it too much myself and then we gradually fell to considering how young
they were and how there must be a lapse of several years before this early love
could come to anything and how it could come to happiness only if it were real
and lasting and inspired them with a steady resolution to do their duty to each
other with constancy fortitude and perseverance each always for the others
sake Well Richard said that he would work his fingers to the bone for Ada and
Ada said that she would work her fingers to the bone for Richard and they
called me all sorts of endearing and sensible names and we sat there advising
and talking half the night Finally before we parted I gave them my promise
to speak to their cousin John tomorrow
So when tomorrow came I went to my Guardian after breakfast in the room
that was our townsubstitute for the Growlery and told him that I had it in
trust to tell him something
»Well little woman« said he shutting up his book »if you have accepted
the trust there can be no harm in it«
»I hope not Guardian« said I »I can guarantee that there is no secrecy in
it For it only happened yesterday«
»Aye And what is it Esther«
»Guardian« said I »you remember the happy night when first we came down to
Bleak House When Ada was singing in the dark room«
I wished to call to his remembrance the look he had given me then Unless I
am much mistaken I saw that I did so
»Because« said I with a little hesitation
»Yes my dear« said he »Dont hurry«
»Because« said I »Ada and Richard have fallen in love And have told each
other so«
»Already« cried my Guardian quite astonished
»Yes« said I »and to tell you the truth Guardian I rather expected it«
»The deuce you did« said he
He sat considering for a minute or two with his smile at once so handsome
and so kind upon his changing face and then requested me to let them know that
he wished to see them When they came he encircled Ada with one arm in his
fatherly way and addressed himself to Richard with a cheerful gravity
»Rick« said Mr Jarndyce »I am glad to have won your confidence I hope to
preserve it When I contemplated these relations between us four which have so
brightened my life and so invested it with new interests and pleasures I
certainly did contemplate afar off the possibility of you and your pretty
cousin here dont be shy Ada dont be shy my dear being in a mind to go
through life together I saw and do see many reasons to make it desirable But
that was afar off Rick afar off«
»We look afar off sir« returned Richard
»Well« said Mr Jarndyce »Thats rational Now hear me my dears I might
tell you that you dont know your own minds yet that a thousand things may
happen to divert you from one another; that it is well this chain of flowers you
have taken up is very easily broken or it might become a chain of lead But I
will not do that Such wisdom will come soon enough I dare say if it is to
come at all I will assume that a few years hence you will be in your hearts
to one another, what you are today All I say before speaking to you according
to that assumption is if you do change if you do come to find that you are
more commonplace cousins to each other as man and woman than you were as boy
and girl your manhood will excuse me Rick dont be ashamed still to
confide in me for there will be nothing monstrous or uncommon in it I am only
your friend and distant kinsman I have no power over you whatever But I wish
and hope to retain your confidence if I do nothing to forfeit it«
»I am very sure sir« returned Richard »that I speak for Ada too when I
say that you have the strongest power over us both rooted in respect,
gratitude and affection strengthening every day«
»Dear cousin John« said Ada on his shoulder »my fathers place can never
be empty again All the love and duty I could ever have rendered to him is
transferred to you«
»Come« said Mr Jarndyce »Now for our assumption Now we lift our eyes up
and look hopefully at the distance Rick the world is before you and it is
most probable that as you enter it so it will receive you Trust in nothing but
in Providence and your own efforts Never separate the two like the heathen
waggoner Constancy in love is a good thing but it means nothing and is
nothing without constancy in every kind of effort If you had the abilities of
all the great men past and present you could do nothing well without
sincerely meaning it and setting about it If you entertain the supposition
that any real success in great things or in small ever was or could be ever
will or can be wrested from Fortune by fits and starts leave that wrong idea
here or leave your cousin Ada here«
»I will leave it here sir« replied Richard smiling »if I brought it here
just now but I hope I did not and will work my way on to my cousin Ada in the
hopeful distance«
»Right« said Mr Jarndyce »If you are not to make her happy why should
you pursue her«
»I wouldnt make her unhappy no not even for her love« retorted Richard
proudly
»Well said« cried Mr Jarndyce »thats well said She remains here in her
home with me Love her Rick in your active life no less than in her home when
you revisit it and all will go well Otherwise all will go ill Thats the end
of my preaching I think you and Ada had better take a walk«
Ada tenderly embraced him and Richard heartily shook hands with him and
then the cousins went out of the room looking back again directly though to
say that they would wait for me
The door stood open and we both followed them with our eyes as they passed
down the adjoining room on which the sun was shining and out at its farther
end Richard with his head bent and her hand drawn through his arm was talking
to her very earnestly and she looked up in his face listening and seemed to
see nothing else So young so beautiful so full of hope and promise they went
on lightly through the sunlight as their own happy thoughts might then be
traversing the years to come and making them all years of brightness So they
passed away into the shadow and were gone It was only a burst of light that
had been so radiant The room darkened as they went out and the sun was clouded
over
»Am I right Esther« said my Guardian when they were gone
He who was so good and wise to ask me whether he was right
»Rick may gain out of this the quality he wants Wants at the core of so
much that is good« said Mr Jarndyce shaking his head »I have said nothing to
Ada Esther She has her friend and counsellor always near« And he laid his
hand lovingly upon my head
I could not help showing that I was a little moved though I did all I could
to conceal it
»Tut tut« said he »But we must take care too that our little womans
life is not all consumed in care for others«
»Care My dear Guardian I believe I am the happiest creature in the world«
»I believe so too« said he »But some one may find out what Esther never
will that the little woman is to be held in remembrance above all other
people«
I have omitted to mention in its place that there was some one else at the
family dinner party It was not a lady It was a gentleman It was a gentleman
of a dark complexion a young surgeon He was rather reserved but I thought
him very sensible and agreeable At least Ada asked me if I did not and I said
yes
Chapter XIV
Deportment
Richard left us on the very next evening to begin his new career and committed
Ada to my charge with great love for her and great trust in me It touched me
then to reflect and it touches me now more nearly to remember having what I
have to tell how they both thought of me even at that engrossing time I was a
part of all their plans for the present and the future I was to write to
Richard once a week making my faithful report of Ada who was to write to him
every alternate day I was to be informed under his own hand of all his
labours and successes I was to observe how resolute and persevering he would
be I was to be Adas bridesmaid when they were married I was to live with them
afterwards I was to keep all the keys of their house I was to be made happy
for ever and a day
»And if the suit should make us rich Esther which it may you know« said
Richard to crown all
A shade crossed Adas face
»My dearest Ada« asked Richard »why not«
»It had better declare us poor at once« said Ada
»O I dont know about that« returned Richard »but at all events it
wont declare anything at once It hasnt declared anything in Heaven knows how
many years«
»Too true« said Ada
»Yes but« urged Richard answering what her look suggested rather than her
words »the longer it goes on dear cousin the nearer it must be to a
settlement one way or other Now is not that reasonable«
»You know best Richard But I am afraid if we trust to it it will make us
unhappy«
»But my Ada we are not going to trust to it« cried Richard »We know it
better than to trust to it We only say that if it should make us rich we have
no constitutional objection to being rich The Court is by solemn settlement of
law our grim old guardian and we are to suppose that what it gives us when it
gives us anything is our right It is not necessary to quarrel with our right«
»No« said Ada »but it may be better to forget all about it«
»Well well« cried Richard »then we will forget all about it We consign
the whole thing to oblivion Dame Durden puts on her approving face and its
done«
»Dame Durdens approving face« said I looking out of the box in which I
was packing his books »was not very visible when you called it by that name
but it does approve and she thinks you cant do better«
So Richard said there was an end of it and immediately began on no
other foundation to build as many castles in the air as would man the great
wall of China He went away in high spirits Ada and I prepared to miss him
very much commenced our quieter career
On our arrival in London we had called with Mr Jarndyce at Mrs Jellybys
but had not been so fortunate as to find her at home It appeared that she had
gone somewhere to a teadrinking and had taken Miss Jellyby with her Besides
the teadrinking there was to be some considerable speechmaking and
letterwriting on the general merits of the cultivation of coffee conjointly
with natives at the Settlement of BorrioboolaGha All this involved no doubt
sufficient active exercise of pen and ink to make her daughters part in the
proceedings anything but a holiday
It being now beyond the time appointed for Mrs Jellybys return we
called again She was in town but not at home having gone to Mile End
directly after breakfast on some Borrioboolan business arising out of a
Society called the East London Branch Aid Ramification As I had not seen Peepy
on the occasion of our last call when he was not to be found anywhere and when
the cook rather thought he must have strolled away with the dustmans cart I
now inquired for him again The oystershells he had been building a house with
were still in the passage but he was nowhere discoverable and the cook
supposed that he had gone after the sheep When we repeated with some surprise
»The sheep« she said O yes on market days he sometimes followed them quite
out of town and came back in such a state as never was
I was sitting at the window with my guardian on the following morning and
Ada was busy writing of course to Richard when Miss Jellyby was announced
and entered leading the identical Peepy whom she had made some endeavours to
render presentable by wiping the dirt into corners of his face and hands and
making his hair very wet and then violently frizzling it with her fingers
Everything the dear child wore was either too large for him or too small Among
his other contradictory decorations he had the hat of a Bishop and the little
gloves of a baby His boots were on a small scale the boots of a ploughman
while his legs so crossed and recrossed with scratches that they looked like
maps were bare below a very short pair of plaid drawers finished off with two
frills of perfectly different patterns The deficient buttons on his plaid frock
had evidently been supplied from one of Mr Jellybys coats they were so
extremely brazen and so much too large Most extraordinary specimens of
needlework appeared on several parts of his dress where it had been hastily
mended and I recognised the same hand on Miss Jellybys She was however
unaccountably improved in her appearance and looked very pretty She was
conscious of poor little Peepy being but a failure after all her trouble and
she showed it as she came in by the way in which she glanced first at him and
then at us
»O dear me« said my guardian »Due East«
Ada and I gave her a cordial welcome and presented her to Mr Jarndyce to
whom she said as she sat down
»Mas compliments and she hopes youll excuse her because shes
correcting proofs of the plan Shes going to put out five thousand new
circulars and she knows youll be interested to hear that I have brought one
of them with me Mas compliments« With which she presented it sulkily enough
»Thank you« said my guardian »I am much obliged to Mrs Jellyby O dear
me This is a very trying wind«
We were busy with Peepy taking off his clerical hat asking him if he
remembered us and so on Peepy retired behind his elbow at first but relented
at the sight of spongecake and allowed me to take him on my lap where he sat
munching quietly Mr Jarndyce then withdrawing into the temporary Growlery
Miss Jellyby opened a conversation with her usual abruptness
»We are going on just as bad as ever in Thavies Inn« said she »I have no
peace of my life Talk of Africa I couldnt be worse off if I was a
whatshisname man and a brother«
I tried to say something soothing
»O its of no use Miss Summerson« exclaimed Miss Jellyby »though I thank
you for the kind intention all the same I know how I am used and I am not to
be talked over You wouldnt be talked over if you were used so Peepy go and
play at Wild Beasts under the piano«
»I shant« said Peepy
»Very well you ungrateful naughty hardhearted boy« returned Miss
Jellyby with tears in her eyes »Ill never take pains to dress you any more«
»Yes I will go Caddy« cried Peepy who was really a good child and who
was so moved by his sisters vexation that he went at once
»It seems a little thing to cry about« said poor Miss Jellyby
apologetically »but I am quite worn out I was directing the new circulars till
two this morning I detest the whole thing so that that alone makes my head
ache till I cant see out of my eyes And look at that poor unfortunate child
Was there ever such a fright as he is«
Peepy happily unconscious of the defects in his appearance sat on the
carpet behind one of the legs of the piano looking calmly out of his den at us
while he ate his cake
»I have sent him to the other end of the room« observed Miss Jellyby
drawing her chair nearer ours »because I dont want him to hear the
conversation Those little things are so sharp I was going to say we really
are going on worse than ever Pa will be a bankrupt before long and then I hope
Ma will be satisfied Therell be nobody but Ma to thank for it«
We said we hoped Mr Jellybys affairs were not in so bad a state as that
»Its of no use hoping though its very kind of you« returned Miss
Jellyby shaking her head »Pa told me only yesterday morning and dreadfully
unhappy he is that he couldnt weather the storm I should be surprised if he
could When all our tradesmen send into our house any stuff they like and the
servants do what they like with it and I have no time to improve things if I
knew how and Ma dont care about anything I should like to make out how Pa is
to weather the storm I declare if I was Pa Id run away«
»My dear« said I smiling »Your papa no doubt considers his family«
»O yes his family is all very fine Miss Summerson« replied Miss Jellyby
»but what comfort is his family to him His family is nothing but bills dirt
waste noise tumbles downstairs confusion and wretchedness His scrambling
home from weeksend to weeksend is like one great washingday only
nothings washed«
Miss Jellyby tapped her foot upon the floor and wiped her eyes
»I am sure I pity Pa to that degree« she said »and am so angry with Ma
that I cant find words to express myself However I am not going to bear it I
am determined I wont be a slave all my life and I wont submit to be proposed
to by Mr Quale A pretty thing indeed to marry a Philanthropist As if I
hadnt had enough of that« said poor Miss Jellyby
I must confess that I could not help feeling rather angry with Mrs Jellyby
myself seeing and hearing this neglected girl and knowing how much of bitterly
satirical truth there was in what she said
»If it wasnt that we had been intimate when you stopped at our house«
pursued Miss Jellyby »I should have been ashamed to come here today for I
know what a figure I must seem to you two But as it is I made up my mind to
call especially as I am not likely to see you again the next time you come to
town«
She said this with such great significance that Ada and I glanced at one
another, foreseeing something more
»No« said Miss Jellyby shaking her head »Not at all likely I know I may
trust you two I am sure you wont betray me I am engaged«
»Without their knowledge at home« said I
»Why good gracious me Miss Summerson« she returned justifying herself in
a fretful but not angry manner »how can it be otherwise You know what Ma is
and I neednt make poor Pa more miserable by telling him«
»But would it not be adding to his unhappiness to marry without his
knowledge or consent my dear« said I
»No« said Miss Jellyby softening »I hope not I should try to make him
happy and comfortable when he came to see me and Peepy and the others should
take it in turns to come and stay with me and they should have some care taken
of them then«
There was a good deal of affection in poor Caddy She softened more and more
while saying this and cried so much over the unwonted little homepicture she
had raised in her mind that Peepy in his cave under the piano was touched
and turned himself over on his back with loud lamentations It was not until I
had brought him to kiss his sister and had restored him to his place on my lap
and had shown him that Caddy was laughing she laughed expressly for the
purpose that we could recall his peace of mind even then it was for some
time conditional on his taking us in turns by the chin and smoothing our faces
all over with his hand At last as his spirits were not equal to the piano we
put him on a chair to look out of window and Miss Jellyby holding him by one
leg resumed her confidence
»It began in your coming to our house« she said
We naturally asked how
»I felt I was so awkward« she replied »that I made up my mind to be
improved in that respect at all events and to learn to dance I told Ma I was
ashamed of myself and I must be taught to dance Ma looked at me in that
provoking way of hers as if I wasnt in sight but I was quite determined to be
taught to dance and so I went to Mr Turveydrops Academy in Newman Street«
»And was it there my dear « I began
»Yes it was there« said Caddy »and I am engaged to Mr Turveydrop There
are two Mr Turveydrops father and son My Mr Turveydrop is the son of
course I only wish I had been better brought up and was likely to make him a
better wife for I am very fond of him«
»I am sorry to hear this« said I »I must confess«
»I dont know why you should be sorry« she retorted a little anxiously
»but I am engaged to Mr Turveydrop whether or no and he is very fond of me
Its a secret as yet even on his side because old Mr Turveydrop has a share
in the connexion and it might break his heart or give him some other shock if
he was told of it abruptly Old Mr Turveydrop is a very gentlemanly man indeed
very gentlemanly«
»Does his wife know of it« asked Ada
»Old Mr Turveydrops wife Miss Clare« returned Miss Jellyby opening her
eyes »Theres no such person He is a widower«
We were here interrupted by Peepy whose leg had undergone so much on
account of his sisters unconsciously jerking it like a bellrope whenever she
was emphatic that the afflicted child now bemoaned his sufferings with a very
lowspirited noise As he appealed to me for compassion and as I was only a
listener I undertook to hold him Miss Jellyby proceeded after begging Peepys
pardon with a kiss and assuring him that she hadnt meant to do it
»Thats the state of the case« said Caddy »If I ever blame myself I still
think its Mas fault We are to be married whenever we can and then I shall go
to Pa at the office and write to Ma It wont much agitate Ma I am only pen and
ink to her One great comfort is« said Caddy with a sob »that I shall never
hear of Africa after I am married Young Mr Turveydrop hates it for my sake
and if old Mr Turveydrop knows there is such a place its as much as he does«
»It was he who was very gentlemanly I think« said I
»Very gentlemanly indeed« said Caddy »He is celebrated almost
everywhere for his Deportment«
»Does he teach« asked Ada
»No he dont teach anything in particular« replied Caddy »But his
Deportment is beautiful«
Caddy went on to say with considerable hesitation and reluctance that
there was one thing more she wished us to know and felt we ought to know and
which she hoped would not offend us It was that she had improved her
acquaintance with Miss Flite the little crazy old lady and that she frequently
went there early in the morning and met her lover for a few minutes before
breakfast only for a few minutes »I go there at other times« said Caddy
»but Prince does not come then Young Mr Turveydrops name is Prince I wish it
wasnt because it sounds like a dog but of course he didnt christen himself
Old Mr Turveydrop had him christened Prince in remembrance of the Prince
Regent Old Mr Turveydrop adored the Prince Regent on account of his
Deportment I hope you wont think the worse of me for having made these little
appointments at Miss Flites where I first went with you because I like the
poor thing for her own sake and I believe she likes me If you could see young
Mr Turveydrop I am sure you would think well of him at least I am sure you
couldnt possibly think any ill of him I am going there now for my lesson I
couldnt ask you to go with me Miss Summerson but if you would« said Caddy
who had said all this earnestly and tremblingly »I should be very glad very
glad«
It happened that we had arranged with my guardian to go to Miss Flites that
day We had told him of our former visit and our account had interested him
but something had always happened to prevent our going there again As I trusted
that I might have sufficient influence with Miss Jellyby to prevent her taking
any very rash step if I fully accepted the confidence she was so willing to
place in me poor girl I proposed that she and I and Peepy should go to the
Academy and afterwards meet my guardian and Ada at Miss Flites whose name I
now learnt for the first time This was on condition that Miss Jellyby and Peepy
should come back with us to dinner The last article of the agreement being
joyfully acceded to by both we smartened Peepy up a little with the assistance
of a few pins some soap and water and a hairbrush and went out bending our
steps towards Newman Street which was very near
I found the Academy established in a sufficiently dingy house at the corner
of an archway with busts in all the staircase windows In the same house there
were also established as I gathered from the plates on the door a
drawingmaster a coalmerchant there was certainly no room for his coals
and a lithographic artist On the plate which in size and situation took
precedence of all the rest I read Mr TURVEYDROP The door was open and the
hall was blocked up by a grand piano a harp and several other musical
instruments in cases all in progress of removal and all looking rakish in the
daylight Miss Jellyby informed me that the Academy had been lent last night
for a concert
We went upstairs it had been quite a fine house once when it was
anybodys business to keep it clean and fresh and nobodys business to smoke in
it all day and into Mr Turveydrops great room which was built out into a
mews at the back and was lighted by a skylight It was a bare resounding room
smelling of stables with cane forms along the walls and the walls ornamented
at regular intervals with painted lyres and little cutglass branches for
candles which seemed to be shedding their oldfashioned drops as other branches
might shed autumn leaves Several young lady pupils ranging from thirteen or
fourteen years of age to two or three and twenty were assembled and I was
looking among them for their instructor when Caddy pinching my arm repeated
the ceremony of introduction »Miss Summerson Mr Prince Turveydrop«
I curtseyed to a little blueeyed fair man of youthful appearance with
flaxen hair parted in the middle and curling at the ends all round his head He
had a little fiddle which we used to call at school a kit under his left arm
and its little bow in the same hand His little dancingshoes were particularly
diminutive and he had a little innocent feminine manner which not only
appealed to me in an amiable way but made this singular effect upon me that I
received the impression that he was like his mother and that his mother had not
been much considered or well used
»I am very happy to see Miss Jellybys friend« he said bowing low to me
»I began to fear« with timid tenderness »as it was past the usual time that
Miss Jellyby was not coming«
»I beg you will have the goodness to attribute that to me who have detained
her and to receive my excuses sir« said I
»O dear« said he
»And pray« I entreated »do not allow me to be the cause of any more
delay«
With that apology I withdrew to a seat between Peepy who being well used
to it had already climbed into a corner place and an old lady of a censorious
countenance whose two nieces were in the class, and who was very indignant with
Peepys boots Prince Turveydrop then tinkled the strings of his kit with his
fingers and the young ladies stood up to dance Just then there appeared from
a side door old Mr Turveydrop in the full lustre of his Deportment
He was a fat old gentleman with a false complexion false teeth false
whiskers and a wig He had a fur collar and he had a padded breast to his
coat which only wanted a star or a broad blue ribbon to be complete He was
pinched in and swelled out and got up and strapped down as much as he could
possibly bear He had such a neckcloth on puffing his very eyes out of their
natural shape and his chin and even his ears so sunk into it that it seemed
as though he must inevitably double up if it were cast loose He had under his
arm a hat of great size and weight shelving downward from the crown to the
brim and in his hand a pair of white gloves with which he flapped it as he
stood poised on one leg in a highshouldered roundelbowed state of elegance
not to be surpassed He had a cane he had an eyeglass he had a snuffbox he
had rings he had wristbands he had everything but any touch of nature; he was
not like youth he was not like age he was not like anything in the world but a
model of Deportment
»Father A visitor Miss Jellybys friend Miss Summerson«
»Distinguished« said Mr Turveydrop »by Miss Summersons presence« As he
bowed to me in that tight state I almost believe I saw creases come into the
whites of his eyes
»My father« said the son aside to me with quite an affecting belief in
him »is a celebrated character My father is greatly admired«
»Go on Prince Go on« said Mr Turveydrop standing with his back to the
fire and waving his gloves condescendingly »Go on my son«
At this command or by this gracious permission the lesson went on Prince
Turveydrop sometimes played the kit dancing sometimes played the piano
standing sometimes hummed the tune with what little breath he could spare
while he set a pupil right always conscientiously moved with the least
proficient through every step and every part of the figure and never rested for
an instant His distinguished father did nothing whatever but stand before the
fire a model of Deportment
»And he never does anything else« said the old lady of the censorious
countenance »Yet would you believe that its his name on the doorplate«
»His sons name is the same you know« said I
»He wouldnt let his son have any name if he could take it from him«
returned the old lady »Look at the sons dress« It certainly was plain
threadbare almost shabby »Yet the father must be garnished and tricked out«
said the old lady »because of his Deportment Id deport him Transport him
would be better«
I felt curious to know more concerning this person I asked »Does he give
lessons in Deportment now«
»Now« returned the old lady shortly »Never did«
After a moments consideration I suggested that perhaps fencing had been
his accomplishment
»I dont believe he can fence at all maam« said the old lady
I looked surprised and inquisitive The old lady becoming more and more
incensed against the Master of Deportment as she dwelt upon the subject gave me
some particulars of his career with strong assurances that they were mildly
stated
He had married a meek little dancingmistress with a tolerable connexion
having never in his life before done anything but deport himself and had
worked her to death or had at the best suffered her to work herself to death
to maintain him in those expenses which were indispensable to his position At
once to exhibit his Deportment to the best models and to keep the best models
constantly before himself he had found it necessary to frequent all public
places of fashionable and lounging resort to be seen at Brighton and elsewhere
at fashionable times and to lead an idle life in the very best clothes To
enable him to do this the affectionate little dancingmistress had toiled and
laboured and would have toiled and laboured to that hour if her strength had
lasted so long For the mainspring of the story was that in spite of the
mans absorbing selfishness his wife overpowered by his Deportment had to
the last believed in him and had on her deathbed in the most moving terms
confided him to their son as one who had an inextinguishable claim upon him and
whom he could never regard with too much pride and deference The son
inheriting his mothers belief and having the Deportment always before him had
lived and grown in the same faith and now at thirty years of age worked for
his father twelve hours aday and looked up to him with veneration on the old
imaginary pinnacle
»The airs the fellow gives himself« said my informant shaking her head at
old Mr Turveydrop with speechless indignation as he drew on his tight gloves
of course unconscious of the homage she was rendering »He fully believes he is
one of the aristocracy And he is so condescending to the son he so egregiously
deludes that you might suppose him the most virtuous of parents O« said the
old lady apostrophising him with infinite vehemence »I could bite you«
I could not help being amused though I heard the old lady out with feelings
of real concern It was difficult to doubt her with the father and son before
me What I might have thought of them without the old ladys account or what I
might have thought of the old ladys account without them I cannot say There
was a fitness of things in the whole that carried conviction with it
My eyes were yet wandering from young Mr Turveydrop working so hard to
old Mr Turveydrop deporting himself so beautifully when the latter came
ambling up to me and entered into conversation
He asked me first of all whether I conferred a charm and a distinction on
London by residing in it I did not think it necessary to reply that I was
perfectly aware I should not do that in any case but merely told him where I
did reside
»A lady so graceful and accomplished« he said kissing his right glove and
afterwards extending it towards the pupils »will look leniently on the
deficiencies here We do our best to polish polish polish«
He sat down beside me taking some pains to sit on the form, I thought in
imitation of the print of his illustrious model on the sofa And really he did
look very like it
»To polish polish polish« he repeated taking a pinch of snuff and
gently fluttering his fingers »But we are not if I may say so to one formed
to be graceful both by Nature and Art« with the highshouldered bow which it
seemed impossible for him to make without lifting up his eyebrows and shutting
his eyes »we are not what we used to be in point of Deportment«
»Are we not sir« said I
»We have degenerated« he returned shaking his head which he could do to
a very limited extent in his cravat »A levelling age is not favourable to
Deportment It develops vulgarity Perhaps I speak with some little partiality
It may not be for me to say that I have been called for some years now
Gentleman Turveydrop or that His Royal Highness the Prince Regent did me the
honour to inquire on my removing my hat as he drove out of the Pavilion at
Brighton that fine building Who is he Who the Devil is he Why dont I know
him Why hasnt he thirty thousand ayear But these are little matters of
anecdote the general property maam still repeated occasionally among
the upper classes«
»Indeed« said I
He replied with the highshouldered bow »Where what is left among us of
Deportment« he added »still lingers England alas my country has
degenerated very much and is degenerating every day She has not many gentlemen
left We are few I see nothing to succeed us but a race of weavers«
»One might hope that the race of gentlemen would be perpetuated here« said
I
»You are very good« he smiled with the highshouldered bow again »You
flatter me But no no I have never been able to imbue my poor boy with that
part of his art Heaven forbid that I should disparage my dear child but he has
no Deportment«
»He appears to be an excellent master« I observed
»Understand me my dear madam he is an excellent master All that can be
acquired he has acquired All that can be imparted he can impart But there
are things« he took another pinch of snuff and made the bow again as if to
add »this kind of thing for instance«
I glanced towards the centre of the room where Miss Jellybys lover now
engaged with single pupils was undergoing greater drudgery than ever
»My amiable child« murmured Mr Turveydrop adjusting his cravat
»Your son is indefatigable« said I
»It is my reward« said Mr Turveydrop »to hear you say so In some
respects he treads in the footsteps of his sainted mother She was a devoted
creature But Wooman lovely Wooman« said Mr Turveydrop with very
disagreeable gallantry »what a sex you are«
I rose and joined Miss Jellyby who was by this time putting on her
bonnet The time allotted to a lesson having fully elapsed there was a general
putting on of bonnets When Miss Jellyby and the unfortunate Prince found an
opportunity to become betrothed I dont know but they certainly found none on
this occasion to exchange a dozen words
»My dear« said Mr Turveydrop benignly to his son »do you know the hour«
»No father« The son had no watch The father had a handsome gold one
which he pulled out with an air that was an example to mankind
»My son« said he »its two oclock Recollect your school at Kensington at
three«
»Thats time enough for me father« said Prince »I can take a morsel of
dinner standing and be off«
»My dear boy« returned his father »you must be very quick You will find
the cold mutton on the table«
»Thank you father Are you off now father«
»Yes my dear I suppose« said Mr Turveydrop shutting his eyes and
lifting up his shoulders with modest consciousness »that I must show myself
as usual about town«
»You had better dine out comfortably somewhere« said his son
»My dear child I intend to I shall take my little meal I think at the
French house in the Opera Colonnade«
»Thats right Goodbye father« said Prince shaking hands
»Goodbye my son Bless you«
Mr Turveydrop said this in quite a pious manner and it seemed to do his
son good who in parting from him was so pleased with him so dutiful to him
and so proud of him that I almost felt as if it were an unkindness to the
younger man not to be able to believe implicitly in the elder The few moments
that were occupied by Prince in taking leave of us and particularly of one of
us as I saw being in the secret enhanced my favourable impression of his
almost childish character I felt a liking for him and a compassion for him as
he put his little kit in his pocket and with it his desire to stay a little
while with Caddy and went away goodhumouredly to his cold mutton and his
school at Kensington that made me scarcely less irate with his father than the
censorious old lady
The father opened the roomdoor for us and bowed us out in a manner I
must acknowledge worthy of his shining original In the same style he presently
passed us on the other side of the street on his way to the aristocratic part
of the town where he was going to show himself among the few other gentlemen
left For some moments I was so lost in reconsidering what I had heard and seen
in Newman Street that I was quite unable to talk to Caddy or even to fix my
attention on what she said to me especially when I began to inquire in my mind
whether there were or ever had been any other gentlemen not in the dancing
profession who lived and founded a reputation entirely on their Deportment
This became so bewildering and suggested the possibility of so many Mr
Turveydrops that I said »Esther you must make up your mind to abandon this
subject altogether and attend to Caddy« I accordingly did so and we chatted
all the rest of the way to Lincolns Inn
Caddy told me that her lovers education had been so neglected that it was
not always easy to read his notes She said if he were not so anxious about his
spelling and took less pains to make it clear he would do better but he put
so many unnecessary letters into short words that they sometimes quite lost
their English appearance »He does it with the best intention« observed Caddy
»but it hasnt the effect he means poor fellow« Caddy then went on to reason
how could he be expected to be a scholar when he had passed his whole life in
the dancingschool and had done nothing but teach and fag fag and teach
morning noon and night And what did it matter She could write letters enough
for both as she knew to her cost and it was far better for him to be amiable
than learned »Besides its not as if I was an accomplished girl who had any
right to give herself airs« said Caddy »I know little enough I am sure
thanks to Ma«
»Theres another thing I want to tell you now we are alone« continued
Caddy »which I should not have liked to mention unless you had seen Prince
Miss Summerson You know what a house ours is Its of no use my trying to learn
anything that it would be useful for Princes wife to know in our house We
live in such a state of muddle that its impossible and I have only been more
disheartened whenever I have tried So I get a little practice with who do
you think Poor Miss Flite Early in the morning I help her to tidy her room
and clean her birds and I make her cup of coffee for her of course she taught
me and I have learnt to make it so well that Prince says its the very best
coffee he ever tasted and would quite delight old Mr Turveydrop who is very
particular indeed about his coffee I can make little puddings too and I know
how to buy neck of mutton and tea and sugar and butter and a good many
housekeeping things I am not clever at my needle yet« said Caddy glancing at
the repairs on Peepys frock »but perhaps I shall improve and since I have
been engaged to Prince and have been doing all this I have felt
bettertempered I hope and more forgiving to Ma It rather put me out at
first this morning to see you and Miss Clare looking so neat and pretty and to
feel ashamed of Peepy and myself too but on the whole I hope I am
bettertempered than I was and more forgiving to Ma«
The poor girl trying so hard said it from her heart and touched mine
»Caddy my love« I replied »I begin to have a great affection for you and I
hope we shall become friends« »Oh do you« cried Caddy »how happy that would
make me« »My dear Caddy« said I »let us be friends from this time and let us
often have a chat about these matters and try to find the right way through
them« Caddy was overjoyed I said everything I could in my oldfashioned way
to comfort and encourage her and I would not have objected to old Mr
Turveydrop that day for any smaller consideration than a settlement on his
daughterinlaw
By this time we were come to Mr Krooks whose private door stood open
There was a bill pasted on the doorpost announcing a room to let on the
second floor It reminded Caddy to tell me as we proceeded upstairs that there
had been a sudden death there and an inquest and that our little friend had
been ill of the fright The door and window of the vacant room being open we
looked in It was the room with the dark door to which Miss Flite had secretly
directed my attention when I was last in the house A sad and desolate place it
was a gloomy sorrowful place that gave me a strange sensation of mournfulness
and even dread »You look pale« said Caddy when we came out »and cold« I
felt as if the room had chilled me
We had walked slowly while we were talking and my guardian and Ada were
here before us We found them in Miss Flites garret They were looking at the
birds while a medical gentleman who was so good as to attend Miss Flite with
much solicitude and compassion spoke with her cheerfully by the fire
»I have finished my professional visit« he said coming forward »Miss
Flite is much better and may appear in Court as her mind is set upon it
tomorrow She has been greatly missed there I understand«
Miss Flite received the compliment with complacency and dropped a general
curtsey to us
»Honoured indeed« said she »by another visit from the wards in Jarndyce
Very happy to receive Jarndyce of Bleak House beneath my humble roof« with a
special curtsey »FitzJarndyce my dear« she had bestowed that name on Caddy
it appeared and always called her by it »a double welcome«
»Has she been very ill« asked Mr Jarndyce of the gentleman whom we had
found in attendance on her She answered for herself directly though he had put
the question in a whisper
»O decidedly unwell O very unwell indeed« she said confidentially »Not
pain you know trouble Not bodily so much as nervous nervous The truth is«
in a subdued voice and trembling »we have had death here There was poison in
the house I am very susceptible to such horrid things It frightened me Only
Mr Woodcourt knows how much My physician Mr Woodcourt« with great
stateliness »The wards in Jarndyce Jarndyce of Bleak House FitzJarndyce«
»Miss Flite« said Mr Woodcourt in a grave kind of voice as if he were
appealing to her while speaking to us and laying his hand gently on her arm
»Miss Flite describes her illness with her usual accuracy She was alarmed by an
occurrence in the house which might have alarmed a stronger person and was
made ill by the distress and agitation She brought me here in the first hurry
of the discovery though too late for me to be of any use to the unfortunate
man I have compensated myself for that disappointment by coming here since and
being of some small use to her«
»The kindest physician in the college« whispered Miss Flite to me »I
expect a Judgment On the day of Judgment And shall then confer estates«
»She will be as well in a day or two« said Mr Woodcourt looking at her
with an observant smile »as she ever will be In other words, quite well of
course Have you heard of her good fortune«
»Most extraordinary« said Miss Flite smiling brightly »You never heard of
such a thing my dear Every Saturday Conversation Kenge or Guppy clerk to
Conversation K places in my hand a paper of shillings Shillings I assure
you Always the same number in the paper Always one for every day in the week
Now you know really So welltimed is it not Yees From whence do these
papers come you say That is the great question Naturally Shall I tell you
what I think I think« said Miss Flite drawing herself back with a very shrewd
look and shaking her right forefinger in a most significant manner »that the
Lord Chancellor aware of the length of time during which the Great Seal has
been open for it has been open a long time forwards them Until the Judgment
I expect is given. Now thats very creditable you know To confess in that way
that he is a little slow for human life So delicate Attending Court the other
day I attend it regularly with my documents I taxed him with it and he
almost confessed That is I smiled at him from my bench and he smiled at me
from his bench But its great good fortune is it not And FitzJarndyce lays
the money out for me to great advantage O I assure you to the greatest
advantage«
I congratulated her as she addressed herself to me upon this fortunate
addition to her income and wished her a long continuance of it I did not
speculate upon the source from which it came or wonder whose humanity was so
considerate My guardian stood before me contemplating the birds and I had no
need to look beyond him
»And what do you call these little fellows maam« said he in his pleasant
voice »Have they any names«
»I can answer for Miss Flite that they have« said I »for she promised to
tell us what they were Ada remembers«
Ada remembered very well
»Did I« said Miss Flite »Whos that at my door What are you listening at
my door for Krook«
The old man of the house pushing it open before him appeared there with
his furcap in his hand and his cat at his heels
»I warnt listening Miss Flite« he said »I was going to give a rap with
my knuckles only youre so quick«
»Make your cat go down Drive her away« the old lady angrily exclaimed
»Bah bah There aint no danger gentlefolks« said Mr Krook looking
slowly and sharply from one to another until he had looked at all of us »shed
never offer at the birds when I was here unless I told her to it«
»You will excuse my landlord« said the old lady with a dignified air »M
quite M What do you want Krook when I have company«
»Hi« said the old man »You know I am the Chancellor«
»Well« returned Miss Flite »What of that«
»For the Chancellor« said the old man with a chuckle »not to be
acquainted with a Jarndyce is queer aint it Miss Flite Mightnt I take the
liberty Your servant sir I know Jarndyce and Jarndyce amost as well as you
do sir I knowed old Squire Tom sir I never to my knowledge see you afore
though not even in Court Yet I go there a mortal sight of times in the course
of the year taking one day with another«
»I never go there« said Mr Jarndyce which he never did on any
consideration »I would sooner go somewhere else«
»Would you though« returned Krook grinning »Youre bearing hard upon my
noble and learned brother in your meaning sir though perhaps it is but
natral in a Jarndyce The burnt child sir What youre looking at my lodgers
birds Mr Jarndyce« The old man had come by little and little into the room
until he now touched my guardian with his elbow and looked close up into his
face with his spectacled eyes »Its one of her strange ways that shell never
tell the names of these birds if she can help it though she named em all«
This was in a whisper »Shall I run em over Flite« he asked aloud winking at
us and pointing at her as she turned away affecting to sweep the grate
»If you like« she answered hurriedly
The old man looking up at the cages after another look at us went through
the list
»Hope Joy Youth Peace Rest Life Dust Ashes Waste Want Ruin
Despair Madness Death Cunning Folly Words Wigs Rags Sheepskin Plunder
Precedent Jargon Gammon and Spinach Thats the whole collection« said the
old man »all cooped up together by my noble and learned brother«
»This is a bitter wind« muttered my guardian
»When my noble and learned brother gives his Judgment theyre to be let go
free« said Krook winking at us again »And then« he added whispering and
grinning »if that ever was to happen which it wont the birds that have
never been caged would kill em«
»If ever the wind was in the east« said my guardian pretending to look out
of the window for a weathercock »I think its there today«
We found it very difficult to get away from the house It was not Miss Flite
who detained us she was as reasonable a little creature in consulting the
convenience of others as there possibly could be It was Mr Krook He seemed
unable to detach himself from Mr Jarndyce If he had been linked to him he
could hardly have attended him more closely He proposed to show us his Court of
Chancery and all the strange medley it contained during the whole of our
inspection prolonged by himself he kept close to Mr Jarndyce and sometimes
detained him under one pretence or other until we had passed on as if he were
tormented by an inclination to enter upon some secret subject which he could
not make up his mind to approach I cannot imagine a countenance and manner more
singularly expressive of caution and indecision and a perpetual impulse to do
something he could not resolve to venture on than Mr Krooks was that day
His watchfulness of my guardian was incessant He rarely removed his eyes from
his face If he went on beside him he observed him with the slyness of an old
white fox If he went before he looked back When we stood still he got
opposite to him and drawing his hand across and across his open mouth with a
curious expression of a sense of power and turning up his eyes and lowering
his grey eyebrows until they appeared to be shut seemed to scan every lineament
of his face
At last having been always attended by the cat all over the house and
having seen the whole stock of miscellaneous lumber which was certainly
curious we came into the back part of the shop Here on the head of an empty
barrel stood on end were an inkbottle some old stumps of pens and some dirty
playbills and against the wall were pasted several large printed alphabets in
several plain hands
»What are you doing here« asked my guardian
»Trying to learn myself to read and write« said Krook
»And how do you get on«
»Slow Bad« returned the old man impatiently »Its hard at my time of
life«
»It would be easier to be taught by some one« said my guardian
»Aye but they might teach me wrong« returned the old man with a
wonderfully suspicious flash of his eye »I dont know what I may have lost by
not being learned afore I wouldnt like to lose anything by being learned wrong
now«
»Wrong« said my guardian with his goodhumoured smile »Who do you suppose
would teach you wrong«
»I dont know Mr Jarndyce of Bleak House« replied the old man turning up
his spectacles on his forehead and rubbing his hands »I dont suppose as
anybody would but Id rather trust my own self than another«
These answers and his manner were strange enough to cause my guardian to
inquire of Mr Woodcourt as we all walked across Lincolns Inn together
whether Mr Krook were really as his lodger represented him deranged The
young surgeon replied no he had seen no reason to think so He was exceedingly
distrustful as ignorance usually was and he was always more or less under the
influence of raw gin of which he drank great quantities and of which he and
his backshop as we might have observed smelt strongly but he did not think
him mad as yet
On our way home I so conciliated Peepys affections by buying him a
windmill and two floursacks that he would suffer nobody else to take off his
hat and gloves and would sit nowhere at dinner but at my side Caddy sat upon
the other side of me next to Ada to whom we imparted the whole history of the
engagement as soon as we got back We made much of Caddy and Peepy too and
Caddy brightened exceedingly and my guardian was as merry as we were and we
were all very happy indeed until Caddy went home at night in a hackneycoach
with Peepy fast asleep but holding tight to the windmill
I have forgotten to mention at least I have not mentioned that Mr
Woodcourt was the same dark young surgeon whom we had met at Mr Badgers Or
that Mr Jarndyce invited him to dinner that day Or that he came Or that
when they were all gone and I said to Ada »Now my darling let us have a
little talk about Richard« Ada laughed and said
But I dont think it matters what my darling said She was always merry
Chapter XV
Bell Yard
While we were in London Mr Jarndyce was constantly beset by the crowd of
excitable ladies and gentlemen whose proceedings had so much astonished us Mr
Quale who presented himself soon after our arrival was in all such
excitements He seemed to project those two shining knobs of temples of his into
everything that went on and to brush his hair farther and farther back until
the very roots were almost ready to fly out of his head in inappeasable
philanthropy All objects were alike to him but he was always particularly
ready for anything in the way of a testimonial to any one His great power
seemed to be his power of indiscriminate admiration He would sit for any
length of time with the utmost enjoyment bathing his temples in the light of
any order of luminary Having first seen him perfectly swallowed up in
admiration of Mrs Jellyby I had supposed her to be the absorbing object of his
devotion I soon discovered my mistake and found him to be trainbearer and
organblower to a whole procession of people
Mrs Pardiggle came one day for a subscription to something and with her
Mr Quale Whatever Mrs Pardiggle said Mr Quale repeated to us and just as
he had drawn Mrs Jellyby out he drew Mrs Pardiggle out Mrs Pardiggle wrote
a letter of introduction to my guardian in behalf of her eloquent friend Mr
Gusher With Mr Gusher appeared Mr Quale again Mr Gusher being a flabby
gentleman with a moist surface and eyes so much too small for his moon of a
face that they seemed to have been originally made for somebody else was not at
first sight prepossessing yet he was scarcely seated before Mr Quale asked
Ada and me not inaudibly whether he was not a great creature which he
certainly was flabbily speaking though Mr Quale meant in intellectual beauty
and whether we were not struck by his massive configuration of brow In short
we heard of a great many Missions of various sorts among this set of people
but nothing respecting them was half so clear to us as that it was Mr Quales
mission to be in ecstasies with everybody elses mission and that it was the
most popular mission of all
Mr Jarndyce had fallen into this company in the tenderness of his heart
and his earnest desire to do all the good in his power but that he felt it to
be too often an unsatisfactory company where benevolence took spasmodic forms
where charity was assumed as a regular uniform by loud professors and
speculators in cheap notoriety vehement in profession restless and vain in
action servile in the last degree of meanness to the great adulatory of one
another, and intolerable to those who were anxious quietly to help the weak from
falling rather than with a great deal of bluster and selflaudation to raise
them up a little way when they were down he plainly told us When a testimonial
was originated to Mr Quale by Mr Gusher who had already got one originated
by Mr Quale and when Mr Gusher spoke for an hour and a half on the subject
to a meeting including two charity schools of small boys and girls who were
specially reminded of the widows mite and requested to come forward with
halfpence and be acceptable sacrifices I think the wind was in the east for
three whole weeks
I mention this because I am coming to Mr Skimpole again It seemed to me
that his offhand professions of childishness and carelessness were a great
relief to my guardian by contrast with such things and were the more readily
believed in since to find one perfectly undesigning and candid man among many
opposites could not fail to give him pleasure I should be sorry to imply that
Mr Skimpole divined this and was politic I really never understood him well
enough to know What he was to my guardian he certainly was to the rest of the
world
He had not been very well and thus though he lived in London we had seen
nothing of him until now He appeared one morning in his usual agreeable way
and as full of pleasant spirits as ever
Well he said here he was He had been bilious but rich men were often
bilious and therefore he had been persuading himself that he was a man of
property So he was in a certain point of view in his expansive intentions
He had been enriching his medical attendant in the most lavish manner He had
always doubled and sometimes quadrupled his fees He had said to the doctor
»Now my dear doctor it is quite a delusion on your part to suppose that you
attend me for nothing I am overwhelming you with money in my expansive
intentions if you only knew it« And really he said he meant it to that
degree that he thought it much the same as doing it If he had had those bits
of metal or thin paper to which mankind attached so much importance to put in
the doctors hand he would have put them in the doctors hand Not having them
he substituted the will for the deed Very well If he really meant it if his
will were genuine and real which it was it appeared to him that it was the
same as coin and cancelled the obligation
»It may be partly because I know nothing of the value of money« said Mr
Skimpole »but I often feel this It seems so reasonable My butcher says to me
he wants that little bill Its a part of the pleasant unconscious poetry of the
mans nature that he always calls it a little bill to make the payment appear
easy to both of us I reply to the butcher My good friend if you knew it you
are paid You havent had the trouble of coming to ask for the little bill You
are paid I mean it«
»But suppose« said my guardian laughing »he had meant the meat in the
bill instead of providing it«
»My dear Jarndyce« he returned »you surprise me You take the butchers
position A butcher I once dealt with occupied that very ground Says he Sir
why did you eat spring lamb at eighteenpence a pound Why did I eat spring lamb
at eighteenpence a pound my honest friend said I naturally amazed by the
question I like spring lamb This was so far convincing Well sir says he I
wish I had meant the lamb as you mean the money My good fellow said I pray
let us reason like intellectual beings How could that be It was impossible
You had got the lamb and I have not got the money You couldnt really mean the
lamb without sending it in whereas I can and do really mean the money without
paying it He had not a word There was an end of the subject«
»Did he take no legal proceedings« inquired my guardian
»Yes he took legal proceedings« said Mr Skimpole »But in that he was
influenced by passion not by reason Passion reminds me of Boythorn He writes
me that you and the ladies have promised him a short visit at his bachelorhouse
in Lincolnshire«
»He is a great favourite with my girls« said Mr Jarndyce »and I have
promised for them«
»Nature forgot to shade him off I think« observed Mr Skimpole to Ada and
me »A little too boisterous like the sea A little too vehement like a
bull who has made up his mind to consider every colour scarlet But I grant a
sledgehammering sort of merit in him«
I should have been surprised if those two could have thought very highly of
one another; Mr Boythorn attaching so much importance to many things and Mr
Skimpole caring so little for anything Besides which I had noticed Mr
Boythorn more than once on the point of breaking out into some strong opinion
when Mr Skimpole was referred to Of course I merely joined Ada in saying that
we had been greatly pleased with him
»He has invited me« said Mr Skimpole »and if a child may trust himself in
such hands which the present child is encouraged to do with the united
tenderness of two angels to guard him I shall go He proposed to frank me down
and back again I suppose it will cost money Shillings perhaps Or pounds Or
something of that sort Bythebye Coavinses You remember our friend
Coavinses Miss Summerson«
He asked me as the subject arose in his mind in his graceful lighthearted
manner and without the least embarrassment
»O yes« said I
»Coavinses has been arrested by the great Bailiff« said Mr Skimpole »He
will never do violence to the sunshine any more«
It quite shocked me to hear it for I had already recalled with anything
but a serious association the image of the man sitting on the sofa that night
wiping his head
»His successor informed me of it yesterday« said Mr Skimpole »His
successor is in my house now in possession I think he calls it He came
yesterday on my blueeyed daughters birthday I put it to him This is
unreasonable and inconvenient If you had a blueeyed daughter you wouldnt like
me to come uninvited on her birthday But he stayed«
Mr Skimpole laughed at the pleasant absurdity and lightly touched the
piano by which he was seated
»And he told me« he said playing little chords where I shall put full
stops »That Coavinses had left Three children No mother And that Coavinses
profession Being unpopular The rising Coavinses Were at a considerable
disadvantage«
Mr Jarndyce got up rubbing his head and began to walk about Mr Skimpole
played the melody of one of Adas favourite songs Ada and I both looked at Mr
Jarndyce thinking that we knew what was passing in his mind
After walking and stopping and several times leaving off rubbing his head
and beginning again my guardian put his hand upon the keys and stopped Mr
Skimpoles playing »I dont like this Skimpole« he said thoughtfully
Mr Skimpole who had quite forgotten the subject looked up surprised
»The man was necessary« pursued my guardian walking backward and forward
in the very short space between the piano and the end of the room and rubbing
his hair up from the back of his head as if a high east wind had blown it into
that form »If we make such men necessary by our faults and follies or by our
want of worldly knowledge or by our misfortunes we must not revenge ourselves
upon them There was no harm in his trade He maintained his children One would
like to know more about this«
»O Coavinses« cried Mr Skimpole at length perceiving what he meant
»Nothing easier A walk to Coavinses headquarters and you can know what you
will«
Mr Jarndyce nodded to us who were only waiting for the signal »Come We
will walk that way my dears Why not that way as soon as another« We were
quickly ready and went out Mr Skimpole went with us and quite enjoyed the
expedition It was so new and so refreshing he said for him to want Coavinses
instead of Coavinses wanting him
He took us first to Cursitor Street Chancery Lane where there was a
house with barred windows which he called Coavinses Castle On our going into
the entry and ringing a bell a very hideous boy came out of a sort of office
and looked at us over a spiked wicket
»Who did you want« said the boy fitting two of the spikes into his chin
»There was a follower or an officer or something here« said Mr
Jarndyce »who is dead«
»Yes« said the boy »Well«
»I want to know his name if you please«
»Name of Neckett« said the boy
»And his address«
»Bell Yard« said the boy »Chandlers shop left hand side name of
Blinder«
»Was he I dont know how to shape the question« murmured my guardian
»industrious«
»Was Neckett« said the boy »Yes wery much so He was never tired of
watching Hed set upon a post at a street corner eight or ten hours at a
stretch if he undertook to do it«
»He might have done worse« I heard my guardian soliloquize »He might have
undertaken to do it and not done it Thank you Thats all I want«
We left the boy with his head on one side and his arms on the gate
fondling and sucking the spikes and went back to Lincolns Inn where Mr
Skimpole who had not cared to remain nearer Coavinses awaited us Then we all
went to Bell Yard a narrow alley at a very short distance We soon found the
chandlers shop In it was a goodnaturedlooking old woman with a dropsy or
an asthma or perhaps both
»Necketts children« said she in reply to my inquiry »Yes surely miss
Three pair if you please Door right opposite the stairs« And she handed me
the key across the counter
I glanced at the key and glanced at her but she took it for granted that
I knew what to do with it As it could only be intended for the childrens door
I came out without asking any more questions and led the way up the dark
stairs We went as quietly as we could but four of us made some noise on the
aged boards and when we came to the second story we found we had disturbed a
man who was standing there looking out of his room
»Is it Gridley thats wanted« he said fixing his eyes on me with an angry
stare
»No sir« said I »I am going higher up«
He looked at Ada and at Mr Jarndyce and at Mr Skimpole fixing the same
angry stare on each in succession as they passed and followed me Mr Jarndyce
gave him good day »Good day« he said abruptly and fiercely He was a tall
sallow man with a careworn head on which but little hair remained a deeply
lined face and prominent eyes He had a combative look and a chafing
irritable manner which associated with his figure still large and powerful
though evidently in its decline rather alarmed me He had a pen in his hand
and in the glimpse I caught of his room in passing I saw that it was covered
with a litter of papers
Leaving him standing there we went up to the top room I tapped at the
door and a little shrill voice inside said »We are locked in Mrs Blinders
got the key«
I applied the key on hearing this and opened the door In a poor room with
a sloping ceiling and containing very little furniture was a mite of a boy
some five or six years old nursing and hushing a heavy child of eighteen
months There was no fire though the weather was cold both children were
wrapped in some poor shawls and tippets as a substitute Their clothing was not
so warm however but that their noses looked red and pinched and their small
figures shrunken as the boy walked up and down nursing and hushing the child
with its head on his shoulder
»Who has locked you up here alone« we naturally asked
»Charley« said the boy standing still to gaze at us
»Is Charley your brother«
»No Shes my sister Charlotte Father called her Charley«
»Are there any more of you besides Charley«
»Me« said the boy »and Emma« patting the limp bonnet of the child he was
nursing »And Charley«
»Where is Charley now«
»Out awashing« said the boy beginning to walk up and down again and
taking the nankeen bonnet much too near the bedstead by trying to gaze at us at
the same time
We were looking at one another, and at these two children when there came
into the room a very little girl childish in figure but shrewd and
olderlooking in the face prettyfaced too wearing a womanly sort of bonnet
much too large for her and drying her bare arms on a womanly sort of apron Her
fingers were white and wrinkled with washing and the soapsuds were yet smoking
which she wiped off her arms But for this she might have been a child playing
at washing and imitating a poor workingwoman with a quick observation of the
truth
She had come running from some place in the neighbourhood and had made all
the haste she could Consequently though she was very light she was out of
breath and could not speak at first as she stood panting and wiping her arms
and looking quietly at us
»O heres Charley« said the boy
The child he was nursing stretched forth its arms and cried out to be
taken by Charley The little girl took it in a womanly sort of manner belonging
to the apron and the bonnet and stood looking at us over the burden that clung
to her most affectionately
»Is it possible« whispered my guardian as we put a chair for the little
creature and got her to sit down with her load the boy keeping close to her
holding to her apron »that this child works for the rest Look at this For
Gods sake look at this«
It was a thing to look at The three children close together and two of
them relying solely on the third and the third so young and yet with an air of
age and steadiness that sat so strangely on the childish figure
»Charley Charley« said my guardian »How old are you«
»Over thirteen sir« replied the child
»O What a great age« said my guardian »What a great age Charley«
I cannot describe the tenderness with which he spoke to her half playfully
yet all the more compassionately and mournfully
»And do you live alone here with these babies Charley« said my guardian
»Yes sir« returned the child looking up into his face with perfect
confidence »since father died«
»And how do you live Charley O Charley« said my guardian turning his
face away for a moment »how do you live«
»Since father died sir Ive gone out to work Im out washing today«
»God help you Charley« said my guardian »Youre not tall enough to reach
the tub«
»In pattens I am sir« she said quickly »Ive got a high pair as belonged
to mother«
»And when did mother die Poor mother«
»Mother died just after Emma was born« said the child glancing at the
face upon her bosom »Then father said I was to be as good a mother to her as I
could And so I tried And so I worked at home and did cleaning and nursing and
washing for a long time before I began to go out And thats how I know how
dont you see sir«
»And do you often go out«
»As often as I can« said Charley opening her eyes and smiling »because
of earning sixpences and shillings«
»And do you always lock the babies up when you go out«
»To keep em safe sir dont you see« said Charley »Mrs Blinder comes up
now and then and Mr Gridley comes up sometimes and perhaps I can run in
sometimes and they can play you know and Tom ant afraid of being locked up
are you Tom«
»Noo« said Tom stoutly
»When it comes on dark the lamps are lighted down in the court and they
show up here quite bright almost quite bright Dont they Tom«
»Yes Charley« said Tom »almost quite bright«
»Then hes as good as gold« said the little creature O in such a
motherly womanly way »And when Emmas tired he puts her to bed And when hes
tired he goes to bed himself And when I come home and light the candle and has
a bit of supper he sits up again and has it with me Dont you Tom«
»O yes Charley« said Tom »That I do« And either in this glimpse of the
great pleasure of his life or in gratitude and love for Charley who was all in
all to him he laid his face among the scanty folds of her frock and passed
from laughing into crying
It was the first time since our entry that a tear had been shed among these
children The little orphan girl had spoken of their father and their mother
as if all that sorrow were subdued by the necessity of taking courage and by
her childish importance in being able to work and by her bustling busy way
But now when Tom cried although she sat quite tranquil looking quietly at
us and did not by any movement disturb a hair of the head of either of her
little charges I saw two silent tears fall down her face
I stood at the window with Ada pretending to look at the housetops and the
blackened stack of chimneys and the poor plants and the birds in little cages
belonging to the neighbours when I found that Mrs Blinder from the shop
below had come in perhaps it had taken her all this time to get upstairs and
was talking to my guardian
»Its not much to forgive em the rent sir« she said »who could take it
from them«
»Well well« said my guardian to us two »It is enough that the time will
come when this good woman will find that it was much and that forasmuch as she
did it unto the least of these This child« he added after a few moments
»could she possibly continue this«
»Really sir I think she might« said Mrs Blinder getting her heavy
breath by painful degrees »Shes as handy as its possible to be Bless you
sir the way she tended them two children after the mother died was the talk
of the yard And it was a wonder to see her with him after he was took ill it
really was Mrs Blinder he said to me the very last he spoke he was lying
there Mrs Blinder whatever my calling may have been I see a Angel sitting
in this room last night along with my child and I trust her to Our Father«
»He had no other calling« said my guardian
»No sir« returned Mrs Blinder »he was nothing but a follerer When he
first came to lodge here I didnt know what he was and I confess that when I
found out I gave him notice It wasnt liked in the yard It wasnt approved by
the other lodgers It is not a genteel calling« said Mrs Blinder »and most
people do object to it Mr Gridley objected to it very strong and he is a
good lodger though his temper has been hard tried«
»So you gave him notice« said my guardian
»So I gave him notice« said Mrs Blinder »But really when the time came
and I knew no other ill of him I was in doubts He was punctual and diligent
he did what he had to do sir« said Mrs Blinder unconsciously fixing Mr
Skimpole with her eye »and its something in this world even to do that«
»So you kept him after all«
»Why I said that if he could arrange with Mr Gridley I could arrange it
with the other lodgers and should not so much mind its being liked or disliked
in the yard Mr Gridley gave his consent gruff but gave it He was always
gruff with him but he has been kind to the children since A person is never
known till a person is proved«
»Have many people been kind to the children« asked Mr Jarndyce
»Upon the whole not so bad sir« said Mrs Blinder »but certainly not so
many as would have been if their fathers calling had been different Mr
Coavins gave a guinea and the follerers made up a little purse Some neighbours
in the yard that had always joked and tapped their shoulders when he went by
came forward with a little subscription and in general not so bad
Similarly with Charlotte Some people wont employ her because she was a
follerers child some people that do employ her cast it at her some make a
merit of having her to work for them with that and all her drawbacks upon her
and perhaps pay her less and put upon her more But shes patienter than others
would be and is clever too and always willing up to the full mark of her
strength and over So I should say in general not so bad sir but might be
better«
Mrs Blinder sat down to give herself a more favourable opportunity of
recovering her breath exhausted anew by so much talking before it was fully
restored Mr Jarndyce was turning to speak to us when his attention was
attracted by the abrupt entrance into the room of the Mr Gridley who had been
mentioned and whom we had seen on our way up
»I dont know what you may be doing here ladies and gentlemen« he said as
if he resented our presence »but youll excuse my coming in I dont come in to
stare about me Well Charley Well Tom Well little one How is it with us
all today«
He bent over the group in a caressing way and clearly was regarded as a
friend by the children though his face retained its stern character and his
manner to us was as rude as it could be My guardian noticed it and respected
it
»No one surely would come here to stare about him« he said mildly
»May be so sir may be so« returned the other taking Tom upon his knee
and waving him off impatiently »I dont want to argue with ladies and
gentlemen I have had enough of arguing to last one man his life«
»You have sufficient reason I dare say« said Mr Jarndyce »for being
chafed and irritated «
»There again« exclaimed the man becoming violently angry »I am of a
quarrelsome temper I am irascible I am not polite«
»Not very I think«
»Sir« said Gridley putting down the child and going up to him as if he
meant to strike him »Do you know anything of Courts of Equity«
»Perhaps I do to my sorrow«
»To your sorrow« said the man pausing in his wrath »If so I beg your
pardon I am not polite I know I beg your pardon Sir« with renewed violence
»I have been dragged for fiveandtwenty years over burning iron and I have
lost the habit of treading upon velvet Go into the Court of Chancery yonder
and ask what is one of the standing jokes that brighten up their business
sometimes and they will tell you that the best joke they have is the man from
Shropshire I« he said beating one hand on the other passionately »am the
man from Shropshire«
»I believe I and my family have also had the honour of furnishing some
entertainment in the same grave place« said my guardian composedly »You may
have heard my name Jarndyce«
»Mr Jarndyce« said Gridley with a rough sort of salutation »you bear
your wrongs more quietly than I can bear mine More than that I tell you and
I tell this gentleman and these young ladies if they are friends of yours
that if I took my wrongs in any other way I should be driven mad It is only by
resenting them and by revenging them in my mind and by angrily demanding the
justice I never get that I am able to keep my wits together It is only that«
he said speaking in a homely rustic way and with great vehemence »You may
tell me that I overexcite myself I answer that its in my nature to do it
under wrong and I must do it Theres nothing between doing it and sinking
into the smiling state of the poor little mad woman that haunts the Court If I
was once to sit down under it I should become imbecile«
The passion and heat in which he was and the manner in which his face
worked and the violent gestures with which he accompanied what he said were
most painful to see
»Mr Jarndyce« he said »consider my case As true as there is a Heaven
above us this is my case I am one of two brothers My father a farmer made a
will and left his farm and stock and so forth to my mother for her life
After my mothers death all was to come to me except a legacy of three hundred
pounds that I was then to pay my brother My mother died My brother some time
afterwards claimed his legacy I and some of my relations said that he had
had a part of it already in board and lodging and some other things Now mind
That was the question and nothing else No one disputed the will no one
disputed anything but whether part of that three hundred pounds had been already
paid or not To settle that question my brother filing a bill I was obliged to
go into this accursed Chancery I was forced there because the law forced me
and would let me go nowhere else Seventeen people were made defendants to that
simple suit It first came on after two years It was then stopped for another
two years while the Master may his head rot off inquired whether I was my
fathers son about which there was no dispute at all with any mortal
creature He then found out that there were not defendants enough remember
there were only seventeen as yet but that we must have another who had been
left out and must begin all over again The costs at that time before the
thing was begun were three times the legacy My brother would have given up
the legacy and joyful to escape more costs My whole estate left to me in
that will of my fathers has gone in costs The suit still undecided has
fallen into rack and ruin and despair with everything else and here I
stand this day Now Mr Jarndyce in your suit there are thousands and
thousands involved where in mine there are hundreds Is mine less hard to bear
or is it harder to bear when my whole living was in it and has been thus
shamefully sucked away«
Mr Jarndyce said that he condoled with him with all his heart and that he
set up no monopoly himself in being unjustly treated by this monstrous system
»There again« said Mr Gridley with no diminution of his rage »The
system I am told on all hands its the system I mustnt look to individuals
Its the system I mustnt go into Court and say My Lord I beg to know this
from you is this right or wrong Have you the face to tell me I have received
justice and therefore am dismissed My Lord knows nothing of it He sits there
to administer the system I mustnt go to Mr Tulkinghorn the solicitor in
Lincolns Inn Fields and say to him when he makes me furious by being so cool
and satisfied as they all do for I know they gain by it while I lose dont
I I mustnt say to him I will have something out of some one for my ruin by
fair means or foul He is not responsible Its the system But if I do no
violence to any of them here I may I dont know what may happen if I am
carried beyond myself at last I will accuse the individual workers of that
system against me face to face before the great eternal bar«
His passion was fearful I could not have believed in such rage without
seeing it
»I have done« he said sitting down and wiping his face »Mr Jarndyce I
have done I am violent I know I ought to know it I have been in prison for
contempt of Court I have been in prison for threatening the solicitor I have
been in this trouble and that trouble and shall be again I am the man from
Shropshire and I sometimes go beyond amusing them though they have found it
amusing too to see me committed into custody and brought up in custody and
all that It would be better for me they tell me if I restrained myself I
tell them that if I did restrain myself I should become imbecile I was a
goodenoughtempered man once I believe People in my part of the country say
they remember me so but now I must have this vent under my sense of injury
or nothing could hold my wits together It would be far better for you Mr
Gridley the Lord Chancellor told me last week not to waste your time here and
to stay usefully employed down in Shropshire My Lord my Lord I know it
would said I to him and it would have been far better for me never to have
heard the name of your high office but unhappily for me I cant undo the
past and the past drives me here Besides« he added breaking fiercely out
»Ill shame them To the last Ill show myself in that Court to its shame If I
knew when I was going to die and could be carried there and had a voice to
speak with I would die there saying You have brought me here and sent me
from here many and many a time Now send me out feet foremost«
His countenance had perhaps for years become so set in its contentious
expression that it did not soften even now when he was quiet
»I came to take these babies down to my room for an hour« he said going to
them again »and let them play about I didnt mean to say all this but it
dont much signify Youre not afraid of me Tom are you«
»No« said Tom »You aint angry with me«
»You are right my child Youre going back Charley Aye Come then little
one« He took the youngest child on his arm where she was willing enough to be
carried »I shouldnt wonder if we found a gingerbread soldier downstairs
Lets go and look for him«
He made his former rough salutation which was not deficient in a certain
respect to Mr Jarndyce and bowing slightly to us went downstairs to his
room
Upon that Mr Skimpole began to talk for the first time since our arrival
in his usual gay strain He said Well it was really very pleasant to see how
things lazily adapted themselves to purposes Here was this Mr Gridley a man
of a robust will and surprising energy intellectually speaking a sort of
inharmonious blacksmith and he could easily imagine that there Gridley was
years ago wandering about in life for something to expend his superfluous
combativeness upon a sort of Young Love among the thorns when the Court of
Chancery came in his way and accommodated him with the exact thing he wanted
There they were matched ever afterwards Otherwise he might have been a great
general blowing up all sorts of towns or he might have been a great
politician dealing in all sorts of parliamentary rhetoric but as it was he
and the Court of Chancery had fallen upon each other in the pleasantest way and
nobody was much the worse and Gridley was so to speak from that hour provided
for Then look at Coavinses How delightfully poor Coavinses father of these
charming children illustrated the same principle He Mr Skimpole himself
had sometimes repined at the existence of Coavinses He had found Coavinses in
his way He could have dispensed with Coavinses There had been times when if
he had been a Sultan and his Grand Vizier had said one morning »What does the
Commander of the Faithful require at the hands of his slave« he might have even
gone so far as to reply »The head of Coavinses« But what turned out to be the
case That all that time he had been giving employment to a most deserving
man that he had been a benefactor to Coavinses that he had actually been
enabling Coavinses to bring up these charming children in this agreeable way
developing these social virtues Insomuch that his heart had just now swelled
and the tears had come into his eyes when he had looked round the room and
thought »I was the great patron of Coavinses and his little comforts were my
work«
There was something so captivating in his light way of touching these
fantastic strings and he was such a mirthful child by the side of the graver
childhood we had seen that he made my guardian smile even as he turned towards
us from a little private talk with Mrs Blinder We kissed Charley and took her
downstairs with us and stopped outside the house to see her run away to her
work I dont know where she was going but we saw her run such a little
little creature in her womanly bonnet and apron through a covered way at the
bottom of the court and melt into the citys strife and sound like a dewdrop
in an ocean
Chapter XVI
TomallAlones
My Lady Dedlock is restless very restless The astonished fashionable
intelligence hardly knows where to have her Today she is at Chesney Wold
yesterday she was at her house in town tomorrow she may be abroad for
anything the fashionable intelligence can with confidence predict Even Sir
Leicesters gallantry has some trouble to keep pace with her It would have
more but that his other faithful ally for better and for worse the gout
darts into the old oak bedchamber at Chesney Wold and grips him by both legs
Sir Leicester receives the gout as a troublesome demon but still a demon of
the patrician order All the Dedlocks in the direct male line through a course
of time during and beyond which the memory of man goeth not to the contrary
have had the gout It can be proved sir Other mens fathers may have died of
the rheumatism or may have taken base contagion from the tainted blood of the
sick vulgar but the Dedlock family have communicated something exclusive even
to the levelling process of dying by dying of their own family gout It has
come down through the illustrious line like the plate or the pictures or the
place in Lincolnshire It is among their dignities Sir Leicester is perhaps
not wholly without an impression though he has never resolved it into words
that the angel of death in the discharge of his necessary duties may observe to
the shades of the aristocracy »My lords and gentlemen I have the honour to
present to you another Dedlock certified to have arrived per the family gout«
Hence Sir Leicester yields up his family legs to the family disorder as if
he held his name and fortune on that feudal tenure He feels that for a Dedlock
to be laid upon his back and spasmodically twitched and stabbed in his
extremities is a liberty taken somewhere but he thinks »We have all yielded
to this it belongs to us it has for some hundreds of years been understood
that we are not to make the vaults in the park interesting on more ignoble
terms and I submit myself to the compromise«
And a goodly show he makes lying in a flush of crimson and gold in the
midst of the great drawingroom before his favourite picture of my Lady with
broad strips of sunlight shining in down the long perspective through the long
line of windows and alternating with soft reliefs of shadow Outside the
stately oaks rooted for ages in the green ground which has never known
ploughshare but was still a Chase when kings rode to battle with sword and
shield and rode ahunting with bow and arrow bear witness to his greatness
Inside his forefathers looking on him from the walls say »Each of us was a
passing reality here and left this coloured shadow of himself and melted into
remembrance as dreamy as the distant voices of the rooks now lulling you to
rest« and bear their testimony to his greatness too And he is very great
this day And woe to Boythorn or other daring wight who shall presumptuously
contest an inch with him
My Lady is at present represented near Sir Leicester by her portrait She
has flitted away to town with no intention of remaining there and will soon
flit hither again to the confusion of the fashionable intelligence The house
in town is not prepared for her reception It is muffled and dreary Only one
Mercury in powder gapes disconsolate at the hallwindow and he mentioned last
night to another Mercury of his acquaintance also accustomed to good society
that if that sort of thing was to last which it couldnt for a man of his
spirits couldnt bear it and a man of his figure couldnt be expected to bear
it there would be no resource for him upon his honour but to cut his throat
What connexion can there be between the place in Lincolnshire the house in
town the Mercury in powder and the whereabout of Jo the outlaw with the broom
who had that distant ray of light upon him when he swept the churchyardstep
What connexion can there have been between many people in the innumerable
histories of this world who from opposite sides of great gulfs have
nevertheless been very curiously brought together
Jo sweeps his crossing all day long unconscious of the link if any link
there be He sums up his mental condition when asked a question by replying
that he »dont know nothink« He knows that its hard to keep the mud off the
crossing in dirty weather and harder still to live by doing it Nobody taught
him even that much he found it out
Jo lives that is to say Jo has not yet died in a ruinous place known
to the like of him by the name of TomallAlones It is a black dilapidated
street avoided by all decent people where the crazy houses were seized upon
when their decay was far advanced by some bold vagrants who after
establishing their own possession took to letting them out in lodgings Now
these tumbling tenements contain by night a swarm of misery As on the ruined
human wretch vermin parasites appear so these ruined shelters have bred a
crowd of foul existence that crawls in and out of gaps in walls and boards and
coils itself to sleep in maggot numbers where the rain drips in and comes and
goes fetching and carrying fever and sowing more evil in its every footprint
than Lord Coodle and Sir Thomas Doodle and the Duke of Foodle and all the
fine gentlemen in office down to Zoodle shall set right in five hundred years
though born expressly to do it
Twice lately there has been a crash and a cloud of dust like the
springing of a mine in TomallAlones and each time a house has fallen
These accidents have made a paragraph in the newspapers and have filled a bed
or two in the nearest hospital The gaps remain and there are not unpopular
lodgings among the rubbish As several more houses are nearly ready to go the
next crash in TomallAlones may be expected to be a good one
This desirable property is in Chancery of course It would be an insult to
the discernment of any man with half an eye to tell him so Whether Tom is the
popular representative of the original plaintiff or defendant in Jarndyce and
Jarndyce or whether Tom lived here when the suit had laid the street waste
all alone until other settlers came to join him or whether the traditional
title is a comprehensive name for a retreat cut off from honest company and put
out of the pale of hope perhaps nobody knows Certainly Jo dont know
»For I dont« says Jo »I dont know nothink«
It must be a strange state to be like Jo To shuffle through the streets
unfamiliar with the shapes and in utter darkness as to the meaning of those
mysterious symbols so abundant over the shops and at the corners of streets
and on the doors and in the windows To see people read and to see people
write and to see the postmen deliver letters and not to have the least idea of
all that language to be to every scrap of it stone blind and dumb It must
be very puzzling to see the good company going to the churches on Sundays with
their books in their hands and to think for perhaps Jo does think at odd
times what does it all mean and if it means anything to anybody how comes it
that it means nothing to me To be hustled and jostled and moved on and
really to feel that it would appear to be perfectly true that I have no
business here or there or anywhere and yet to be perplexed by the
consideration that I am here somehow too and everybody overlooked me until I
became the creature that I am It must be a strange state not merely to be told
that I am scarcely human as in the case of my offering myself for a witness
but to feel it of my own knowledge all my life To see the horses dogs and
cattle go by me and to know that in ignorance I belong to them and not to the
superior beings in my shape whose delicacy I offend Jos ideas of a Criminal
Trial or a Judge or a Bishop or a Government or that inestimable jewel to
him if he only knew it the Constitution should be strange His whole material
and immaterial life is wonderfully strange his death the strangest thing of
all
Jo comes out of TomallAlones meeting the tardy morning which is always
late in getting down there and munches his dirty bit of bread as he comes
along His way lying through many streets and the houses not yet being open he
sits down to breakfast on the doorstep of the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in Foreign Parts and gives it a brush when he has finished as an
acknowledgment of the accommodation He admires the size of the edifice and
wonders what its all about He has no idea poor wretch of the spiritual
destitution of a coral reef in the Pacific or what it costs to look up the
precious souls among the cocoanuts and breadfruit
He goes to his crossing and begins to lay it out for the day The town
awakes the great teetotum is set up for its daily spin and whirl all that
unaccountable reading and writing which has been suspended for a few hours
recommences Jo and the other lower animals get on in the unintelligible mess
as they can It is marketday The blinded oxen overgoaded overdriven never
guided run into wrong places and are beaten out and plunge redeyed and
foaming at stone walls and often sorely hurt the innocent and often sorely
hurt themselves Very like Jo and his order very very like
A band of music comes and plays Jo listens to it So does a dog a
drovers dog waiting for his master outside a butchers shop and evidently
thinking about those sheep he has had upon his mind for some hours and is
happily rid of He seems perplexed respecting three or four cant remember
where he left them looks up and down the street as half expecting to see them
astray suddenly pricks up his ears and remembers all about it A thoroughly
vagabond dog accustomed to low company and publichouses a terrific dog to
sheep ready at a whistle to scamper over their backs and tear out mouthfuls of
their wool but an educated improved developed dog who has been taught his
duties and knows how to discharge them He and Jo listen to the music probably
with much the same amount of animal satisfaction likewise as to awakened
association aspiration or regret melancholy or joyful reference to things
beyond the senses, they are probably upon a par But otherwise how far above
the human listener is the brute
Turn that dogs descendants wild like Jo and in a very few years they will
so degenerate that they will lose even their bark but not their bite
The day changes as it wears itself away and becomes dark and drizzly Jo
fights it out at his crossing among the mud and wheels the horses whips and
umbrellas and gets but a scanty sum to pay for the unsavoury shelter of
TomallAlones Twilight comes on gas begins to start up in the shops the
lamplighter with his ladder runs along the margin of the pavement A wretched
evening is beginning to close in
In his chambers Mr Tulkinghorn sits meditating an application to the
nearest magistrate tomorrow morning for a warrant Gridley a disappointed
suitor has been here today and has been alarming We are not to be put in
bodily fear and that illconditioned fellow shall be held to bail again From
the ceiling foreshortened Allegory in the person of one impossible Roman
upside down points with the arm of Samson out of joint and an odd one
obtrusively towards the window Why should Mr Tulkinghorn for such no reason
look out of window Is the hand not always pointing there So he does not look
out of window
And if he did what would it be to see a woman going by There are women
enough in the world Mr Tulkinghorn thinks too many they are at the bottom
of all that goes wrong in it though for the matter of that they create
business for lawyers What would it be to see a woman going by even though she
were going secretly They are all secret Mr Tulkinghorn knows that very well
But they are not all like the woman who now leaves him and his house behind
between whose plain dress and her refined manner there is something
exceedingly inconsistent She should be an upper servant by her attire yet in
her air and step though both are hurried and assumed as far as she can assume
in the muddy streets which she treads with an unaccustomed foot she is a
lady Her face is veiled and still she sufficiently betrays herself to make
more than one of those who pass her look round sharply
She never turns her head Lady or servant she has a purpose in her and can
follow it She never turns her head until she comes to the crossing where Jo
plies with his broom He crosses with her and begs Still she does not turn
her head until she has landed on the other side Then she slightly beckons to
him and says »Come here«
Jo follows her a pace or two into a quiet court
»Are you the boy Ive read of in the papers« she asked behind her veil
»I dont know« says Jo staring moodily at the veil »nothink about no
papers I dont know nothink about nothink at all«
»Were you examined at an Inquest«
»I dont know nothink about no where I was took by the beadle do you
mean« says Jo »Was the boys name at the Inkwhich Jo«
»Yes«
»Thats me« says Jo
»Come farther up«
»You mean about the man« says Jo following »Him as wos dead«
»Hush Speak in a whisper Yes Did he look when he was living so very ill
and poor«
»O jist« say Jo
»Did he look like not like you« says the woman with abhorrence
»O not so bad as me« says Jo »Im a reglar one I am You didnt know him
did you«
»How dare you ask me if I knew him«
»No offence my lady« says Jo with much humility for even he has got at
the suspicion of her being a lady
»I am not a lady I am a servant«
»You are a jolly servant« says Jo without the least idea of saying
anything offensive merely as a tribute of admiration
»Listen and be silent Dont talk to me and stand farther from me Can you
show me all those places that were spoken of in the account I read The place he
wrote for the place he died at the place where you were taken to and the
place where he was buried Do you know the place where he was buried«
Jo answers with a nod having also nodded as each other place was mentioned
»Go before me and show me all those dreadful places Stop opposite to each
and dont speak to me unless I speak to you Dont look back Do what I want
and I will pay you well«
Jo attends closely while the words are being spoken tells them off on his
broomhandle finding them rather hard pauses to consider their meaning
considers it satisfactory and nods his ragged head
»Im fly« says Jo »But fen larks you know Stow hooking it«
»What does the horrible creature mean« exclaims the servant recoiling from
him
»Stow cutting away you know« says Jo
»I dont understand you Go on before I will give you more money than you
ever had in your life«
Jo screws up his mouth into a whistle gives his ragged head a rub takes
his broom under his arm and leads the way passing deftly with his bare feet
over the hard stones and through the mud and mire
Cooks Court Jo stops A pause
»Who lives here«
»Him wot give him his writing and give me half a bull« says Jo in a
whisper without looking over his shoulder
»Go on to the next«
Krooks house Jo stops again A longer pause
»Who lives here«
»He lived here« Jo answers as before
After a silence he is asked »In which room«
»In the back room up there You can see the winder from this corner Up
there Thats where I see him stritched out This is the public ouse where I was
took to«
»Go on to the next«
It is a longer walk to the next but Jo relieved of his first suspicions
sticks to the forms imposed upon him and does not look round By many devious
ways reeking with offence of many kinds they come to the little tunnel of a
court and to the gaslamp lighted now and to the iron gate
»He was put there« says Jo holding to the bars and looking in
»Where O what a scene of horror«
»There« says Jo pointing »Over yinder Among them piles of bones and
close to that there kitchin winder They put him wery nigh the top They was
obliged to stamp upon it to git it in I could unkiver it for you with my broom
if the gate was open Thats why they locks it I spose« giving it a shake
»Its always locked Look at the rat« cries Jo excited »Hi Look There he
goes Ho Into the ground«
The servant shrinks into a corner into a corner of that hideous archway
with its deadly stains contaminating her dress and putting out her two hands
and passionately telling him to keep away from her for he is loathsome to her
so remains for some moments Jo stands staring and is still staring when she
recovers herself
»Is this place of abomination consecrated ground«
»I dont know nothink of consequential ground« says Jo still staring
»Is it blessed«
»WHICH« says Jo in the last degree amazed
»Is it blessed«
»Im blest if I know« says Jo staring more than ever »but I shouldnt
think it warnt Blest« repeats Jo something troubled in his mind »It ant
done it much good if it is Blest I should think it was tothered myself But I
dont know nothink«
The servant takes as little heed of what he says as she seems to take of
what she has said herself She draws off her glove to get some money from her
purse Jo silently notices how white and small her hand is and what a jolly
servant she must be to wear such sparkling rings
She drops a piece of money in his hand without touching it and shuddering
as their hands approach »Now« she adds »show me the spot again«
Jo thrusts the handle of his broom between the bars of the gate and with
his utmost power of elaboration points it out At length looking aside to see
if he has made himself intelligible he finds that he is alone
His first proceeding is to hold the piece of money to the gaslight and
to be overpowered at finding that it is yellow gold His next is to give it
a onesided bite at the edge as a test of its quality His next to put it in
his mouth for safety and to sweep the step and passage with great care His job
done he sets off for TomallAlones stopping in the light of innumerable
gaslamps to produce the piece of gold and give it another onesided bite as a
reassurance of its being genuine
The Mercury in powder is in no want of society tonight for my Lady goes to
a grand dinner and three or four balls Sir Leicester is fidgety down at
Chesney Wold with no better company than the gout he complains to Mrs
Rouncewell that the rain makes such a monotonous pattering on the terrace that
he cant read the paper even by the fireside in his own snug dressingroom
»Sir Leicester would have done better to try the other side of the house my
dear« says Mrs Rouncewell to Rosa »His dressingroom is on my Ladys side
And in all these years I never heard the step upon the Ghosts Walk more
distinct than it is tonight«
Chapter XVII
Esthers Narrative
Richard very often came to see us while we remained in London though he soon
failed in his letterwriting and with his quick abilities his good spirits
his good temper his gaiety and freshness was always delightful But though I
liked him more and more the better I knew him I still felt more and more how
much it was to be regretted that he had been educated in no habits of
application and concentration The system which had addressed him in exactly the
same manner as it had addressed hundreds of other boys all varying in character
and capacity had enabled him to dash through his tasks always with fair
credit and often with distinction but in a fitful dazzling way that had
confirmed his reliance on those very qualities in himself which it had been
most desirable to direct and train They were good qualities without which no
high place can be meritoriously won but like fire and water though excellent
servants they were very bad masters If they had been under Richards
direction they would have been his friends but Richard being under their
direction they became his enemies
I write down these opinions not because I believe that this or any other
thing was so because I thought so but only because I did think so and I want
to be quite candid about all I thought and did These were my thoughts about
Richard I thought I often observed besides how right my guardian was in what
he had said and that the uncertainties and delays of the Chancery suit had
imparted to his nature something of the careless spirit of a gamester who felt
that he was part of a great gaming system
Mr and Mrs Bayham Badger coming one afternoon when my guardian was not at
home in the course of conversation I naturally inquired after Richard
»Why Mr Carstone« said Mrs Badger »is very well and is I assure you
a great acquisition to our society Captain Swosser used to say of me that I was
always better than land ahead and a breeze astarn to the midshipmens mess
when the pursers junk had become as tough as the foretopsel weather earrings
It was his naval way of mentioning generally that I was an acquisition to any
society I may render the same tribute I am sure to Mr Carstone But I you
wont think me premature if I mention it«
I said no as Mrs Badgers insinuating tone seemed to require such an
answer
»Nor Miss Clare« said Mrs Bayham Badger sweetly
Ada said no too and looked uneasy
»Why you see my dears« said Mrs Badger »youll excuse me calling you
my dears«
We entreated Mrs Badger not to mention it
»Because you really are if I may take the liberty of saying so« pursued
Mrs Badger »so perfectly charming You see my dears that although I am still
young or Mr Bayham Badger pays me the compliment of saying so «
»No« Mr Badger called out like some one contradicting at a public
meeting »Not at all«
»Very well« smiled Mrs Badger »we will say still young«
»Undoubtedly« said Mr Badger
»My dears though still young I have had many opportunities of observing
young men There were many such on board the dear old Crippler I assure you
After that when I was with Captain Swosser in the Mediterranean I embraced
every opportunity of knowing and befriending the midshipmen under Captain
Swossers command You never heard them called the young gentlemen my dears
and probably would not understand allusions to their pipeclaying their weekly
accounts but it is otherwise with me for blue water has been a second home to
me and I have been quite a sailor Again with Professor Dingo«
»A man of European reputation« murmured Mr Badger
»When I lost my dear first and became the wife of my dear second« said
Mrs Badger speaking of her former husbands as if they were parts of a charade
»I still enjoyed opportunities of observing youth The class attendant on
Professor Dingos lectures was a large one and it became my pride as the wife
of an eminent scientific man seeking herself in science the utmost consolation
it could impart to throw our house open to the students as a kind of
Scientific Exchange Every Tuesday evening there was lemonade and a mixed
biscuit for all who chose to partake of those refreshments And there was
science to an unlimited extent«
»Remarkable assemblies those Miss Summerson« said Mr Badger
reverentially »There must have been great intellectual friction going on there
under the auspices of such a man«
»And now« pursued Mrs Badger »now that I am the wife of my dear third
Mr Badger I still pursue those habits of observation which were formed during
the lifetime of Captain Swosser and adapted to new and unexpected purposes
during the lifetime of Professor Dingo I therefore have not come to the
consideration of Mr Carstone as a Neophyte And yet I am very much of the
opinion my dears that he has not chosen his profession advisedly«
Ada looked so very anxious now that I asked Mrs Badger on what she founded
her supposition
»My dear Miss Summerson« she replied »on Mr Carstones character and
conduct He is of such a very easy disposition that probably he would never
think it worth while to mention how he really feels but he feels languid about
the profession He has not that positive interest in it which makes it his
vocation If he has any decided impression in reference to it I should say it
was that it is a tiresome pursuit Now this is not promising Young men like
Mr Allan Woodcourt who take it from a strong interest in all that it can do
will find some reward in it through a great deal of work for a very little
money and through years of considerable endurance and disappointment But I am
quite convinced that this would never be the case with Mr Carstone«
»Does Mr Badger think so too« asked Ada timidly
»Why« said Mr Badger »to tell the truth Miss Clare this view of the
matter had not occurred to me until Mrs Badger mentioned it But when Mrs
Badger put it in that light I naturally gave great consideration to it knowing
that Mrs Badgers mind in addition to its natural advantages has had the rare
advantage of being formed by two such very distinguished I will even say
illustrious public men as Captain Swosser of the Royal Navy and Professor
Dingo The conclusion at which I have arrived is in short is Mrs Badgers
conclusion«
»It was a maxim of Captain Swossers« said Mrs Badger »speaking in his
figurative naval manner that when you make pitch hot you cannot make it too
hot and that if you only have to swab a plank you should swab it as if Davy
Jones were after you It appears to me that this maxim is applicable to the
medical as well as to the nautical profession«
»To all professions« observed Mr Badger »It was admirably said by Captain
Swosser Beautifully said«
»People objected to Professor Dingo when we were staying in the North of
Devon after our marriage« said Mrs Badger »that he disfigured some of the
houses and other buildings by chipping off fragments of those edifices with his
little geological hammer But the Professor replied that he knew of no
building save the Temple of Science. The principle is the same I think«
»Precisely the same« said Mr Badger »Finely expressed The Professor made
the same remark Miss Summerson in his last illness when his mind wandering
he insisted on keeping his little hammer under the pillow and chipping at the
countenances of the attendants The ruling passion«
Although we could have dispensed with the length at which Mr and Mrs
Badger pursued the conversation we both felt that it was disinterested in them
to express the opinion they had communicated to us and that there was a great
probability of its being sound We agreed to say nothing to Mr Jarndyce until
we had spoken to Richard and as he was coming next evening we resolved to
have a very serious talk with him
So after he had been a little while with Ada I went in and found my
darling as I knew she would be prepared to consider him thoroughly right in
whatever he said
»And how do you get on Richard« said I I always sat down on the other
side of him He made quite a sister of me
»O well enough« said Richard
»He cant say better than that Esther can he« cried my pet triumphantly
I tried to look at my pet in the wisest manner but of course I couldnt
»Well enough« I repeated
»Yes« said Richard »well enough Its rather jogtrotty and humdrum But
itll do as well as anything else«
»O my dear Richard« I remonstrated
»Whats the matter« said Richard
»Do as well as anything else«
»I dont think theres any harm in that Dame Durden« said Ada looking so
confidingly at me across him »because if it will do as well as anything else
it will do very well I hope«
»O yes I hope so« returned Richard carelessly tossing his hair from his
forehead »After all it may be only a kind of probation till our suit is I
forgot though I am not to mention the suit Forbidden ground O yes its all
right enough Let us talk about something else«
Ada would have done so willingly and with a full persuasion that we had
brought the question to a most satisfactory state But I thought it would be
useless to stop there so I began again
»No but Richard« said I »and my dear Ada Consider how important it is
to you both and what a point of honour it is towards your cousin that you
Richard should be quite in earnest without any reservation I think we had
better talk about this really Ada It will be too late very soon«
»O yes We must talk about it« said Ada »But I think Richard is right«
What was the use of my trying to look wise when she was so pretty and so
engaging and so fond of him
»Mr and Mrs Badger were here yesterday Richard« said I »and they seemed
disposed to think that you had no great liking for the profession«
»Did they though« said Richard »O Well that rather alters the case
because I had no idea that they thought so and I should not have liked to
disappoint or inconvenience them The fact is I dont care much about it But
O it dont matter Itll do as well as anything else«
»You hear him Ada« said I
»The fact is« Richard proceeded half thoughtfully and half jocosely »it
is not quite in my way I dont take to it And I get too much of Mrs Bayham
Badgers first and second«
»I am sure thats very natural« cried Ada quite delighted »The very thing
we both said yesterday Esther«
»Then« pursued Richard »its monotonous and today is too like yesterday
and tomorrow is too like today«
»But I am afraid« said I »this is an objection to all kinds of application
to life itself except under some very uncommon circumstances«
»Do you think so« returned Richard still considering »Perhaps Ha Why
then you know« he added suddenly becoming gay again »we travel outside a
circle to what I said just now Itll do as well as anything else O its all
right enough Let us talk about something else«
But even Ada with her loving face and if it had seemed innocent and
trusting when I first saw it in that memorable November fog how much more did
it seem now when I knew her innocent and trusting heart even Ada shook her
head at this and looked serious So I thought it a good opportunity to hint to
Richard that if he were sometimes a little careless of himself I was very sure
he never meant to be careless of Ada and that it was a part of his affectionate
consideration for her not to slight the importance of a step that might
influence both their lives This made him almost grave
»My dear Mother Hubbard« he said »thats the very thing I have thought of
that several times and have been quite angry with myself for meaning to be so
much in earnest and somehow not exactly being so I dont know how it is I
seem to want something or other to stand by Even you have no idea how fond I am
of Ada my darling cousin I love you so much but I dont settle down to
constancy in other things Its such uphill work and it takes such a time«
said Richard with an air of vexation
»That may be« I suggested »because you dont like what you have chosen«
»Poor fellow« said Ada »I am sure I dont wonder at it«
No It was not of the least use my trying to look wise I tried again but
how could I do it or how could it have any effect if I could while Ada rested
her clasped hands upon his shoulder and while he looked at her tender blue
eyes and while they looked at him
»You see my precious girl« said Richard passing her golden curls through
and through his hand »I was a little hasty perhaps or I misunderstood my own
inclinations perhaps They dont seem to lie in that direction I couldnt
tell till I tried Now the question is whether its worth while to undo all
that has been done It seems like making a great disturbance about nothing
particular«
»My dear Richard« said I »how can you say about nothing particular«
»I dont mean absolutely that« he returned »I mean that it may be nothing
particular because I may never want it«
Both Ada and I urged in reply not only that it was decidedly worth while
to undo what had been done but that it must be undone I then asked Richard
whether he had thought of any more congenial pursuit
»There my dear Mrs Shipton« said Richard »you touch me home Yes I
have I have been thinking that the law is the boy for me«
»The law« repeated Ada as if she were afraid of the name
»If I went into Kenges office« said Richard »and if I were placed under
articles to Kenge I should have my eye on the hum the forbidden ground
and should be able to study it and master it and to satisfy myself that it was
not neglected and was being properly conducted I should be able to look after
Adas interests and my own interests the same thing and I should peg away
at Blackstone and all those fellows with the most tremendous ardour«
I was not by any means so sure of that and I saw how his hankering after
the vague things yet to come of those longdeferred hopes cast a shade on Adas
face But I thought it best to encourage him in any project of continuous
exertion and only advised him to be quite sure that his mind was made up now
»My dear Minerva« said Richard »I am as steady as you are I made a
mistake we are all liable to mistakes I wont do so any more and Ill become
such a lawyer as is not often seen That is you know« said Richard relapsing
into doubt »if it really is worth while after all to make such a disturbance
about nothing particular«
This led to our saying again with a great deal of gravity all that we had
said already and to our coming to much the same conclusion afterwards But we
so strongly advised Richard to be frank and open with Mr Jarndyce without a
moments delay and his disposition was naturally so opposed to concealment
that he sought him out at once taking us with him and made a full avowal
»Rick« said my guardian after hearing him attentively »we can retreat with
honour and we will But we must be careful for our cousins sake Rick for
our cousins sake that we make no more such mistakes Therefore in the matter
of the law we will have a good trial before we decide We will look before we
leap and take plenty of time about it«
Richards energy was of such ah impatient and fitful kind that he would
have liked nothing better than to have gone to Mr Kenges office in that hour
and to have entered into articles with him on the spot Submitting however
with a good grace to the caution that we had shown to be so necessary he
contented himself with sitting down among us in his lightest spirits and
talking as if his one unvarying purpose in life from childhood had been that one
which now held possession of him My guardian was very kind and cordial with
him but rather grave enough so to cause Ada when he had departed and we were
going upstairs to bed to say
»Cousin John I hope you dont think the worse of Richard«
»No my love« said he
»Because it was very natural that Richard should be mistaken in such a
difficult case It is not uncommon«
»No no my love« said he »Dont look unhappy«
»O I am not unhappy cousin John« said Ada smiling cheerfully with her
hand upon his shoulder where she had put it in bidding him good night »But I
should be a little so if you thought at all the worse of Richard«
»My dear« said Mr Jarndyce »I should think the worse of him only if you
were ever in the least unhappy through his means I should be more disposed to
quarrel with myself even then than with poor Rick for I brought you together
But tut all this is nothing He has time before him and the race to run I
think the worse of him Not I my loving cousin And not you I swear«
»No indeed cousin John« said Ada »I am sure I could not I am sure I
would not think any ill of Richard if the whole world did I could and I
would think better of him then than at any other time«
So quietly and honestly she said it with her hands upon his shoulders
both hands now and looking up into his face like the picture of Truth
»I think« said my guardian thoughtfully regarding her »I think it must be
somewhere written that the virtues of the mothers shall occasionally be
visited on the children as well as the sins of the fathers Good night my
rosebud Good night little woman Pleasant slumbers Happy dreams«
This was the first time I ever saw him follow Ada with his eyes with
something of a shadow on their benevolent expression I well remembered the look
with which he had contemplated her and Richard when she was singing in the
firelight it was but a very little while since he had watched them passing
down the room in which the sun was shining and away into the shade but his
glance was changed and even the silent look of confidence in me which now
followed it once more was not quite so hopeful and untroubled as it had
originally been
Ada praised Richard more to me that night than ever she had praised him
yet She went to sleep with a little bracelet he had given her clasped upon her
arm I fancied she was dreaming of him when I kissed her cheek after she had
slept an hour and saw how tranquil and happy she looked
For I was so little inclined to sleep myself that night that I sat up
working It would not be worth mentioning for its own sake but I was wakeful
and rather lowspirited I dont know why At least I dont think I know why At
least perhaps I do but I dont think it matters
At any rate I made up my mind to be so dreadfully industrious that I would
leave myself not a moments leisure to be lowspirited For I naturally said
»Esther You to be lowspirited You« And it really was time to say so for I
yes I really did see myself in the glass almost crying »As if you had
anything to make you unhappy instead of everything to make you happy you
ungrateful heart« said I
If I could have made myself go to sleep I would have done it directly but
not being able to do that I took out of my basket some ornamental work for our
house I mean Bleak House that I was busy with at that time and sat down to it
with great determination It was necessary to count all the stitches in that
work and I resolved to go on with it until I couldnt keep my eyes open and
then to go to bed
I soon found myself very busy But I had left some silk downstairs in a
worktable drawer in the temporary Growlery and coming to a stop for want of
it I took my candle and went softly down to get it To my great surprise on
going in I found my guardian still there and sitting looking at the ashes He
was lost in thought his book lay unheeded by his side his silvered irongrey
hair was scattered confusedly upon his forehead as though his hand had been
wandering among it while his thoughts were elsewhere and his face looked worn
Almost frightened by coming upon him so unexpectedly I stood still for a
moment and should have retired without speaking had he not in again passing
his hand abstractedly through his hair seen me and started
»Esther«
I told him what I had come for
»At work so late my dear«
»I am working late tonight« said I »because I couldnt sleep and wished
to tire myself But dear Guardian you are late too and look weary You have
no trouble I hope to keep you waking«
»None little woman that you would readily understand« said he
He spoke in a regretful tone so new to me that I inwardly repeated as if
that would help me to his meaning »That I could readily understand«
»Remain a moment Esther« said he »You were in my thoughts«
»I hope I was not the trouble Guardian«
He slightly waved his hand and fell into his usual manner The change was
so remarkable and he appeared to make it by dint of so much selfcommand that
I found myself again inwardly repeating »None that I could understand«
»Little woman« said my guardian »I was thinking that is I have been
thinking since I have been sitting here that you ought to know of your own
history all I know It is very little Next to nothing«
»Dear Guardian« I replied »when you spoke to me before on that subject «
»But since then« he gravely interposed anticipating what I meant to say
»I have reflected that your having anything to ask me and my having anything to
tell you are different considerations Esther It is perhaps my duty to impart
to you the little I know«
»If you think so Guardian it is right«
»I think so« he returned very gently and kindly and very distinctly »My
dear I think so now If any real disadvantage can attach to your position in
the mind of any man or woman worth a thought it is right that you at least of
all the world should not magnify it to yourself by having vague impressions of
its nature«
I sat down and said after a little effort to be as calm as I ought to be
»One of my earliest remembrances Guardian is of these words Your mother
Esther is your disgrace and you were hers The time will come and soon
enough when you will understand this better and will feel it too as no one
save a woman can« I had covered my face with my hands in repeating the words
but I took them away now with a better kind of shame I hope and told him that
to him I owed the blessing that I had from my childhood to that hour never
never never felt it He put up his hand as if to stop me I well knew that he
was never to be thanked and said no more
»Nine years my dear« he said after thinking for a little while »have
passed since I received a letter from a lady living in seclusion written with a
stern passion and power that rendered it unlike all other letters I have ever
read It was written to me as it told me in so many words perhaps because it
was the writers idiosyncrasy to put that trust in me perhaps because it was
mine to justify it It told me of a child an orphan girl then twelve years old
in some such cruel words as those which live in your remembrance It told me
that the writer had bred her in secrecy from her birth had blotted out all
trace of her existence, and that if the writer were to die before the child
became a woman she would be left entirely friendless nameless and unknown It
asked me to consider if I would in that case finish what the writer had
begun«
I listened in silence and looked attentively at him
»Your early recollection my dear will supply the gloomy medium through
which all this was seen and expressed by the writer and the distorted religion
which clouded her mind with impressions of the need there was for the child to
expiate an offence of which she was quite innocent I felt concerned for the
little creature in her darkened life and replied to the letter«
I took his hand and kissed it
»It laid the injunction on me that I should never propose to see the writer
who had long been estranged from all intercourse with the world but who would
see a confidential agent if I would appoint one I accredited Mr Kenge The
lady said of her own accord and not of his seeking that her name was an
assumed one That she was if there were any ties of blood in such a case the
childs aunt That more than this she would never and he was well persuaded of
the steadfastness of her resolution for any human consideration disclose My
dear I have told you all«
I held his hand for a little while in mine
»I saw my ward oftener than she saw me« he added cheerily making light of
it »and I always knew she was beloved useful and happy She repays me
twentythousandfold and twenty more to that every hour in every day«
»And oftener still« said I »she blesses the Guardian who is a Father to
her«
At the word Father I saw his former trouble come into his face He subdued
it as before and it was gone in an instant but it had been there and it had
come so swiftly upon my words that I felt as if they had given him a shock I
again inwardly repeated wondering »That I could readily understand None that
I could readily understand« No it was true I did not understand it Not for
many and many a day
»Take a fatherly good night my dear« said he kissing me on the forehead
»and so to rest These are late hours for working and thinking You do that for
all of us all day long little housekeeper«
I neither worked nor thought any more that night I opened my grateful
heart to Heaven in thankfulness for its Providence to me and its care of me and
fell asleep
We had a visitor next day Mr Allan Woodcourt came He came to take leave
of us he had settled to do so beforehand He was going to China and to India
as a surgeon on board ship He was to be away a long long time
I believe at least I know that he was not rich All his widowed mother
could spare had been spent in qualifying him for his profession It was not
lucrative to a young practitioner with very little influence in London and
although he was night and day at the service of numbers of poor people and
did wonders of gentleness and skill for them he gained very little by it in
money He was seven years older than I Not that I need mention it for it
hardly seems to belong to anything
I think I mean he told us that he had been in practice three or four
years and that if he could have hoped to contend through three or four more he
would not have made the voyage on which he was bound But he had no fortune or
private means and so he was going away He had been to see us several times
altogether We thought it a pity he should go away Because he was distinguished
in his art among those who knew it best and some of the greatest men belonging
to it had a high opinion of him
When he came to bid us goodbye he brought his mother with him for the
first time She was a pretty old lady with bright black eyes but she seemed
proud She came from Wales and had had a long time ago an eminent person for
an ancestor of the name of Morgan apKerrig of some place that sounded like
Gimlet who was the most illustrious person that ever was known and all of
whose relations were a sort of Royal Family He appeared to have passed his life
in always getting up into mountains and fighting somebody and a Bard whose
name sounded like Crumlinwallinwer had sung his praises in a piece which was
called as nearly as I could catch it Mewlinnwillinwodd
Mrs Woodcourt after expatiating to us on the fame of her great kinsman
said that no doubt wherever her son Allan went he would remember his
pedigree and would on no account form an alliance below it She told him that
there were many handsome English ladies in India who went out on speculation
and that there were some to be picked up with property but that neither charms
nor wealth would suffice for the descendant from such a line without birth
which must ever be the first consideration She talked so much about birth
that for a moment I half fancied and with pain but what an idle fancy to
suppose that she could think or care what mine was
Mr Woodcourt seemed a little distressed by her prolixity but he was too
considerate to let her see it and contrived delicately to bring the
conversation round to making his acknowledgments to my guardian for his
hospitality and for the very happy hours he called them the very happy hours
she had passed with us The recollection of them he said would go with him
wherever he went and would be always treasured And so we gave him our hands
one after another at least they did and I did and so he put his lips to
Adas hand and to mine and so he went away upon his long long voyage
I was very busy indeed all day and wrote directions home to the servants
and wrote notes for my guardian and dusted his books and papers and jingled my
housekeeping keys a good deal one way and another I was still busy between the
lights singing and working by the window when who should come in but Caddy
whom I had no expectation of seeing
»Why Caddy my dear« said I »what beautiful flowers«
She had such an exquisite little nosegay in her hand
»Indeed I think so Esther« replied Caddy »They are the loveliest I ever
saw«
»Prince my dear« said I in a whisper
»No« answered Caddy shaking her head and holding them to me to smell
»Not Prince«
»Well to be sure Caddy« said I »You must have two lovers«
»What Do they look like that sort of thing« said Caddy
»Do they look like that sort of thing« I repeated pinching her cheek
Caddy only laughed in return and telling me that she had come for
halfanhour at the expiration of which time Prince would be waiting for her at
the corner sat chatting with me and Ada in the window every now and then
handing me the flowers again or trying how they looked against my hair At
last when she was going she took me into my room and put them in my dress
»For me« said I surprised
»For you« said Caddy with a kiss »They were left behind by Somebody«
»Left behind«
»At poor Miss Flites« said Caddy »Somebody who has been very good to her
was hurrying away an hour ago to join a ship and left these flowers behind
No no Dont take them out Let the pretty little things lie here« said Caddy
adjusting them with a careful hand »because I was present myself and I
shouldnt wonder if Somebody left them on purpose«
»Do they look like that sort of thing« said Ada coming laughingly behind
me and clasping me merrily round the waist »O yes indeed they do Dame
Durden They look very very like that sort of thing O very like it indeed my
dear«
Chapter XVIII
Lady Dedlock
It was not so easy as it had appeared at first to arrange for Richards making
a trial of Mr Kenges office Richard himself was the chief impediment As soon
as he had it in his power to leave Mr Badger at any moment he began to doubt
whether he wanted to leave him at all He didnt know he said really It
wasnt a bad profession he couldnt assert that he disliked it perhaps he
liked it as well as he liked any other suppose he gave it one more chance
Upon that he shut himself up for a few weeks with some books and some bones
and seemed to acquire a considerable fund of information with great rapidity
His fervour after lasting about a month began to cool and when it was quite
cooled began to grow warm again His vacillations between law and medicine
lasted so long that Midsummer arrived before he finally separated from Mr
Badger and entered on an experimental course of Messrs Kenge and Carboy For
all his waywardness he took great credit to himself as being determined to be
in earnest this time And he was so goodnatured throughout and in such high
spirits and so fond of Ada that it was very difficult indeed to be otherwise
than pleased with him
»As to Mr Jarndyce« who I may mention found the wind much given during
this period to stick in the east »As to Mr Jarndyce« Richard would say to
me »he is the finest fellow in the world Esther I must be particularly
careful if it were only for his satisfaction to take myself well to task and
have a regular windup of this business now«
The idea of his taking himself well to task with that laughing face and
heedless manner and with a fancy that everything could catch and nothing could
hold was ludicrously anomalous However he told us betweenwhiles that he was
doing it to such an extent that he wondered his hair didnt turn grey His
regular windup of the business was as I have said that he went to Mr
Kenges about Midsummer to try how he liked it
All this time he was in money affairs what I have described him in a
former illustration generous profuse wildly careless but fully persuaded
that he was rather calculating and prudent I happened to say to Ada in his
presence halfjestingly halfseriously about the time of his going to Mr
Kenges that he needed to have Fortunatuss purse he made so light of money
which he answered in this way
»My jewel of a dear cousin you hear this old woman Why does she say that
Because I gave eight pounds odd or whatever it was for a certain neat
waistcoat and buttons a few days ago Now if I had stayed at Badgers I should
have been obliged to spend twelve pounds at a blow for some heartbreaking
lecturefees So I make four pounds in a lump by the transaction«
It was a question much discussed between him and my guardian what
arrangements should be made for his living in London while he experimented on
the law for we had long since gone back to Bleak House and it was too far off
to admit of his coming there oftener than once a week My guardian told me that
if Richard were to settle down at Mr Kenges he would take some apartments or
chambers where we too could occasionally stay for a few days at a time »but
little woman« he added rubbing his head very significantly »he hasnt settled
down there yet« The discussions ended in our hiring for him by the month a
neat little furnished lodging in a quiet old house near Queen Square He
immediately began to spend all the money he had in buying the oddest little
ornaments and luxuries for this lodging and so often as Ada and I dissuaded him
from making any purchase that he had in contemplation which was particularly
unnecessary and expensive he took credit for what it would have cost and made
out that to spend anything less on something else was to save the difference
While these affairs were in abeyance our visit to Mr Boythorns was
postponed At length Richard having taken possession of his lodging there was
nothing to prevent our departure He could have gone with us at that time of the
year very well but he was in the full novelty of his new position and was
making most energetic attempts to unravel the mysteries of the fatal suit
Consequently we went without him and my darling was delighted to praise him for
being so busy
We made a pleasant journey down into Lincolnshire by the coach and had an
entertaining companion in Mr Skimpole His furniture had been all cleared off
it appeared by the person who took possession of it on his blueeyed daughters
birthday but he seemed quite relieved to think that it was gone Chairs and
tables he said were wearisome objects they were monotonous ideas they had no
variety of expression they looked you out of countenance and you looked them
out of countenance How pleasant then to be bound to no particular chairs and
tables but to sport like a butterfly among all the furniture on hire and to
flit from rosewood to mahogany and from mahogany to walnut and from this shape
to that as the humour took one
»The oddity of the thing is« said Mr Skimpole with a quickened sense of
the ludicrous »that my chairs and tables were not paid for and yet my landlord
walks off with them as composedly as possible Now that seems droll There is
something grotesque in it The chair and table merchant never engaged to pay my
landlord my rent Why should my landlord quarrel with him If I have a pimple on
my nose which is disagreeable to my landlords peculiar ideas of beauty my
landlord has no business to scratch my chair and table merchants nose which
has no pimple on it His reasoning seems defective«
»Well« said my guardian goodhumouredly »its pretty clear that whoever
became security for those chairs and tables will have to pay for them«
»Exactly« returned Mr Skimpole »Thats the crowning point of unreason in
the business I said to my landlord My good man you are not aware that my
excellent friend Jarndyce will have to pay for those things that you are
sweeping off in that indelicate manner Have you no consideration for his
property He hadnt the least«
»And refused all proposals« said my guardian
»Refused all proposals« returned Mr Skimpole »I made him business
proposals I had him into my room I said You are a man of business I believe
He replied I am Very well said I now let us be businesslike Here is an
inkstand here are pens and paper here are wafers What do you want I have
occupied your house for a considerable period I believe to our mutual
satisfaction until this unpleasant misunderstanding arose let us be at once
friendly and businesslike What do you want In reply to this he made use of
the figurative expression which has something Eastern about it that he had
never seen the colour of my money My amiable friend said I I never have any
money I never know anything about money Well sir said he what do you offer
if I give you time My good fellow said I I have no idea of time but you say
you are a man of business and whatever you can suggest to be done in a
businesslike way with pen and ink and paper and wafers I am ready to do
Dont pay yourself at another mans expense which is foolish but be
businesslike However he wouldnt be and there was an end of it«
If these were some of the inconveniences of Mr Skimpoles childhood it
assuredly possessed its advantages too On the journey he had a very good
appetite for such refreshment as came in our way including a basket of choice
hothouse peaches but never thought of paying for anything So when the
coachman came round for his fee he pleasantly asked him what he considered a
very good fee indeed now a liberal one and on his replying halfacrown
for a single passenger said it was little enough too all things considered
and left Mr Jarndyce to give it him
It was delightful weather The green corn waved so beautifully the larks
sang so joyfully the hedges were so full of wild flowers the trees were so
thickly out in leaf the beanfields with a light wind blowing over them
filled the air with such a delicious fragrance Late in the afternoon we came to
the markettown where we were to alight from the coach a dull little town
with a churchspire and a marketplace and a marketcross and one intensely
sunny street and a pond with an old horse cooling his legs in it and a very
few men sleepily lying and standing about in narrow little bits of shade After
the rustling of the leaves and the waving of the corn all along the road it
looked as still as hot as motionless a little town as England could produce
At the inn we found Mr Boythorn on horseback waiting with an open
carriage to take us to his house which was a few miles off He was overjoyed
to see us and dismounted with great alacrity
»By Heaven« said he after giving us a courteous greeting »this is a most
infamous coach It is the most flagrant example of an abominable public vehicle
that ever encumbered the face of the earth It is twentyfive minutes after its
time this afternoon The coachman ought to be put to death«
»Is he after his time« said Mr Skimpole to whom he happened to address
himself »You know my infirmity«
»Twentyfive minutes Twentysix minutes« replied Mr Boythorn referring
to his watch »With two ladies in the coach this scoundrel has deliberately
delayed his arrival sixandtwenty minutes Deliberately It is impossible that
it can be accidental But his father and his uncle were the most profligate
coachmen that ever sat upon a box«
While he said this in tones of the greatest indignation he handed us into
the little phaeton with the utmost gentleness and was all smiles and pleasure
»I am sorry ladies« he said standing bareheaded at the carriagedoor
when all was ready »that I am obliged to conduct you nearly two miles out of
the way But our direct road lies through Sir Leicester Dedlocks park and in
that fellows property I have sworn never to set foot of mine or horses foot
of mine pending the present relations between us while I breathe the breath of
life« And here catching my guardians eye he broke into one of his tremendous
laughs which seemed to shake even the motionless little markettown
»Are the Dedlocks down here Lawrence« said my guardian as we drove along
and Mr Boythorn trotted on the green turf by the roadside
»Sir Arrogant Numskull is here« replied Mr Boythorn »Ha ha ha Sir
Arrogant is here and I am glad to say has been laid by the heels here My
Lady« in naming whom he always made a courtly gesture as if particularly to
exclude her from any part in the quarrel »is expected I believe daily I am
not in the least surprised that she postpones her appearance as long as
possible Whatever can have induced that transcendent woman to marry that effigy
and figurehead of a baronet is one of the most impenetrable mysteries that
ever baffled human inquiry Ha ha ha ha«
»I suppose« said my guardian laughing »we may set foot in the park while
we are here The prohibition does not extend to us does it«
»I can lay no prohibition on my guests« he said bending his head to Ada
and me with the smiling politeness which sat so gracefully upon him »except in
the matter of their departure I am only sorry that I cannot have the happiness
of being their escort about Chesney Wold which is a very fine place But by
the light of this summer day Jarndyce if you call upon the owner while you
stay with me you are likely to have but a cool reception He carries himself
like an eightday clock at all times like one of a race of eightday clocks in
gorgeous cases that never go and never went Ha ha ha but he will have some
extra stiffness I can promise you for the friends of his friend and neighbour
Boythorn«
»I shall not put him to the proof« said my guardian »He is as indifferent
to the honour of knowing me I dare say as I am to the honour of knowing him
The air of the grounds and perhaps such a view of the house as any other
sightseer might get are quite enough for me«
»Well« said Mr Boythorn »I am glad of it on the whole Its in better
keeping I am looked upon about here as a second Ajax defying the lightning
Ha ha ha ha When I go into our little church on a Sunday a considerable part
of the inconsiderable congregation expect to see me drop scorched and withered
on the pavement under the Dedlock displeasure Ha ha ha ha I have no doubt he
is surprised that I dont For he is by Heaven the most selfsatisfied and
the shallowest and the most coxcombical and utterly brainless ass«
Our coming to the ridge of a hill we had been ascending enabled our friend
to point out Chesney Wold itself to us and diverted his attention from its
master
It was a picturesque old house in a fine park richly wooded Among the
trees and not far from the residence he pointed out the spire of the little
church of which he had spoken O the solemn woods over which the light and
shadow travelled swiftly as if Heavenly wings were sweeping on benignant
errands through the summer air the smooth green slopes the glittering water
the garden where the flowers were so symmetrically arranged in clusters of the
richest colours how beautiful they looked The house with gable and chimney
and tower and turret and dark doorway and broad terracewalk twining among
the balustrades of which and lying heaped upon the vases there was one great
flush of roses seemed scarcely real in its light solidity and in the serene
and peaceful hush that rested on all around it To Ada and to me that above
all appeared the pervading influence On everything house garden terrace
green slopes water old oaks fern moss woods again and far away across the
openings in the prospect to the distance lying wide before us with a purple
bloom upon it there seemed to be such undisturbed repose
When we came into the little village and passed a small inn with the sign
of the Dedlock Arms swinging over the road in front Mr Boythorn interchanged
greetings with a young gentleman sitting on a bench outside the inndoor who
had some fishingtackle lying beside him
»Thats the housekeepers grandson Mr Rouncewell by name« said he »and
he is in love with a pretty girl up at the House Lady Dedlock has taken a fancy
to the pretty girl and is going to keep her about her own fair person an
honour which my young friend himself does not at all appreciate However he
cant marry just yet even if his Rosebud were willing so he is fain to make
the best of it In the meanwhile he comes here pretty often for a day or two
at a time to fish Ha ha ha ha«
»Are he and the pretty girl engaged Mr Boythorn« asked Ada
»Why my dear Miss Clare« he returned »I think they may perhaps understand
each other but you will see them soon I dare say and I must learn from you on
such a point not you from me«
Ada blushed and Mr Boythorn trotting forward on his comely grey horse
dismounted at his own door and stood ready with extended arm and uncovered
head to welcome us when we arrived
He lived in a pretty house formerly the Parsonagehouse with a lawn in
front a bright flowergarden at the side and a wellstocked orchard and
kitchengarden in the rear enclosed with a venerable wall that had of itself a
ripened ruddy look But indeed everything about the place wore an aspect of
maturity and abundance The old limetree walk was like green cloisters the
very shadows of the cherrytrees and appletrees were heavy with fruit the
gooseberrybushes were so laden that their branches arched and rested on the
earth the strawberries and raspberries grew in like profusion and the peaches
basked by the hundred on the wall Tumbled about among the spread nets and the
glass frames sparkling and winking in the sun there were such heaps of drooping
pods and marrows and cucumbers that every foot of ground appeared a vegetable
treasury while the smell of sweet herbs and all kinds of wholesome growth to
say nothing of the neighbouring meadows where the hay was carrying made the
whole air a great nosegay Such stillness and composure reigned within the
orderly precincts of the old red wall that even the feathers hung in garlands
to scare the birds hardly stirred and the wall had such a ripening influence
that where here and there high up a disused nail and scrap of list still clung
to it it was easy to fancy that they had mellowed with the changing seasons
and that they had rusted and decayed according to the common fate
The house though a little disorderly in comparison with the garden was a
real old house with settles in the chimney of the brickfloored kitchen and
great beams across the ceilings On one side of it was the terrible piece of
ground in dispute where Mr Boythorn maintained a sentry in a smockfrock day
and night whose duty was supposed to be in cases of aggression immediately to
ring a large bell hung up there for the purpose to unchain a great bulldog
established in a kennel as his ally and generally to deal destruction on the
enemy Not content with these precautions Mr Boythorn had himself composed and
posted there on painted boards to which his name was attached in large letters
the following solemn warnings »Beware of the Bulldog He is most ferocious
Lawrence Boythorn« »The blunderbuss is loaded with slugs Lawrence Boythorn«
»Mantraps and springguns are set here at all times of the day and night
Lawrence Boythorn« »Take notice That any person or persons audaciously
presuming to trespass on this property will be punished with the utmost
severity of private chastisement and prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the
law Lawrence Boythorn« These he showed us from the drawingroom window while
his bird was hopping about his head and he laughed »Ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha«
to that extent as he pointed them out that I really thought he would have hurt
himself
»But this is taking a good deal of trouble« said Mr Skimpole in his light
way »when you are not in earnest after all«
»Not in earnest« returned Mr Boythorn with unspeakable warmth »Not in
earnest If I could have hoped to train him I would have bought a Lion instead
of that dog and would have turned him loose upon the first intolerable robber
who should dare to make an encroachment on my rights Let Sir Leicester Dedlock
consent to come out and decide this question by single combat and I will meet
him with any weapon known to mankind in any age or country I am that much in
earnest Not more«
We arrived at his house on a Saturday On the Sunday morning we all set
forth to walk to the little church in the park Entering the park almost
immediately by the disputed ground we pursued a pleasant footpath winding among
the verdant turf and the beautiful trees until it brought us to the
churchporch
The congregation was extremely small and quite a rustic one with the
exception of a large muster of servants from the House some of whom were
already in their seats while others were yet dropping in There were some
stately footmen and there was a perfect picture of an old coachman who looked
as if he were the official representative of all the pomps and vanities that had
ever been put into his coach There was a very pretty show of young women and
above them the handsome old face and fine responsible portly figure of the
housekeeper towered preeminent The pretty girl of whom Mr Boythorn had told
us was close by her She was so very pretty that I might have known her by her
beauty even if I had not seen how blushingly conscious she was of the eyes of
the young fisherman whom I discovered not far off One face and not an
agreeable one though it was handsome seemed maliciously watchful of this
pretty girl and indeed of every one and everything there It was a
Frenchwomans
As the bell was yet ringing and the great people were not yet come I had
leisure to glance over the church which smelt as earthy as a grave and to
think what a shady ancient solemn little church it was The windows heavily
shaded by trees admitted a subdued light that made the faces around me pale
and darkened the old brasses in the pavement and the time and dampworn
monuments and rendered the sunshine in the little porch where a monotonous
ringer was working at the bell inestimably bright But a stir in that
direction a gathering of reverential awe in the rustic faces and a
blandlyferocious assumption on the part of Mr Boythorn of being resolutely
unconscious of somebodys existence forewarned me that the great people were
come and that the service was going to begin
»Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord for in thy sight «
Shall I ever forget the rapid beating at my heart occasioned by the look I
met as I stood up Shall I ever forget the manner in which those handsome proud
eyes seemed to spring out of their languor and to hold mine It was only a
moment before I cast mine down released again if I may say so on my book
but I knew the beautiful face quite well in that short space of time
And very strangely there was something quickened within me associated
with the lonely days at my godmothers yes away even to the days when I had
stood on tiptoe to dress myself at my little glass after dressing my doll And
this although I had never seen this ladys face before in all my life I was
quite sure of it absolutely certain
It was easy to know that the ceremonious gouty greyhaired gentleman the
only other occupant of the great pew was Sir Leicester Dedlock and that the
lady was Lady Dedlock But why her face should be in a confused way like a
broken glass to me in which I saw scraps of old remembrances and why I should
be so fluttered and troubled for I was still by having casually met her eyes
I could not think
I felt it to be an unmeaning weakness in me and tried to overcome it by
attending to the words I heard Then very strangely I seemed to hear them not
in the readers voice but in the wellremembered voice of my godmother This
made me think did Lady Dedlocks face accidentally resemble my godmothers It
might be that it did a little but the expression was so different and the
stern decision which had worn into my godmothers face like weather into rocks
was so completely wanting in the face before me that it could not be that
resemblance which had struck me Neither did I know the loftiness and
haughtiness of Lady Dedlocks face at all in any one And yet I I little
Esther Summerson the child who lived a life apart and on whose birthday there
was no rejoicing seemed to arise before my own eyes evoked out of the past by
some power in this fashionable lady whom I not only entertained no fancy that I
had ever seen but whom I perfectly well knew I had never seen until that hour
It made me tremble so to be thrown into this unaccountable agitation that
I was conscious of being distressed even by the observation of the French maid
though I knew she had been looking watchfully here and there and everywhere
from the moment of her coming into the church By degrees though very slowly I
at last overcame my strange emotion After a long time I looked towards Lady
Dedlock again It was while they were preparing to sing before the sermon She
took no heed of me and the beating at my heart was gone Neither did it revive
for more than a few moments when she once or twice afterwards glanced at Ada or
at me through her glass
The service being concluded Sir Leicester gave his arm with much taste and
gallantry to Lady Dedlock though he was obliged to walk by the help of a thick
stick and escorted her out of church to the pony carriage in which they had
come The servants then dispersed and so did the congregation whom Sir
Leicester had contemplated all along Mr Skimpole said to Mr Boythorns
infinite delight as if he were a considerable landed proprietor in Heaven
»He believes he is« said Mr Boythorn »He firmly believes it So did his
father and his grandfather and his greatgrandfather«
»Do you know« pursued Mr Skimpole very unexpectedly to Mr Boythorn
»its agreeable to me to see a man of that sort«
»Is it« said Mr Boythorn
»Say that he wants to patronise me« pursued Mr Skimpole »Very well I
dont object«
»I do« said Mr Boythorn with great vigour
»Do you really« returned Mr Skimpole in his easy light vein »But thats
taking trouble surely And why should you take trouble Here am I content to
receive things childishly as they fall out and I never take trouble I come
down here for instance and I find a mighty potentate exacting homage Very
well I say Mighty potentate here is my homage Its easier to give it than
to withhold it Here it is If you have anything of an agreeable nature to show
me I shall be happy to see it if you have anything of an agreeable nature to
give me I shall be happy to accept it Mighty potentate replies in effect This
is a sensible fellow I find him accord with my digestion and my bilious system
He doesnt impose upon me the necessity of rolling myself up like a hedgehog
with my points outward I expand I open I turn my silver lining outward like
Miltons cloud and its more agreeable to both of us Thats my view of such
things speaking as a child«
»But suppose you went down somewhere else tomorrow« said Mr Boythorn
»where there was the opposite of that fellow or of this fellow How then«
»How then« said Mr Skimpole with an appearance of the utmost simplicity
and candour »Just the same then I should say My esteemed Boythorn to make
you the personification of our imaginary friend my esteemed Boythorn you
object to the mighty potentate Very good So do I I take it that my business
in the social system is to be agreeable I take it that everybodys business in
the social system is to be agreeable Its a system of harmony in short
Therefore if you object I object Now excellent Boythorn let us go to
dinner«
»But excellent Boythorn might say« returned our host swelling and growing
very red »Ill be «
»I understand« said Mr Skimpole »Very likely he would«
» if I will go to dinner« cried Mr Boythorn in a violent burst and
stopping to strike his stick upon the ground »And he would probably add Is
there such a thing as principle Mr Harold Skimpole«
»To which Harold Skimpole would reply you know« he returned in his gayest
manner and with his most ingenious smile »Upon my life I have not the least
idea I dont know what it is you call by that name or where it is or who
possesses it If you possess it and find it comfortable I am quite delighted
and congratulate you heartily But I know nothing about it I assure you for I
am a mere child and I lay no claim to it and I dont want it So you see
excellent Boythorn and I would go to dinner after all«
This was one of many little dialogues between them which I always expected
to end and which I dare say would have ended under other circumstances in some
violent explosion on the part of our host But he had so high a sense of his
hospitable and responsible position as our entertainer and my guardian laughed
so sincerely at and with Mr Skimpole as a child who blew bubbles and broke
them all day long that matters never went beyond this point Mr Skimpole who
always seemed quite unconscious of having been on delicate ground then betook
himself to beginning some sketch in the park which he never finished or to
playing fragments of airs on the piano or to singing scraps of songs or to
lying down on his back under a tree and looking at the sky which he couldnt
help thinking he said was what he was meant for it suited him so exactly
»Enterprise and effort« he would say to us on his back »are delightful
to me I believe I am truly cosmopolitan I have the deepest sympathy with them
I lie in a shady place like this and think of adventurous spirits going to the
North Pole or penetrating to the heart of the Torrid Zone with admiration
Mercenary creatures ask What is the use of a mans going to the North Pole
What good does it do I cant say but for anything I can say he may go for
the purpose though he dont know it of employing my thoughts as I lie here
Take an extreme case Take the case of the Slaves on American plantations I
dare say they are worked hard I dare say they dont altogether like it I dare
say theirs is an unpleasant experience on the whole but they people the
landscape for me they give it a poetry for me and perhaps that is one of the
pleasanter objects of their existence I am very sensible of it if it be and I
shouldnt wonder if it were«
I always wondered on these occasions whether he ever thought of Mrs
Skimpole and the children and in what point of view they presented themselves
to his cosmopolitan mind So far as I could understand they rarely presented
themselves at all
The week had gone round to the Saturday following that beating of my heart
in the church and every day had been so bright and blue that to ramble in the
woods and to see the light striking down among the transparent leaves and
sparkling in the beautiful interlacings of the shadows of the trees while the
birds poured out their songs and the air was drowsy with the hum of insects
had been most delightful We had one favourite spot deep in moss and last
years leaves where there were some felled trees from which the bark was all
stripped off Seated among these we looked through a green vista supported by
thousands of natural columns the whitened stems of trees upon a distant
prospect made so radiant by its contrast with the shade in which we sat and
made so precious by the arched perspective through which we saw it that it was
like a glimpse of the better land Upon the Saturday we sat here Mr Jarndyce
Ada and I until we heard thunder muttering in the distance and felt the large
raindrops rattle through the leaves
The weather had been all the week extremely sultry but the storm broke so
suddenly upon us at least in that sheltered spot that before we reached
the outskirts of the wood the thunder and lightning were frequent and the rain
came plunging through the leaves as if every drop were a great leaden bead As
it was not a time for standing among trees we ran out of the wood and up and
down the mossgrown steps which crossed the plantationfence like two
broadstaved ladders placed back to back and made for a keepers lodge which
was close at hand We had often noticed the dark beauty of this lodge standing
in a deep twilight of trees and how the ivy clustered over it and how there
was a steep hollow near where we had once seen the keepers dog dive down into
the fern as if it were water
The lodge was so dark within now the sky was overcast that we only clearly
saw the man who came to the door when we took shelter there and put two chairs
for Ada and me The latticewindows were all thrown open and we sat just
within the doorway watching the storm It was grand to see how the wind awoke
and bent the trees and drove the rain before it like a cloud of smoke and to
hear the solemn thunder and to see the lightning and while thinking with awe
of the tremendous powers by which our little lives are encompassed to consider
how beneficent they are and how upon the smallest flower and leaf there was
already a freshness poured from all this seeming rage which seemed to make
creation new again
»Is it not dangerous to sit in so exposed a place«
»O no Esther dear« said Ada quietly
Ada said it to me but I had not spoken
The beating of my heart came back again I had never heard the voice as I
had never seen the face but it affected me in the same strange way Again in a
moment there arose before my mind innumerable pictures of myself
Lady Dedlock had taken shelter in the lodge before our arrival there and
had come out of the gloom within She stood behind my chair with her hand upon
it I saw her with her hand close to my shoulder when I turned my head
»I have frightened you« she said
No It was not fright Why should I be frightened
»I believe« said Lady Dedlock to my guardian »I have the pleasure of
speaking to Mr Jarndyce«
»Your remembrance does me more honour than I had supposed it would Lady
Dedlock« he returned
»I recognised you in church on Sunday I am sorry that any local disputes of
Sir Leicesters they are not of his seeking however I believe should
render it a matter of some absurd difficulty to show you any attention here«
»I am aware of the circumstances« returned my guardian with a smile »and
am sufficiently obliged«
She had given him her hand in an indifferent way that seemed habitual to
her and spoke in a correspondingly indifferent manner though in a very
pleasant voice She was as graceful as she was beautiful perfectly
selfpossessed and had the air I thought of being able to attract and
interest any one if she had thought it worth her while The keeper had brought
her a chair on which she sat in the middle of the porch between us
»Is the young gentleman disposed of whom you wrote to Sir Leicester about
and whose wishes Sir Leicester was sorry not to have it in his power to advance
in any way« she said over her shoulder to my guardian
»I hope so« said he
She seemed to respect him and even to wish to conciliate him There was
something very winning in her haughty manner and it became more familiar I
was going to say more easy but that could hardly be as she spoke to him over
her shoulder
»I presume this is your other ward Miss Clare«
He presented Ada in form
»You will lose the disinterested part of your Don Quixote character« said
Lady Dedlock to Mr Jarndyce over her shoulder again »if you only redress the
wrongs of beauty like this But present me« and she turned full upon me »to
this young lady too«
»Miss Summerson really is my ward« said Mr Jarndyce »I am responsible to
no Lord Chancellor in her case«
»Has Miss Summerson lost both her parents« said my Lady
»Yes«
»She is very fortunate in her guardian«
Lady Dedlock looked at me and I looked at her and said I was indeed All
at once she turned from me with a hasty air almost expressive of displeasure or
dislike and spoke to him over her shoulder again
»Ages have passed since we were in the habit of meeting Mr Jarndyce«
»A long time At least I thought it was a long time until I saw you last
Sunday« he returned
»What Even you are a courtier or think it necessary to become one to me«
she said with some disdain »I have achieved that reputation I suppose«
»You have achieved so much Lady Dedlock« said my guardian »that you pay
some little penalty I dare say But none to me«
»So much« she repeated slightly laughing »Yes«
With her air of superiority and power and fascination and I know not
what she seemed to regard Ada and me as little more than children So as she
slightly laughed and afterwards sat looking at the rain she was as
selfpossessed and as free to occupy herself with her own thoughts as if she
had been alone
»I think you knew my sister when we were abroad together better than you
knew me« she said looking at him again
»Yes we happened to meet oftener« he returned
»We went our several ways« said Lady Dedlock »and had little in common
even before we agreed to differ It is to be regretted I suppose but it could
not be helped«
Lady Dedlock again sat looking at the rain The storm soon began to pass
upon its way The shower greatly abated the lightning ceased the thunder
rolled among the distant hills and the sun began to glisten on the wet leaves
and the falling rain As we sat there silently we saw a little pony phaeton
coming towards us at a merry pace
»The messenger is coming back my Lady« said the keeper »with the
carriage«
As it drove up we saw that there were two people inside There alighted
from it with some cloaks and wrappers first the Frenchwoman whom I had seen in
church and secondly the pretty girl the Frenchwoman with a defiant
confidence the pretty girl confused and hesitating
»What now« said Lady Dedlock »Two«
»I am your maid my Lady at the present« said the Frenchwoman »The
message was for the attendant«
»I was afraid you might mean me my Lady« said the pretty girl
»I did mean you child« replied her mistress calmly »Put that shawl on
me«
She slightly stooped her shoulders to receive it and the pretty girl
lightly dropped it in its place The Frenchwoman stood unnoticed looking on
with her lips very tightly set
»I am sorry« said Lady Dedlock to Mr Jarndyce »that we are not likely to
renew our former acquaintance You will allow me to send the carriage back for
your two wards It shall be here directly«
But as he would on no account accept this offer she took a graceful leave
of Ada none of me and put her hand upon his proffered arm and got into the
carriage which was a little low park carriage with a hood
»Come in child« she said to the pretty girl »I shall want you Go on«
The carriage rolled away and the Frenchwoman with the wrappers she had
brought hanging over her arm remained standing where she had alighted
I suppose there is nothing Pride can so little bear with as Pride itself,
and that she was punished for her imperious manner Her retaliation was the most
singular I could have imagined She remained perfectly still until the carriage
had turned into the drive and then without the least discomposure of
countenance slipped off her shoes left them on the ground and walked
deliberately in the same direction through the wettest of the wet grass
»Is that young woman mad« said my guardian
»O no sir« said the keeper who with his wife was looking after her
»Hortense is not one of that sort She has as good a headpiece as the best But
shes mortal high and passionate powerful high and passionate and what with
having notice to leave and having others put above her she dont take kindly
to it«
»But why should she walk shoeless through all that water« said my
guardian
»Why indeed sir unless it is to cool her down« said the man
»Or unless she fancies its blood« said the woman »Shed as soon walk
through that as anything else I think when her owns up«
We passed not far from the House a few minutes afterwards Peaceful as it
had looked when we first saw it it looked even more so now with a diamond
spray glittering all about it a light wind blowing the birds no longer hushed
but singing strongly everything refreshed by the late rain and the little
carriage shining at the doorway like a fairy carriage made of silver Still
very steadfastly and quietly walking towards it a peaceful figure too in the
landscape went Mademoiselle Hortense shoeless through the wet grass
Chapter XIX
Moving On
It is the long vacation in the regions of Chancery Lane The good ships Law and
Equity those teakbuilt copperbottomed ironfastened brazenfaced and not
by any means fastsailing Clippers are laid up in ordinary The Flying
Dutchman with a crew of ghostly clients imploring all whom they may encounter
to peruse their papers has drifted for the time being Heaven knows where The
Courts are all shut up the public offices lie in a hot sleep Westminster Hall
itself is a shady solitude where nightingales might sing and a tenderer class
of suitors than is usually found there walk
The Temple Chancery Lane Serjeants Inn and Lincolns Inn even unto the
Fields are like tidal harbours at low water where stranded proceedings
offices at anchor idle clerks lounging on lopsided stools that will not
recover their perpendicular until the current of Term sets in lie high and dry
upon the ooze of the long vacation Outer doors of chambers are shut up by the
score messages and parcels are to be left at the Porters Lodge by the bushel
A crop of grass would grow in the chinks of the stone pavement outside Lincolns
Inn Hall but that the ticketporters who have nothing to do beyond sitting in
the shade there with their white aprons over their heads to keep the flies off
grub it up and eat it thoughtfully
There is only one Judge in town Even he only comes twice aweek to sit in
chambers If the country folks of those assize towns on his circuit could see
him now No fullbottomed wig no red petticoats no fur no javelinmen no
white wands Merely a closeshaved gentleman in white trousers and a white hat
with seabronze on the judicial countenance and a strip of bark peeled by the
solar rays from the judicial nose who calls in at the shellfish shop as he
comes along and drinks iced gingerbeer
The bar of England is scattered over the face of the earth How England can
get on through four long summer months without its bar which is its
acknowledged refuge in adversity and its only legitimate triumph in prosperity
is beside the question assuredly that shield and buckler of Britannia are not
in present wear The learned gentleman who is always so tremendously indignant
at the unprecedented outrage committed on the feelings of his client by the
opposite party that he never seems likely to recover it is doing infinitely
better than might be expected in Switzerland The learned gentleman who does
the withering business and who blights all opponents with his gloomy sarcasm
is as merry as a grig at a French wateringplace The learned gentleman who
weeps by the pint on the smallest provocation has not shed a tear these six
weeks The very learned gentleman who has cooled the natural heat of his gingery
complexion in pools and fountains of law until he has become great in knotty
arguments for termtime when he poses the drowsy Bench with legal chaff
inexplicable to the uninitiated and to most of the initiated too is roaming
with a characteristic delight in aridity and dust about Constantinople Other
dispersed fragments of the same great Palladium are to be found on the canals of
Venice at the second cataract of the Nile in the baths of Germany and
sprinkled on the seasand all over the English coast Scarcely one is to be
encountered in the deserted region of Chancery Lane If such a lonely member of
the bar do flit across the waste and come upon a prowling suitor who is unable
to leave off haunting the scenes of his anxiety they frighten one another, and
retreat into opposite shades
It is the hottest long vacation known for many years All the young clerks
are madly in love and according to their various degrees pine for bliss with
the beloved object at Margate Ramsgate or Gravesend All the middleaged
clerks think their families too large All the unowned dogs who stray into the
Inns of Court and pant about staircases and other dry places seeking water
give short howls of aggravation All the blind mens dogs in the streets draw
their masters against pumps or trip them over buckets A shop with a sunblind
and a watered pavement and a bowl of gold and silver fish in the window is a
sanctuary Temple Bar gets so hot that it is to the adjacent Strand and Fleet
Street what a heater is in an urn and keeps them simmering all night
There are offices about the Inns of Court in which a man might be cool if
any coolness were worth purchasing at such a price in dulness but the little
thoroughfares immediately outside those retirements seem to blaze In Mr
Krooks court it is so hot that the people turn their houses inside out and
sit in chairs upon the pavement Mr Krook included who there pursues his
studies with his cat who never is too hot by his side The Sols Arms has
discontinued the harmonic meetings for the season and Little Swills is engaged
at the Pastoral Gardens down the river where he comes out in quite an innocent
manner and sings comic ditties of a juvenile complexion calculated as the
bill says not to wound the feelings of the most fastidious mind
Over all the legal neighbourhood there hangs like some great veil of rust
or gigantic cobweb the idleness and pensiveness of the long vacation Mr
Snagsby lawstationer of Cooks Court Cursitor Street is sensible of the
influence not only in his mind as a sympathetic and contemplative man but also
in his business as a law-stationer aforesaid He has more leisure for musing in
Staple Inn and in the Rolls Yard during the long vacation than at other
seasons and he says to the two prentices what a thing it is in such hot
weather to think that you live in an island with the sea arolling and
abowling right round you
Guster is busy in the little drawingroom on this present afternoon in the
long vacation when Mr and Mrs Snagsby have it in contemplation to receive
company The expected guests are rather select than numerous being Mr and Mrs
Chadband and no more From Mr Chadbands being much given to describe himself
both verbally and in writing as a vessel he is occasionally mistaken by
strangers for a gentleman connected with navigation but he is as he expresses
it »in the ministry« Mr Chadband is attached to no particular denomination
and is considered by his persecutors to have nothing so very remarkable to say
on the greatest of subjects as to render his volunteering on his own account
at all incumbent on his conscience but he has his followers and Mrs Snagsby
is of the number Mrs Snagsby has but recently taken a passage upward by the
vessel Chadband and her attention was attracted to that Bark A 1 when she was
something flushed by the hot weather
»My little woman« says Mr Snagsby to the sparrows in Staple Inn »likes to
have her religion rather sharp you see«
So Guster much impressed by regarding herself for the time as the handmaid
of Chadband whom she knows to be endowed with the gift of holding forth for
four hours at a stretch prepares the little drawingroom for tea All the
furniture is shaken and dusted the portraits of Mr and Mrs Snagsby are
touched up with a wet cloth the best teaservice is set forth and there is
excellent provision made of dainty new bread crusty twists cool fresh butter
thin slices of ham tongue and German sausage and delicate little rows of
anchovies nestling in parsley not to mention newlaid eggs to be brought up
warm in a napkin and hot buttered toast For Chadband is rather a consuming
vessel the persecutors say a gorging vessel and can wield such weapons of the
flesh as a knife and fork remarkably well
Mr Snagsby in his best coat looking at all the preparations when they are
completed and coughing his cough of deference behind his hand says to Mrs
Snagsby »At what time did you expect Mr and Mrs Chadband my love«
»At six« says Mrs Snagsby
Mr Snagsby observes in a mild and casual way that its gone that
»Perhaps youd like to begin without them« is Mrs Snagsbys reproachful
remark
Mr Snagsby does look as if he would like it very much but he says with
his cough of mildness »No my dear no I merely named the time«
»Whats time« says Mrs Snagsby »to eternity«
»Very true my dear« says Mr Snagsby »Only when a person lays in victuals
for tea a person does it with a view perhaps more to time And when a time
is named for having tea its better to come up to it«
»To come up to it« Mrs Snagsby repeats with severity »Up to it As if Mr
Chadband was a fighter«
»Not at all my dear« says Mr Snagsby
Here Guster who had been looking out of the bedroom window comes rustling
and scratching down the little staircase like a popular ghost and falling
flushed into the drawingroom announces that Mr and Mrs Chadband have
appeared in the court The bell at the inner door in the passage immediately
thereafter tinkling she is admonished by Mrs Snagsby on pain of instant
reconsignment to her patron saint not to omit the ceremony of announcement
Much discomposed in her nerves which were previously in the best order by this
threat she so fearfully mutilates that point of state as to announce »Mr and
Mrs Cheeseming least which Imeantersay whatsername« and retires
consciencestricken from the presence
Mr Chadband is a large yellow man with a fat smile and a general
appearance of having a good deal of train oil in his system Mrs Chadband is a
stern severelooking silent woman Mr Chadband moves softly and cumbrously
not unlike a bear who has been taught to walk upright He is very much
embarrassed about the arms as if they were inconvenient to him and he wanted
to grovel is very much in a perspiration about the head and never speaks
without first putting up his great hand as delivering a token to his hearers
that he is going to edify them
»My friends« says Mr Chadband »Peace be on this house On the master
thereof on the mistress thereof on the young maidens and on the young men My
friends why do I wish for peace What is peace Is it war No Is it strife
No Is it lovely and gentle and beautiful and pleasant and serene and
joyful O yes Therefore my friends I wish for peace upon you and upon
yours«
In consequence of Mrs Snagsby looking deeply edified Mr Snagsby thinks it
expedient on the whole to say Amen which is well received
»Now my friends« proceeds Mr Chadband »since I am upon this theme «
Guster presents herself Mrs Snagsby in a spectral bass voice and without
removing her eyes from Chadband says with dread distinctness »Go away«
»Now my friends« says Chadband »since I am upon this theme and in my
lowly path improving it «
Guster is heard unaccountably to murmur »one thousing seven hundred and
eightytwo« The spectral voice repeats more solemnly »Go away«
»Now my friends« says Mr Chadband »we will inquire in a spirit of love
«
Still Guster reiterates »one thousing seven hundred and eightytwo«
Mr Chadband pausing with the resignation of a man accustomed to be
persecuted and languidly folding up his chin into his fat smile says »Let us
hear the maiden Speak maiden«
»One thousing seven hundred and eightytwo if you please sir Which he
wish to know what the shilling ware for« says Guster breathless
»For« returns Mrs Chadband »For his fare«
Guster replies that »he insistes on one and eightpence or on summonsizzing
the party« Mrs Snagsby and Mrs Chadband are proceeding to grow shrill in
indignation when Mr Chadband quiets the tumult by lifting up his hand
»My friends« says he »I remember a duty unfulfilled yesterday It is right
that I should be chastened in some penalty I ought not to murmur Rachael pay
the eightpence«
While Mrs Snagsby drawing her breath looks hard at Mr Snagsby as who
should say »You hear this Apostle« and while Mr Chadband glows with humility
and train oil Mrs Chadband pays the money It is Mr Chadbands habit it is
the head and front of his pretensions indeed to keep this sort of debtor and
creditor account in the smallest items and to post it publicly on the most
trivial occasions
»My friends« says Chadband »eightpence is not much it might justly have
been one and fourpence it might justly have been halfacrown O let us be
joyful joyful O let us be joyful«
With which remark which appears from its sound to be an extract in verse
Mr Chadband stalks to the table and before taking a chair lifts up his
admonitory hand
»My friends« says he »what is this which we now behold as being spread
before us Refreshment Do we need refreshment then my friends We do And why
do we need refreshment my friends Because we are but mortal because we are
but sinful because we are but of the earth because we are not of the air Can
we fly my friends We cannot Why can we not fly my friends«
Mr Snagsby presuming on the success of his last point ventures to observe
in a cheerful and rather knowing tone »No wings« But is immediately frowned
down by Mrs Snagsby
»I say my friends« pursues Mr Chadband utterly rejecting and
obliterating Mr Snagsbys suggestion »why can we not fly Is it because we are
calculated to walk It is Could we walk my friends without strength We could
not What should we do without strength my friends Our legs would refuse to
bear us our knees would double up our ankles would turn over and we should
come to the ground Then from whence my friends in a human point of view do
we derive the strength that is necessary to our limbs Is it« says Chadband
glancing over the table »from bread in various forms from butter which is
churned from the milk which is yielded untoe us by the cow from the eggs which
are laid by the fowl from ham from tongue from sausage and from such like
It is Then let us partake of the good things which are set before us«
The persecutors denied that there was any particular gift in Mr Chadbands
piling verbose flights of stairs one upon another after this fashion But this
can only be received as a proof of their determination to persecute since it
must be within everybodys experience that the Chadband style of oratory is
widely received and much admired
Mr Chadband however having concluded for the present sits down at Mr
Snagsbys table and lays about him prodigiously The conversion of nutriment of
any sort into oil of the quality already mentioned appears to be a process so
inseparable from the constitution of this exemplary vessel that in beginning to
eat and drink he may be described as always becoming a kind of considerable Oil
Mills or other large factory for the production of that article on a wholesale
scale On the present evening of the long vacation in Cooks Court Cursitor
Street he does such a powerful stroke of business that the warehouse appears
to be quite full when the works cease
At this period of the entertainment Guster who has never recovered her
first failure but has neglected no possible or impossible means of bringing the
establishment and herself into contempt among which may be briefly enumerated
her unexpectedly performing clashing military music on Mr Chadbands head with
plates and afterwards crowning that gentleman with muffins at which period of
the entertainment Guster whispers Mr Snagsby that he is wanted
»And being wanted in the not to put too fine a point upon it in the
shop« says Mr Snagsby rising »perhaps this good company will excuse me for
half a minute«
Mr Snagsby descends and finds the two prentices intently contemplating a
police constable who holds a ragged boy by the arm
»Why bless my heart« says Mr Snagsby »whats the matter«
»This boy« says the constable »although hes repeatedly told to wont
move on «
»Im always amoving on sir« cries the boy wiping away his grimy tears
with his arm »Ive always been amoving and amoving on ever since I was born
Where can I possible move to sir more nor I do move«
»He wont move on« says the constable calmly with a slight professional
hitch of his neck involving its better settlement in his stiff stock »although
he has been repeatedly cautioned and therefore I am obliged to take him into
custody Hes as obstinate a young gonoph as I know He WONT move on«
»O my eye Where can I move to« cries the boy clutching quite desperately
at his hair and beating his bare feet upon the floor of Mr Snagsbys passage
»Dont you come none of that or I shall make blessed short work of you«
says the constable giving him a passionless shake »My instructions are that
you are to move on I have told you so five hundred times«
»But where« cries the boy
»Well Really constable you know« says Mr Snagsby wistfully and
coughing behind his hand his cough of great perplexity and doubt »really that
does seem a question Where you know«
»My instructions dont go to that« replies the constable »My instructions
are that this boy is to move on«
Do you hear Jo It is nothing to you or to any one else that the great
lights of the parliamentary sky have failed for some few years in this
business to set you the example of moving on The one grand recipe remains for
you the profound philosophical prescription the beall and the endall of
your strange existence upon earth Move on You are by no means to move off Jo
for the great lights cant at all agree about that Move on
Mr Snagsby says nothing to this effect says nothing at all indeed but
coughs his forlornest cough expressive of no thoroughfare in any direction By
this time Mr and Mrs Chadband and Mrs Snagsby hearing the altercation have
appeared upon the stairs Guster having never left the end of the passage the
whole household are assembled
»The simple question is sir« says the constable »whether you know this
boy He says you do«
Mrs Snagsby from her elevation instantly cries out »No he dont«
»My little woman« says Mr Snagsby looking up the staircase »My love
permit me Pray have a moments patience my dear I do know something of this
lad and in what I know of him I cant say that theres any harm perhaps on
the contrary constable« To whom the lawstationer relates his Joful and woful
experience suppressing the halfcrown fact
»Well« says the constable »so far it seems he had grounds for what he
said When I took him into custody up in Holborn he said you knew him Upon
that a young man who was in the crowd said he was acquainted with you and you
were a respectable housekeeper and if Id call and make the inquiry hed
appear The young man dont seem inclined to keep his word but Oh Here is
the young man«
Enter Mr Guppy who nods to Mr Snagsby and touches his hat with the
chivalry of clerkship to the ladies on the stairs
»I was strolling away from the office just now when I found this row going
on« says Mr Guppy to the lawstationer »and as your name was mentioned I
thought it was right the thing should be looked into«
»It was very goodnatured of you sir« says Mr Snagsby »and I am obliged
to you« And Mr Snagsby again relates his experience again suppressing the
halfcrown fact
»Now I know where you live« says the constable then to Jo »You live
down in TomallAlones Thats a nice innocent place to live in aint it«
»I cant go and live in no nicer place sir« replies Jo »They wouldnt
have nothink to say to me if I wos to go to a nice innocent place fur to live
Who ud go and let a nice innocent lodging to such a reglar one as me«
»You are very poor aint you« says the constable
»Yes I am indeed sir wery poor in ginral« replies Jo
»I leave you to judge now I shook these two halfcrowns out of him« says
the constable producing them to the company »in only putting my hand upon
him«
»Theyre wots left Mr Snagsby« says Jo »out of a sovring as wos give
me by a lady in a wale as sed she wos a servant and as come to my crossin one
night and asked to be showd this ere ouse and the ouse wot him as you giv the
writin to died at and the berringround wot hes berrid in She ses to me she
ses are you the boy at the Inkwhich she ses I ses yes I ses She ses to me she
ses can you show me all them places I ses yes I can I ses And she ses to me do
it and I dun it and she giv me a sovring and hooked it And I ant had much of
the sovring neither« says Jo with dirty tears »fur I had to pay five bob
down in TomallAlones afore theyd square it fur to give me change and then
a young man he thieved another five while I was asleep and another boy he
thieved ninepence and the landlord he stood drains round with a lot more on it«
»You dont expect anybody to believe this about the lady and the sovereign
do you« says the constable eyeing him aside with ineffable disdain
»I dont know as I do sir« replies Jo »I dont expect nothink at all
sir much but thats the true histry on it«
»You see what he is« the constable observes to the audience »Well Mr
Snagsby if I dont lock him up this time will you engage for his moving on«
»No« cries Mrs Snagsby from the stairs
»My little woman« pleads her husband »Constable I have no doubt hell
move on You know you really must do it« says Mr Snagsby
»Im everyways agreeable sir« says the hapless Jo
»Do it then« observes the constable »You know what you have got to do Do
it And recollect you wont get off so easy next time Catch hold of your money
Now the sooner youre five mile off the better for all parties«
With this farewell hint and pointing generally to the setting sun as a
likely place to move on to the constable bids his auditors good afternoon and
makes the echoes of Cooks Court perform slow music for him as he walks away on
the shady side carrying his ironbound hat in his hand for a little
ventilation
Now Jos improbable story concerning the lady and the sovereign has
awakened more or less the curiosity of all the company Mr Guppy who has an
inquiring mind in matters of evidence and who has been suffering severely from
the lassitude of the long vacation takes that interest in the case that he
enters on a regular crossexamination of the witness which is found so
interesting by the ladies that Mrs Snagsby politely invites him to step
upstairs and drink a cup of tea if he will excuse the disarranged state of
the teatable consequent on their previous exertions Mr Guppy yielding his
assent to this proposal Jo is requested to follow into the drawingroom
doorway where Mr Guppy takes him in hand as a witness patting him into this
shape that shape and the other shape like a butterman dealing with so much
butter and worrying him according to the best models Nor is the examination
unlike many such model displays both in respect of its eliciting nothing and
of its being lengthy for Mr Guppy is sensible of his talent and Mrs Snagsby
feels not only that it gratifies her inquisitive disposition but that it lifts
her husbands establishment higher up in the law During the progress of this
keen encounter the vessel Chadband being merely engaged in the oil trade gets
aground and waits to be floated off
»Well« says Mr Guppy »either this boy sticks to it like cobblerswax or
there is something out of the common here that beats anything that ever came
into my way at Kenge and Carboys«
Mrs Chadband whispers Mrs Snagsby who exclaims »You dont say so«
»For years« replies Mrs Chadband
»Has known Kenge and Carboys office for years« Mrs Snagsby triumphantly
explains to Mr Guppy »Mrs Chadband this gentlemans wife Reverend Mr
Chadband«
»Oh indeed« says Mr Guppy
»Before I married my present husband« says Mrs Chadband
»Was you a party in anything maam« says Mr Guppy transferring his
crossexamination
»No«
»Not a party in anything maam« says Mr Guppy
Mrs Chadband shakes her head
»Perhaps you were acquainted with somebody who was a party in something
maam« says Mr Guppy who likes nothing better than to model his conversation
on forensic principles
»Not exactly that either« replies Mrs Chadband humouring the joke with a
hardfavoured smile
»Not exactly that either« repeats Mr Guppy »Very good Pray maam was
it a lady of your acquaintance who had some transactions we will not at present
say what transactions with Kenge and Carboys office or was it a gentleman of
your acquaintance Take time maam We shall come to it presently Man or
woman maam«
»Neither« says Mrs Chadband as before
»Oh A child« says Mr Guppy throwing on the admiring Mrs Snagsby the
regular acute professional eye which is thrown on British jurymen »Now maam
perhaps youll have the kindness to tell us what child«
»You have got it at last sir« says Mrs Chadband with another
hardfavoured smile »Well sir it was before your time most likely judging
from your appearance I was left in charge of a child named Esther Summerson
who was put out in life by Messrs Kenge and Carboy«
»Miss Summerson maam« cries Mr Guppy excited
»I call her Esther Summerson« says Mrs Chadband with austerity »There
was no Missing of the girl in my time It was Esther Esther do this Esther
do that and she was made to do it«
»My dear maam« returns Mr Guppy moving across the small apartment »the
humble individual who now addresses you received that young lady in London when
she first came here from the establishment to which you have alluded Allow me
to have the pleasure of taking you by the hand«
Mr Chadband at last seeing his opportunity makes his accustomed signal
and rises with a smoking head which he dabs with his pockethandkerchief Mrs
Snagsby whispers »Hush«
»My friends« says Chadband »we have partaken in moderation« which was
certainly not the case so far as he was concerned »of the comforts which have
been provided for us May this house live upon the fatness of the land may corn
and wine be plentiful therein may it grow may it thrive may it prosper may
it advance may it proceed may it press forward But my friends have we
partaken of anything else We have My friends of what else have we partaken
Of spiritual profit Yes From whence have we derived that spiritual profit My
young friend stand forth«
Jo thus apostrophised gives a slouch backward and another slouch forward
and another slouch to each side and confronts the eloquent Chadband with
evident doubts of his intentions
»My young friend« says Chadband »you are to us a pearl you are to us a
diamond you are to us a gem you are to us a jewel And why my young friend«
»I dont know« replies Joe »I dont know nothink«
»My young friend« says Chadband »it is because you know nothing that you
are to us a gem and jewel For what are you my young friend Are you a beast of
the field No A bird of the air No A fish of the sea or river No You are a
human boy my young friend A human boy O glorious to be a human boy And why
glorious my young friend Because you are capable of receiving the lessons of
wisdom because you are capable of profiting by this discourse which I now
deliver for your good because you are not a stick or a staff or a stock or a
stone or a post or a pillar
O running stream of sparkling joy
To be a soaring human boy
And do you cool yourself in that stream now my young friend No Why do you not
cool yourself in that stream now Because you are in a state of darkness
because you are in a state of obscurity because you are in a state of
sinfulness because you are in a state of bondage My young friend what is
bondage Let us in a spirit of love inquire«
At this threatening stage of the discourse Jo who seems to have been
gradually going out of his mind smears his right arm over his face and gives a
terrible yawn Mrs Snagsby indignantly expresses her belief that he is a limb
of the archfiend
»My friends« says Mr Chadband with his persecuted chin folding itself
into its fat smile again as he looks round »it is right that I should be
humbled it is right that I should be tried it is right that I should be
mortified it is right that I should be corrected I stumbled on Sabbath last
when I thought with pride of my three hours improving The account is now
favourably balanced my creditor has accepted a composition O let us be joyful
joyful O let us be joyful«
Great sensation on the part of Mrs Snagsby
»My friends« says Chadband looking round him in conclusion »I will not
proceed with my young friend now Will you come tomorrow my young friend and
inquire of this good lady where I am to be found to deliver a discourse untoe
you and will you come like the thirsty swallow upon the next day and upon the
day after that and upon the day after that and upon many pleasant days to
hear discourses« This with a cowlike lightness
Jo whose immediate object seems to be to get away on any terms gives a
shuffling nod Mr Guppy then throws him a penny and Mrs Snagsby calls to
Guster to see him safely out of the house But before be goes downstairs Mr
Snagsby loads him with some broken meats from the table which he carries away
hugging in his arms
So Mr Chadband of whom the persecutors say that it is no wonder he
should go on for any length of time uttering such abominable nonsense but that
the wonder rather is that he should ever leave off having once the audacity to
begin retires into private life until he invests a little capital of supper in
the oiltrade Jo moves on through the long vacation down to Blackfriars
Bridge where he finds a baking stony corner wherein to settle to his repast
And there he sits munching and gnawing and looking up at the great Cross
on the summit of St Pauls Cathedral glittering above a red and violettinted
cloud of smoke From the boys face one might suppose that sacred emblem to be
in his eyes the crowning confusion of the great confused city so golden so
high up so far out of his reach There he sits the sun going down the river
running fast the crowd flowing by him in two streams everything moving on to
some purpose and to one end until he is stirred up and told to move on too
Chapter XX
A New Lodger
The long vacation saunters on towards termtime like an idle river very
leisurely strolling down a flat country to the sea Mr Guppy saunters along
with it congenially He has blunted the blade of his penknife and broken the
point off by sticking that instrument into his desk in every direction Not
that he bears the desk any illwill but he must do something and it must be
something of an unexciting nature which will lay neither his physical nor his
intellectual energies under too heavy contribution He finds that nothing agrees
with him so well as to make little gyrations on one leg of his stool and stab
his desk and gape
Kenge and Carboy are out of town and the articled clerk has taken out a
shooting licence and gone down to his fathers and Mr Guppys two
fellowstipendiaries are away on leave Mr Guppy and Mr Richard Carstone
divide the dignity of the office But Mr Carstone is for the time being
established in Kenges room whereat Mr Guppy chafes So exceedingly that he
with biting sarcasm informs his mother in the confidential moments when he sups
with her off a lobster and lettuce in the Old Street Road that he is afraid
the office is hardly good enough for swells and that if he had known there was
a swell coming he would have got it painted
Mr Guppy suspects everybody who enters on the occupation of a stool in
Kenge and Carboys office of entertaining as a matter of course sinister
designs upon him He is clear that every such person wants to depose him If he
be ever asked how why when or wherefore he shuts up one eye and shakes his
head On the strength of these profound views he in the most ingenious manner
takes infinite pains to counterplot when there is no plot and plays the
deepest games of chess without any adversary
It is a source of much gratification to Mr Guppy therefore to find the
newcomer constantly poring over the papers in Jarndyce and Jarndyce for he
well knows that nothing but confusion and failure can come of that His
satisfaction communicates itself to a third saunterer through the long vacation
in Kenge and Carboys office to wit Young Smallweed
Whether Young Smallweed metaphorically called Small and eke Chick Weed as
it were jocularly to express a fledgling was ever a boy is much doubted in
Lincolns Inn He is now something under fifteen and an old limb of the law He
is facetiously understood to entertain a passion for a lady at a cigarshop in
the neighbourhood of Chancery Lane and for her sake to have broken off a
contract with another lady to whom he had been engaged some years He is a
townmade article of small stature and weazen features but may be perceived
from a considerable distance by means of his very tall hat To become a Guppy is
the object of his ambition He dresses at that gentleman by whom he is
patronized talks at him walks at him founds himself entirely on him He is
honoured with Mr Guppys particular confidence and occasionally advises him
from the deep wells of his experience on difficult points in private life
Mr Guppy has been lolling out of window all the morning after trying all
the stools in succession and finding none of them easy and after several times
putting his head into the iron safe with a notion of cooling it Mr Smallweed
has been twice despatched for effervescent drinks and has twice mixed them in
the two official tumblers and stirred them up with the ruler Mr Guppy
propounds for Mr Smallweeds consideration the paradox that the more you
drink the thirstier you are and reclines his head upon the windowsill in a
state of hopeless languor
While thus looking out into the shade of Old Square Lincolns Inn
surveying the intolerable bricks and mortar Mr Guppy becomes conscious of a
manly whisker emerging from the cloistered walk below and turning itself up in
the direction of his face At the same time a low whistle is wafted through the
Inn and a suppressed voice cries »Hip Guppy«
»Why you dont mean it« says Mr Guppy aroused »Small Heres Jobling«
Smalls head looks out of window too and nods to Jobling
»Where have you sprung up from« inquires Mr Guppy
»From the marketgardens down by Deptford I cant stand it any longer I
must enlist I say I wish youd lend me halfacrown Upon my soul Im hungry«
Jobling looks hungry and also has the appearance of having run to seed in
the marketgardens down by Deptford
»I say Just throw out halfacrown if you have got one to spare I want to
get some dinner«
»Will you come and dine with me« says Mr Guppy throwing out the coin
which Mr Jobling catches neatly
»How long should I have to hold out« says Jobling
»Not half an hour I am only waiting here till the enemy goes« returns Mr
Guppy butting inward with his head
»What enemy«
»A new one Going to be articled Will you wait«
»Can you give a fellow anything to read in the meantime« says Mr Jobling
Smallweed suggests the Law List But Mr Jobling declares with much
earnestness that he »cant stand it«
»You shall have the paper« says Mr Guppy »He shall bring it down But you
had better not be seen about here Sit on our staircase and read Its a quiet
place«
Jobling nods intelligence and acquiescence The sagacious Smallweed supplies
him with the newspaper and occasionally drops his eye upon him from the landing
as a precaution against his becoming disgusted with waiting and making an
untimely departure At last the enemy retreats and then Smallweed fetches Mr
Jobling up
»Well and how are you« says Mr Guppy shaking hands with him
»So so How are you«
Mr Guppy replying that he is not much to boast of Mr Jobling ventures on
the question »How is she« This Mr Guppy resents as a liberty retorting
»Jobling there are chords in the human mind « Jobling begs pardon
»Any subject but that« says Mr Guppy with a gloomy enjoyment of his
injury »For there are chords Jobling «
Mr Jobling begs pardon again
During this short colloquy the active Smallweed who is of the dinner
party has written in legal characters on a slip of paper »Return immediately«
This notification to all whom it may concern he inserts in the letterbox and
then putting on the tall hat at the angle of inclination at which Mr Guppy
wears his informs his patron that they may now make themselves scarce
Accordingly they betake themselves to a neighbouring dininghouse of the
class known among its frequenters by the denomination SlapBang where the
waitress a bouncing young female of forty is supposed to have made some
impression on the susceptible Smallweed of whom it may be remarked that he is a
weird changeling to whom years are nothing He stands precociously possessed of
centuries of owlish wisdom If he ever lay in a cradle it seems as if he must
have lain there in a tailcoat He has an old old eye has Smallweed and he
drinks and smokes in a monkeyish way and his neck is stiff in his collar and
he is never to be taken in and he knows all about it whatever it is In short
in his bringing up he has been so nursed by Law and Equity that he has become a
kind of fossil Imp to account for whose terrestrial existence it is reported at
the public offices that his father was John Doe and his mother the only female
member of the Roe family also that his first longclothes were made from a blue
bag
Into the dininghouse unaffected by the seductive show in the window of
artificially whitened cauliflowers and poultry verdant baskets of peas coolly
blooming cucumbers and joints ready for the spit Mr Smallweed leads the way
They know him there and defer to him He has his favourite box he bespeaks all
the papers he is down upon bald patriarchs who keep them more than ten minutes
afterwards It is of no use trying him with anything less than a fullsized
bread or proposing to him any joint in cut unless it is in the very best cut
In the matter of gravy he is adamant
Conscious of his elfin power and submitting to his dread experience Mr
Guppy consults him in the choice of that days banquet turning an appealing
look towards him as the waitress repeats the catalogue of viands and saying
»What do you take Chick« Chick out of the profundity of his artfulness
preferring »veal and ham and French beans And dont you forget the stuffing
Polly« with an unearthly cock of his venerable eye Mr Guppy and Mr Jobling
give the like order Three pint pots of halfandhalf are superadded Quickly
the waitress returns bearing what is apparently a model of the tower of Babel
but what is really a pile of plates and flat tin dishcovers Mr Smallweed
approving of what is set before him conveys intelligent benignity into his
ancient eye and winks upon her Then amid a constant coming in and going out
and running about and a clatter of crockery and a rumbling up and down of the
machine which brings the nice cuts from the kitchen and a shrill crying for
more nice cuts down the speakingpipe and a shrill reckoning of the cost of
nice cuts that have been disposed of and a general flush and steam of hot
joints cut and uncut and a considerably heated atmosphere in which the soiled
knives and tablecloths seem to break out spontaneously into eruptions of grease
and blotches of beer the legal triumvirate appease their appetites
Mr Jobling is buttoned up closer than mere adornment might require His hat
presents at the rims a peculiar appearance of a glistening nature as if it had
been a favourite snailpromenade The same phenomenon is visible on some parts
of his coat and particularly at the seams He has the faded appearance of a
gentleman in embarrassed circumstances even his light whiskers droop with
something of a shabby air
His appetite is so vigorous that it suggests spare living for some little
time back He makes such a speedy end of his plate of veal and ham bringing it
to a close while his companions are yet midway in theirs that Mr Guppy
proposes another »Thank you Guppy« says Mr Jobling »I really dont know but
what I will take another«
Another being brought he falls to with great good will
Mr Guppy takes silent notice of him at intervals until he is half way
through this second plate and stops to take an enjoying pull at his pint pot of
halfandhalf also renewed and stretches out his legs and rubs his hands
Beholding him in which glow of contentment Mr Guppy says
»You are a man again Tony«
»Well not quite yet« says Mr Jobling »Say just born«
»Will you take any other vegetables Grass Peas Summer cabbage«
»Thank you Guppy« says Mr Jobling »I really dont know but what I will
take summer cabbage«
Order given with the sarcastic addition from Mr Smallweed of »Without
slugs Polly« And cabbage produced
»I am growing up Guppy« says Mr Jobling plying his knife and fork with a
relishing steadiness
»Glad to hear it«
»In fact I have just turned into my teens« says Mr Jobling
He says no more until he has performed his task which he achieves as
Messrs Guppy and Smallweed finish theirs thus getting over the ground in
excellent style and beating those two gentlemen easily by a veal and ham and a
cabbage
»Now Small« says Mr Guppy »what would you recommend about pastry«
»Marrow puddings« says Mr Smallweed instantly
»Aye aye« cries Mr Jobling with an arch look »Youre there are you
Thank you Mr Guppy I dont know but what I will take a marrow pudding«
Three marrow puddings being produced Mr Jobling adds in a pleasant
humour that he is coming of age fast To these succeed by command of Mr
Smallweed three Cheshires and to those three small rums This apex of the
entertainment happily reached Mr Jobling puts up his legs on the carpeted seat
having his own side of the box to himself leans against the wall and says
»I am grown up now Guppy I have arrived at maturity«
»What do you think now« says Mr Guppy »about you dont mind
Smallweed«
»Not the least in the world I have the pleasure of drinking his good
health«
»Sir to you« says Mr Smallweed
»I was saying what do you think now« pursues Mr Guppy »of enlisting«
»Why what I may think after dinner« returns Mr Jobling »is one thing my
dear Guppy and what I may think before dinner is another thing Still even
after dinner I ask myself the question What am I to do How am I to live Ill
fo manger you know« says Mr Jobling pronouncing that word as if he meant a
necessary fixture in an English stable »Ill fo manger Thats the French
saying and mangering is as necessary to me as it is to a Frenchman Or more
so«
Mr Smallweed is decidedly of opinion much more so
»If any man had told me« pursues Jobling »even so lately as when you and I
had the frisk down in Lincolnshire Guppy and drove over to see that house at
Castle Wold «
Mr Smallweed corrects him Chesney Wold
»Chesney Wold I thank my honourable friend for that cheer If any man had
told me then that I should be as hard up at the present time as I literally
find myself I should have well I should have pitched into him« says Mr
Jobling taking a little rumandwater with an air of desperate resignation »I
should have let fly at his head«
»Still Tony you were on the wrong side of the post then« remonstrates Mr
Guppy »You were talking about nothing else in the gig«
»Guppy« says Mr Jobling »I will not deny it I was on the wrong side of
the post But I trusted to things coming round«
That very popular trust in flat things coming round Not in their being
beaten round or worked round but in their coming round As though a lunatic
should trust in the worlds coming triangular
»I had confident expectations that things would come round and be all
square« says Mr Jobling with some vagueness of expression and perhaps of
meaning too »But I was disappointed They never did And when it came to
creditors making rows at the office and to people that the office dealt with
making complaints about dirty trifles of borrowed money why there was an end of
that connexion And of any new professional connexion too for if I was to give
a reference tomorrow it would be mentioned and would sew me up Then whats
a fellow to do I have been keeping out of the way and living cheap down about
the marketgardens but whats the use of living cheap when you have got no
money You might as well live dear«
»Better« Mr Smallweed thinks
»Certainly Its the fashionable way and fashion and whiskers have been my
weaknesses and I dont care who knows it« says Mr Jobling »They are great
weaknesses Damme sir they are great Well« proceeds Mr Jobling after a
defiant visit to his rum »what can a fellow do I ask you but enlist«
Mr Guppy comes more fully into the conversation to state what in his
opinion a fellow can do His manner is the gravely impressive manner of a man
who has not committed himself in life otherwise than as he has become the
victim of a tender sorrow of the heart
»Jobling« says Mr Guppy »myself and our mutual friend Smallweed «
Mr Smallweed modestly observes »Gentlemen both« and drinks
»Have had a little conversation on this matter more than once since you «
»Say got the sack« cries Mr Jobling bitterly »Say it Guppy You mean
it«
»Noo Left the Inn« Mr Smallweed delicately suggests
»Since you left the Inn Jobling« says Mr Guppy »and I have mentioned to
our mutual friend Smallweed a plan I have lately thought of proposing You know
Snagsby the stationer«
»I know there is such a stationer« returns Mr Jobling »He was not ours
and I am not acquainted with him«
»He is ours Jobling and I am acquainted with him« Mr Guppy retorts
»Well sir I have lately become better acquainted with him through some
accidental circumstances that have made me a visitor of his in private life
Those circumstances it is not necessary to offer in argument They may or they
may not have some reference to a subject which may or may not have cast
its shadow on my existence«
As it is Mr Guppys perplexing way with boastful misery to tempt his
particular friends into this subject and the moment they touch it to turn on
them with that trenchant severity about the chords in the human mind both Mr
Jobling and Mr Smallweed decline the pitfall by remaining silent
»Such things may be« repeats Mr Guppy »or they may not be They are no
part of the case It is enough to mention that both Mr and Mrs Snagsby are
very willing to oblige me and that Snagsby has in busy times a good deal of
copying work to give out He has all Tulkinghorns and an excellent business
besides I believe if our mutual friend Smallweed were put into the box he
could prove this«
Mr Smallweed nods and appears greedy to be sworn
»Now gentlemen of the jury« says Mr Guppy » I mean now Jobling you
may say this is a poor prospect of a living Granted But its better than
nothing and better than enlistment You want time There must be time for these
late affairs to blow over You might live through it on much worse terms than by
writing for Snagsby«
Mr Jobling is about to interrupt when the sagacious Smallweed checks him
with a dry cough and the words »Hem Shakspeare«
»There are two branches to this subject Jobling« says Mr Guppy »That is
the first I come to the second You know Krook the Chancellor across the
lane Come Jobling« says Mr Guppy in his encouraging crossexaminationtone
»I think you know Krook the Chancellor across the lane«
»I know him by sight« says Mr Jobling
»You know him by sight Very well And you know little Flite«
»Everybody knows her« says Mr Jobling
»Everybody knows her Very well Now it has been one of my duties of late
to pay Flite a certain weekly allowance deducting from it the amount of her
weekly rent which I have paid in consequence of instructions I have received
to Krook himself regularly in her presence This has brought me into
communication with Krook and into a knowledge of his house and his habits I
know he has a room to let You may live there at a very low charge under any
name you like as quietly as if you were a hundred miles off Hell ask no
questions and would accept you as a tenant at a word from me before the
clock strikes if you chose And I tell you another thing Jobling« says Mr
Guppy who has suddenly lowered his voice and become familiar again »hes an
extraordinary old chap always rummaging among a litter of papers and grubbing
away at teaching himself to read and write without getting on a bit as it
seems to me He is a most extraordinary old chap sir I dont know but what it
might be worth a fellows while to look him up a bit«
»You dont mean « Mr Jobling begins
»I mean« returns Mr Guppy shrugging his shoulders with becoming modesty
»that I cant make him out I appeal to our mutual friend Smallweed whether he
has or has not heard me remark that I cant make him out«
Mr Smallweed bears the concise testimony »A few«
»I have seen something of the profession and something of life Tony« says
Mr Guppy »and its seldom I cant make a man out more or less But such an
old card as this so deep so sly and secret though I dont believe he is ever
sober I never came across Now he must be precious old you know and he has
not a soul about him and he is reported to be immensely rich and whether he is
a smuggler or a receiver or an unlicensed pawnbroker or a money all of
which I have thought likely at different times it might pay you to knock up a
sort of knowledge of him I dont see why you shouldnt go in for it when
everything else suits«
Mr Jobling Mr Guppy and Mr Smallweed all lean their elbows on the
table and their chins upon their hands and look at the ceiling After a time
they all drink slowly lean back put their hands in their pockets and look at
one another.
»If I had the energy I once possessed Tony« says Mr Guppy with a sigh
»But there are chords in the human mind «
Expressing the remainder of the desolate sentiment in rumandwater Mr
Guppy concludes by resigning the adventure to Tony Jobling and informing him
that during the vacation and while things are slack his purse »as far as three
or four or even five pound goes« will be at his disposal »For never shall it
be said« Mr Guppy adds with emphasis »that William Guppy turned his back upon
his friend«
The latter part of the proposal is so directly to the purpose that Mr
Jobling says with emotion »Guppy my trump your fist« Mr Guppy presents it
saying »Jobling my boy there it is« Mr Jobling returns »Guppy we have
been pals now for some years« Mr Guppy replies »Jobling we have«
They then shake hands and Mr Jobling adds in a feeling manner »Thank you
Guppy I dont know but what I will take another glass for old acquaintance
sake«
»Krooks last lodger died there« observes Mr Guppy in an incidental way
»Did he though« says Mr Jobling
»There was a verdict Accidental death You dont mind that«
»No« says Mr Jobling »I dont mind it but he might as well have died
somewhere else Its devilish odd that he need go and die at my place« Mr
Jobling quite resents this liberty several times returning to it with such
remarks as »There are places enough to die in I should think« or »He
wouldnt have liked my dying at his place I dare say«
However the compact being virtually made Mr Guppy proposes to despatch
the trusty Smallweed to ascertain if Mr Krook is at home as in that case they
may complete the negotiation without delay Mr Jobling approving Smallweed
puts himself under the tall hat and conveys it out of the diningrooms in the
Guppy manner He soon returns with the intelligence that Mr Krook is at home
and that he has seen him through the shopdoor sitting in the back premises
sleeping like one oclock
»Then Ill pay« says Mr Guppy »and well go and see him Small what will
it be«
Mr Smallweed compelling the attendance of the waitress with one hitch of
his eyelash instantly replies as follows »Four veals and hams is three and
four potatoes is three and four and one summer cabbage is three and six and
three marrows is four and six and six breads is five and three Cheshires is
five and three and four halfpints of halfandhalf is six and three and four
small rums is eight and three and three Pollys is eight and six Eight and six
in half a sovereign Polly and eighteenpence out«
Not at all excited by these stupendous calculations Smallweed dismisses his
friends with a cool nod and remains behind to take a little admiring notice of
Polly as opportunity may serve and to read the daily papers which are so very
large in proportion to himself shorn of his hat that when he holds up The
Times to run his eye over the columns he seems to have retired for the night
and to have disappeared under the bedclothes
Mr Guppy and Mr Jobling repair to the rag and bottle shop where they find
Krook still sleeping like one oclock that is to say breathing stertorously
with his chin upon his breast and quite insensible to any external sounds or
even to gentle shaking On the table beside him among the usual lumber stand
an empty ginbottle and a glass The unwholesome air is so stained with this
liquor that even the green eyes of the cat upon her shelf as they open and
shut and glimmer on the visitors look drunk
»Hold up here« says Mr Guppy giving the relaxed figure of the old man
another shake »Mr Krook Halloa sir«
But it would seem as easy to wake a bundle of old clothes with a spirituous
heat smouldering in it »Did you ever see such a stupor as he falls into
between drink and sleep« says Mr Guppy
»If this is his regular sleep« returns Jobling rather alarmed »itll last
a long time one of these days I am thinking«
»Its always more like a fit than a nap« says Mr Guppy shaking him again
»Halloa your lordship Why he might be robbed fifty times over Open your
eyes«
After much ado he opens them but without appearing to see his visitors or
any other objects Though he crosses one leg on another and folds his hands
and several times closes and opens his parched lips he seems to all intents and
purposes as insensible as before
»He is alive at any rate« says Mr Guppy »How are you my Lord
Chancellor I have brought a friend of mine sir on a little matter of
business«
The old man still sits often smacking his dry lips without the least
consciousness After some minutes he makes an attempt to rise They help him
up and he staggers against the wall and stares at them
»How do you do Mr Krook« says Mr Guppy in some discomfiture »How do
you do sir You are looking charming Mr Krook I hope you are pretty well«
The old man in aiming a purposeless blow at Mr Guppy or at nothing
feebly swings himself round and comes with his face against the wall So he
remains for a minute or two heaped up against it and then staggers down the
shop to the front door The air the movement in the court the lapse of time
or the combination of these things recovers him He comes back pretty steadily
adjusting his furcap on his head and looking keenly at them
»Your servant gentlemen Ive been dozing Hi I am hard to wake odd
times«
»Rather so indeed sir« responds Mr Guppy
»What Youve been atrying to do it have you« says the suspicious Krook
»Only a little« Mr Guppy explains
The old mans eye resting on the empty bottle he takes it up examines it
and slowly tilts it upside down
»I say« he cries like the Hobgoblin in the story »Somebodys been making
free here«
»I assure you we found it so« says Mr Guppy »Would you allow me to get it
filled for you«
»Yes certainly I would« cries Krook in high glee »Certainly I would
Dont mention it Get it filled next door Sols Arms the Lord Chancellors
fourteenpenny Bless you they know me«
He so presses the empty bottle upon Mr Guppy that that gentleman with a
nod to his friend accepts the trust and hurries out and hurries in again with
the bottle filled The old man receives it in his arms like a beloved
grandchild and pats it tenderly
»But I say« he whispers with his eyes screwed up after tasting it »this
aint the Lord Chancellors fourteenpenny This is eighteenpenny«
»I thought you might like that better« says Mr Guppy
»Youre a nobleman sir« returns Krook with another taste and his hot
breath seems to come towards them like a flame »Youre a baron of the land«
Taking advantage of this auspicious moment Mr Guppy presents his friend
under the impromptu name of Mr Weevle and states the object of their visit
Krook with his bottle under his arm he never gets beyond a certain point of
either drunkenness or sobriety takes time to survey his proposed lodger and
seems to approve of him »Youd like to see the room young man« he says »Ah
Its a good room Been whitewashed Been cleaned down with soft soap and soda
Hi Its worth twice the rent letting alone my company when you want it and
such a cat to keep the mice away«
Commending the room after this manner the old man takes them upstairs
where indeed they do find it cleaner than it used to be and also containing
some old articles of furniture which he has dug up from his inexhaustible
stores The terms are easily concluded for the Lord Chancellor cannot be hard
on Mr Guppy associated as he is with Kenge and Carboy Jarndyce and Jarndyce
and other famous claims on his professional consideration and it is agreed
that Mr Weevle shall take possession on the morrow Mr Weevle and Mr Guppy
then repair to Cooks Court Cursitor Street where the personal introduction of
the former to Mr Snagsby is effected and more important the vote and
interest of Mrs Snagsby are secured They then report progress to the eminent
Smallweed waiting at the office in his tall hat for that purpose and separate
Mr Guppy explaining that he would terminate his little entertainment by
standing treat at the play but that there are chords in the human mind which
would render it a hollow mockery
On the morrow in the dusk of evening Mr Weevle modestly appears at
Krooks by no means incommoded with luggage and establishes himself in his new
lodging where the two eyes in the shutters stare at him in his sleep as if
they were full of wonder On the following day Mr Weevle who is a handy
goodfornothing kind of young fellow borrows a needle and thread of Miss
Flite and a hammer of his landlord and goes to work devising apologies for
windowcurtains and knocking up apologies for shelves and hanging up his two
teacups milkpot and crockery sundries on a pennyworth of little hooks like a
shipwrecked sailor making the best of it
But what Mr Weevle prizes most of all his few possessions next after his
light whiskers for which he has an attachment that only whiskers can awaken in
the breast of man is a choice collection of copperplate impressions from that
truly national work The Divinities of Albion or Galaxy Gallery of British
Beauty representing ladies of title and fashion in every variety of smirk that
art combined with capital is capable of producing With these magnificent
portraits unworthily confined in a bandbox during his seclusion among the
marketgardens he decorates his apartment and as the Galaxy Gallery of British
Beauty wears every variety of fancy dress plays every variety of musical
instrument fondles every variety of dog ogles every variety of prospect and
is backed up by every variety of flowerpot and balustrade the result is very
imposing
But fashion is Mr Weevles as it was Tony Joblings weakness To borrow
yesterdays paper from the Sols Arms of an evening and read about the
brilliant and distinguished meteors that are shooting across the fashionable sky
in every direction is unspeakable consolation to him To know what member of
what brilliant and distinguished circle accomplished the brilliant and
distinguished feat of joining it yesterday or contemplates the no less
brilliant and distinguished feat of leaving it tomorrow gives him a thrill of
joy To be informed what the Galaxy Gallery of British Beauty is about and
means to be about and what Galaxy marriages are on the tapis and what Galaxy
rumours are in circulation is to become acquainted with the most glorious
destinies of mankind Mr Weevle reverts from this intelligence to the Galaxy
portraits implicated and seems to know the originals and to be known of them
For the rest he is a quiet lodger full of handy shifts and devices as
before mentioned able to cook and clean for himself as well as to carpenter
and developing social inclinations after the shades of evening have fallen on
the court At those times when he is not visited by Mr Guppy or by a small
light in his likeness quenched in a dark hat he comes out of his dull room
where he has inherited the deal wilderness of desk bespattered with a rain of
ink and talks to Krook or is very free as they call it in the court
commendingly with any one disposed for conversation Wherefore Mrs Piper who
leads the court is impelled to offer two remarks to Mrs Perkins Firstly that
if her Johnny was to have whiskers she could wish em to be identically like
that young mans and secondly Mark my words Mrs Perkins maam and dont
you be surprised Lord bless you if that young man comes in at last for old
Krooks money
Chapter XXI
The Smallweed Family
In a rather illfavoured and illsavoured neighbourhood though one of its
rising grounds bears the name of Mount Pleasant the Elfin Smallweed christened
Bartholomew and known on the domestic hearth as Bart passes that limited
portion of his time on which the office and its contingencies have no claim He
dwells in a little narrow street always solitary shady and sad closely
bricked in on all sides like a tomb but where there yet lingers the stump of an
old forest tree whose flavour is about as fresh and natural as the Smallweed
smack of youth
There has been only one child in the Smallweed family for several
generations Little old men and women there have been but no child until Mr
Smallweeds grandmother now living became weak in her intellect and fell for
the first time into a childish state With such infantine graces as a total
want of observation memory understanding and interest and an eternal
disposition to fall asleep over the fire and into it Mr Smallweeds
grandmother has undoubtedly brightened the family
Mr Smallweeds grandfather is likewise of the party He is in a helpless
condition as to his lower and nearly so as to his upper limbs but his mind is
unimpaired It holds as well as it ever held the first four rules of
arithmetic and a certain small collection of the hardest facts In respect of
ideality reverence wonder and other such phrenological attributes it is no
worse off than it used to be Everything that Mr Smallweeds grandfather ever
put away in his mind was a grub at first and is a grub at last In all his life
he has never bred a single butterfly
The father of this pleasant grandfather of the neighbourhood of Mount
Pleasant was a hornyskinned twolegged moneygetting species of spider who
spun webs to catch unwary flies and retired into holes until they were
entrapped The name of this old pagans God was Compound Interest He lived for
it married it died of it Meeting with a heavy loss in an honest little
enterprise in which all the loss was intended to have been on the other side he
broke something something necessary to his existence therefore it couldnt
have been his heart and made an end of his career As his character was not
good and he had been bred at a Charity School in a complete course according
to question and answer of those ancient people the Amorites and Hittites he
was frequently quoted as an example of the failure of education
His spirit shone through his son to whom he had always preached of going
out early in life and whom he made a clerk in a sharp scriveners office at
twelve years old There the young gentleman improved his mind which was of a
lean and anxious character and developing the family gifts gradually elevated
himself into the discounting profession Going out early in life and marrying
late as his father had done before him he too begat a lean and anxiousminded
son who in his turn going out early in life and marrying late became the
father of Bartholomew and Judith Smallweed twins During the whole time
consumed in the slow growth of this family tree the house of Smallweed always
early to go out and late to marry has strengthened itself in its practical
character has discarded all amusements discountenanced all storybooks fairy
tales fictions and fables and banished all levities whatsoever Hence the
gratifying fact that it has had no child born to it and that the complete
little men and women whom it has produced have been observed to bear a likeness
to old monkeys with something depressing on their minds
At the present time in the dark little parlour certain feet below the level
of the street a grim hard uncouth parlour only ornamented with the coarsest
of baize tablecovers and the hardest of sheetiron tea and offering in its
decorative character no bad allegorical representation of Grandfather
Smallweeds mind seated in two black horsehair porters chairs one on each
side of the fireplace the superannuated Mr and Mrs Smallweed while away the
rosy hours On the stove are a couple of trivets for the pots and kettles which
it is Grandfather Smallweeds usual occupation to watch and projecting from the
chimneypiece between them is a sort of brass gallows for roasting which he
also superintends when it is in action Under the venerable Mr Smallweeds
seat and guarded by his spindle legs is a drawer in his chair reported to
contain property to a fabulous amount Beside him is a spare cushion with which
he is always provided in order that he may have something to throw at the
venerable partner of his respected age whenever she makes an allusion to money
a subject on which he is particularly sensitive
»And wheres Bart« Grandfather Smallweed inquires of Judy Barts
twinsister
»He aint come in yet« says Judy
»Its his teatime isnt it«
»No«
»How much do you mean to say it wants then«
»Ten minutes«
»Hey«
»Ten minutes« Loud on the part of Judy
»Ho« says Grandfather Smallweed »Ten minutes«
Grandmother Smallweed who has been mumbling and shaking her head at the
trivets hearing figures mentioned connects them with money and screeches
like a horrible old parrot without any plumage »Ten tenpound notes«
Grandfather Smallweed immediately throws the cushion at her
»Drat you be quiet« says the good old man
The effect of this act of jaculation is twofold It not only doubles up Mrs
Smallweeds head against the side of her porters chair and causes her to
present when extricated by her granddaughter a highly unbecoming state of
cap but the necessary exertion recoils on Mr Smallweed himself whom it throws
back into his porters chair like a broken puppet The excellent old gentleman
being at these times a mere clothesbag with a black skullcap on the top of
it does not present a very animated appearance until he has undergone the two
operations at the hands of his granddaughter of being shaken up like a great
bottle and poked and punched like a great bolster Some indication of a neck
being developed in him by these means he and the sharer of his lifes evening
again sit fronting one another in their two porters chairs like a couple of
sentinels long forgotten on their post by the Black Serjeant Death
Judy the twin is worthy company for these associates She is so indubitably
sister to Mr Smallweed the younger that the two kneaded into one would hardly
make a young person of average proportions while she so happily exemplifies the
beforementioned family likeness to the monkey tribe that attired in a
spangled robe and cap she might walk about the tableland on the top of a
barrelorgan without exciting much remark as an unusual specimen Under existing
circumstances however she is dressed in a plain spare gown of brown stuff
Judy never owned a doll never heard of Cinderella never played at any
game She once or twice fell into childrens company when she was about ten
years old but the children couldnt get on with Judy and Judy couldnt get on
with them She seemed like an animal of another species and there was
instinctive repugnance on both sides It is very doubtful whether Judy knows how
to laugh She has so rarely seen the thing done that the probabilities are
strong the other way Of anything like a youthful laugh she certainly can have
no conception If she were to try one she would find her teeth in her way
modelling that action of her face as she has unconsciously modelled all its
other expressions on her pattern of sordid age Such is Judy
And her twinbrother couldnt wind up a top for his life He knows no more
of Jack the Giant Killer or of Sinbad the Sailor than he knows of the people
in the stars He could as soon play at leapfrog or at cricket as change into
a cricket or a frog himself But he is so much the better off than his sister
that on his narrow world of fact an opening has dawned into such broader
regions as lie within the ken of Mr Guppy Hence his admiration and his
emulation of that shining enchanter
Judy with a gonglike clash and clatter sets one of the sheetiron
teatrays on the table and arranges cups and saucers The bread she puts on in
an iron basket and the butter and not much of it in a small pewter plate
Grandfather Smallweed looks hard after the tea as it is served out and asks
Judy where the girl is
»Charley do you mean« says Judy
»Hey« from Grandfather Smallweed
»Charley do you mean«
This touches a spring in Grandmother Smallweed who chuckling as usual at
the trivets cries »Over the water Charley over the water Charley over the
water over the water to Charley Charley over the water over the water to
Charley« and becomes quite energetic about it Grandfather looks at the
cushion but has not sufficiently recovered his late exertion
»Ha« he says when there is silence »if thats her name She eats a deal
It would be better to allow her for her keep«
Judy with her brothers wink shakes her head and purses up her mouth into
No without saying it
»No« returns the old man »Why not«
»Shed want sixpence aday and we can do it for less« says Judy
»Sure«
Judy answers with a nod of deepest meaning and calls as she scrapes the
butter on the loaf with every precaution against waste and cuts it into slices
»You Charley where are you« Timidly obedient to the summons a little girl in
a rough apron and a large bonnet with her hands covered with soap and water
and a scrubbing brush in one of them appears and curtseys
»What work are you about now« says Judy making an ancient snap at her
like a very sharp old beldame
»Im acleaning the upstairs back room miss« replies Charley
»Mind you do it thoroughly and dont loiter Shirking wont do for me Make
haste Go along« cries Judy with a stamp upon the ground »You girls are more
trouble than youre worth by half«
On this severe matron as she returns to her task of scraping the butter and
cutting the bread falls the shadow of her brother looking in at the window
For whom knife and loaf in hand she opens the streetdoor
»Ay ay Bart« says Grandfather Smallweed »Here you are hey«
»Here I am« says Bart
»Been along with your friend again Bart«
Small nods
»Dining at his expense Bart«
Small nods again
»Thats right Live at his expense as much as you can and take warning by
his foolish example Thats the use of such a friend The only use you can put
him to« says the venerable sage
His grandson without receiving this good counsel as dutifully as he might
honours it with all such acceptance as may lie in a slight wink and a nod and
takes a chair at the teatable The four old faces then hover over teacups like
a company of ghastly cherubim Mrs Smallweed perpetually twitching her head and
chattering at the trivets and Mr Smallweed requiring to be repeatedly shaken
up like a large black draught
»Yes yes« says the good old gentleman reverting to his lesson of wisdom
»Thats such advice as your father would have given you Bart You never saw
your father Mores the pity He was my true son« Whether it is intended to be
conveyed that he was particularly pleasant to look at on that account does not
appear
»He was my true son« repeats the old gentleman folding his
breadandbutter on his knee »a good accountant and died fifteen years ago«
Mrs Smallweed following her usual instinct breaks out with »Fifteen
hundred pound Fifteen hundred pound in a black box fifteen hundred pound
locked up fifteen hundred pound put away and hid« Her worthy husband setting
aside his breadandbutter immediately discharges the cushion at her crushes
her against the side of her chair and falls back in his own overpowered His
appearance after visiting Mrs Smallweed with one of these admonitions is
particularly impressive and not wholly prepossessing firstly because the
exertion generally twists his black skullcap over one eye and gives him an air
of goblin rakishness secondly because he mutters violent imprecations against
Mrs Smallweed and thirdly because the contrast between those powerful
expressions and his powerless figure is suggestive of a baleful old malignant
who would be very wicked if he could All this however, is so common in the
Smallweed family circle that it produces no impression The old gentleman is
merely shaken and has his internal feathers beaten up the cushion is restored
to its usual place beside him and the old lady perhaps with her cap adjusted
and perhaps not is planted in her chair again ready to be bowled down like a
ninepin
Some time elapses in the present instance before the old gentleman is
sufficiently cool to resume his discourse and even then he mixes it up with
several edifying expletives addressed to the unconscious partner of his bosom
who holds communication with nothing on earth but the trivets As thus
»If your father Bart had lived longer he might have been worth a deal of
money you brimstone chatterer but just as he was beginning to build up the
house that he had been making the foundations for through many a year you
jade of a magpie jackdaw and pollparrot what do you mean he took ill and
died of a low fever always being a sparing and a spare man full of business
care I should like to throw a cat at you instead of a cushion and I will too
if you make such a confounded fool of yourself and your mother who was a
prudent woman as dry as a chip just dwindled away like touchwood after you and
Judy were born You are an old pig You are a brimstone pig Youre a head of
swine«
Judy not interested in what she has often heard begins to collect in a
basin various tributary streams of tea from the bottoms of cups and saucers and
from the bottom of the teapot for the little charwomans evening meal In like
manner she gets together in the iron breadbasket as many outside fragments
and worndown heels of loaves as the rigid economy of the house has left in
existence
»But your father and me were partners Bart« says the old gentleman »and
when I am gone you and Judy will have all there is Its rare for you both
that you went out early in life Judy to the flower business and you to the
law You wont want to spend it Youll get your living without it and put more
to it When I am gone Judy will go back to the flower business and youll
still stick to the law«
One might infer from Judys appearance that her business rather lay with
the thorns than the flowers but she has in her time been apprenticed to the
art and mystery of artificial flowermaking A close observer might perhaps
detect both in her eye and her brothers when their venerable grandsire
anticipates his being gone some little impatience to know when he may be going
and some resentful opinion that it is time he went
»Now if everybody has done« says Judy completing her preparations »Ill
have that girl in to her tea She would never leave off if she took it by
herself in the kitchen«
Charley is accordingly introduced and under a heavy fire of eyes sits
down to her basin and a Druidical ruin of breadandbutter In the active
superintendence of this young person Judy Smallweed appears to attain a
perfectly geological age and to date from the remotest periods Her systematic
manner of flying at her and pouncing on her with or without pretence whether
or no is wonderful evincing an accomplishment in the art of girldriving
seldom reached by the oldest practitioners
»Now dont stare about you all the afternoon« cries Judy shaking her head
and stamping her foot as she happens to catch the glance which has been
previously sounding the basin of tea »but take your victuals and get back to
your work«
»Yes miss« says Charley
»Dont say yes« returns Miss Smallweed »for I know what you girls are Do
it without saying it and then I may begin to believe you«
Charley swallows a great gulp of tea in token of submission and so
disperses the Druidical ruins that Miss Smallweed charges her not to gormandize
which in you girls she observes is disgusting Charley might find some more
difficulty in meeting her views on the general subject of girls but for a knock
at the door
»See who it is and dont chew when you open it« cries Judy
The object of her attentions withdrawing for the purpose Miss Smallweed
takes that opportunity of jumbling the remainder of the breadandbutter
together and launching two or three dirty teacups into the ebbtide of the
basin of tea as a hint that she considers the eating and drinking terminated
»Now Who is it and whats wanted« says the snappish Judy
It is one Mr George it appears Without other announcement or ceremony
Mr George walks in
»Whew« says Mr George »You are hot here Always a fire eh Well Perhaps
you do right to get used to one« Mr George makes the latter remark to himself
as he nods to Grandfather Smallweed
»Ho Its you« cries the old gentleman »How de do How de do«
»Middling« replies Mr George taking a chair »Your granddaughter I have
had the honour of seeing before my service to you miss«
»This is my grandson« says Grandfather Smallweed »You hant seen him
before He is in the law and not much at home«
»My service to him too He is like his sister He is very like his sister
He is devilish like his sister« says Mr George laying a great and not
altogether complimentary stress on his last adjective
»And how does the world use you Mr George« Grandfather Smallweed
inquires slowly rubbing his legs
»Pretty much as usual Like a football«
He is a swarthy brown man of fifty wellmade and goodlooking with crisp
dark hair bright eyes and a broad chest His sinewy and powerful hands as
sunburnt as his face have evidently been used to a pretty rough life What is
curious about him is that he sits forward on his chair as if he were from long
habit allowing space for some dress or accoutrements that he has altogether
laid aside His step too is measured and heavy and would go well with a weighty
clash and jingle of spurs He is closeshaved now but his mouth is set as if
his upper lip had been for years familiar with a great moustache and his manner
of occasionally laying the open palm of his broad brown hand upon it is to the
same effect Altogether one might guess Mr George to have been a trooper once
upon a time
A special contrast Mr George makes to the Smallweed family Trooper was
never yet billeted upon a household more unlike him It is a broadsword to an
oysterknife His developed figure and their stunted forms his large manner
filling any amount of room and their little narrow pinched ways his sounding
voice and their sharp spare tones are in the strongest and the strangest
opposition As he sits in the middle of the grim parlour leaning a little
forward with his hands upon his thighs and his elbows squared he looks as
though if he remained there long he would absorb into himself the whole family
and the whole fourroomed house extra little backkitchen and all
»Do you rub your legs to rub life into em« he asks of Grandfather
Smallweed after looking round the room
»Why its partly a habit Mr George and yes it partly helps the
circulation« he replies
»The circulation« repeats Mr George folding his arms upon his chest
and seeming to become two sizes larger »Not much of that I should think«
»Truly Im old Mr George« says Grandfather Smallweed »But I can carry my
years Im older than her« nodding at his wife »and see what she is Youre
a brimstone chatterer« with a sudden revival of his late hostility
»Unlucky old soul« says Mr George turning his head in that direction
»Dont scold the old lady Look at her here with her poor cap half off her
head and her poor hair all in a muddle Hold up maam Thats better There we
are Think of your mother Mr Smallweed« says Mr George coming back to his
seat from assisting her »if your wife ant enough«
»I suppose you were an excellent son Mr George« the old man hints with a
leer
The colour of Mr Georges face rather deepens as he replies »Why no I
wasnt«
»I am astonished at it«
»So am I I ought to have been a good son and I think I meant to have been
one But I wasnt I was a thundering bad son thats the long and the short of
it and never was a credit to anybody«
»Surprising« cries the old man
»However« Mr George resumes »the less said about it the better now
Come You know the agreement Always a pipe out of the two months interest
Bosh Its all correct You neednt be afraid to order the pipe Heres the new
bill and heres the two months interestmoney and a devilandall of a scrape
it is to get it together in my business«
Mr George sits with his arms folded consuming the family and the parlour
while Grandfather Smallweed is assisted by Judy to two black leathern cases out
of a locked bureau in one of which he secures the document he has just
received and from the other takes another similar document which he hands to
Mr George who twists it up for a pipelight As the old man inspects through
his glasses every upstroke and downstroke of both documents before he
releases them from their leathern prison and as he counts the money three times
over and requires Judy to say every word she utters at least twice and is as
tremulously slow of speech and action as it is possible to be this business is
a long time in progress When it is quite concluded and not before he
disengages his ravenous eyes and fingers from it and answers Mr Georges last
remark by saying »Afraid to order the pipe We are not so mercenary as that
sir Judy see directly to the pipe and the glass of cold brandyandwater for
Mr George«
The sportive twins who have been looking straight before them all this
time except when they have been engrossed by the black leathern cases retire
together generally disdainful of the visitor but leaving him to the old man
as two young cubs might leave a traveller to the parental bear
»And there you sit I suppose all the day long eh« says Mr George with
folded arms
»Just so just so« the old man nods
»And dont you occupy yourself at all«
»I watch the fire and the boiling and the roasting «
»When there is any« says Mr George with great expression
»Just so When there is any«
»Dont you read or get read to«
The old man shakes his head with sharp sly triumph »No no We have never
been readers in our family It dont pay Stuff Idleness Folly No no«
»Theres not much to choose between your two states« says the visitor in a
key too low for the old mans dull hearing as he looks from him to the old
woman and back again »I say« in a louder voice
»I hear you«
»Youll sell me up at last I suppose when I am a day in arrear«
»My dear friend« cries Grandfather Smallweed stretching out both hands to
embrace him »Never Never my dear friend But my friend in the city that I got
to lend you the money he might«
»O you cant answer for him« says Mr George finishing the inquiry in
his lower key with the words »you lying old rascal«
»My dear friend he is not to be depended on I wouldnt trust him He will
have his bond my dear friend«
»Devil doubt him« says Mr George Charley appearing with a tray on which
are the pipe a small paper of tobacco and the brandyandwater he asks her
»How do you come here you havent got the family face«
»I goes out to work sir« returns Charley
The trooper if trooper he be or have been takes her bonnet off with a
light touch for so strong a hand and pats her on the head »You give the house
almost a wholesome look It wants a bit of youth as much as it wants fresh air«
Then he dismisses her lights his pipe and drinks to Mr Smallweeds friend in
the city the one solitary flight of that esteemed old gentlemans imagination
»So you think he might be hard upon me eh«
»I think he might I am afraid he would I have known him do it« says
Grandfather Smallweed incautiously »twenty times«
Incautiously because his stricken betterhalf who has been dozing over the
fire for some time is instantly aroused and jabbers »Twenty thousand pounds
twenty twentypound notes in a moneybox twenty guineas twenty million twenty
per cent twenty « and is then cut short by the flying cushion which the
visitor to whom this singular experiment appears to be a novelty snatches from
her face as it crushes her in the usual manner
»Youre a brimstone idiot Youre a scorpion a brimstone scorpion Youre
a sweltering toad Youre a chattering clattering broomstick witch that ought
to be burnt« gasps the old man prostrate in his chair »My dear friend will
you shake me up a little«
Mr George who has been looking first at one of them and then at the other
as if he were demented takes his venerable acquaintance by the throat on
receiving this request and dragging him upright in his chair as easily as if he
were a doll appears in two minds whether or no to shake all future power of
cushioning out of him and shake him into his grave Resisting the temptation
but agitating him violently enough to make his head roll like a harlequins he
puts him smartly down in his chair again and adjusts his skullcap with such a
rub that the old man winks with both eyes for a minute afterwards
»O Lord« gasps Mr Smallweed »Thatll do Thank you my dear friend
thatll do O dear me Im out of breath O Lord« And Mr Smallweed says it
not without evident apprehensions of his dear friend who still stands over him
looming larger than ever
The alarming presence however gradually subsides into its chair and falls
to smoking in long puffs consoling itself with the philosophical reflection
»The name of your friend in the city begins with a D comrade and youre about
right respecting the bond«
»Did you speak Mr George« inquires the old man
The trooper shakes his head and leaning forward with his right elbow on his
right knee and his pipe supported in that hand while his other hand resting on
his left leg squares his left elbow in a martial manner continues to smoke
Meanwhile he looks at Mr Smallweed with grave attention and now and then fans
the cloud of smoke away in order that he may see him the more clearly
»I take it« he says making just as much and as little change in his
position as will enable him to reach the glass to his lips with a round full
action »that I am the only man alive or dead either that gets the value of a
pipe out of you«
»Well« returns the old man »its true that I dont see company Mr
George and that I dont treat I cant afford to it But as you in your
pleasant way made your pipe a condition «
»Why its not for the value of it thats no great thing It was a fancy to
get it out of you To have something in for my money«
»Ha Youre prudent prudent sir« cries Grandfather Smallweed rubbing his
legs
»Very I always was« Puff »Its a sure sign of my prudence that I ever
found the way here« Puff »Also that I am what I am« Puff »I am well known
to be prudent« says Mr George composedly smoking »I rose in life that way«
»Dont be downhearted sir You may rise yet«
Mr George laughs and drinks
»Hant you no relations now« asks Grandfather Smallweed with a twinkle
in his eyes »who would pay off this little principal or who would lend you a
good name or two that I could persuade my friend in the city to make you a
further advance upon Two good names would be sufficient for my friend in the
city Hant you no such relations Mr George«
Mr George still composedly smoking replies »If I had I shouldnt
trouble them I have been trouble enough to my belongings in my day It may be a
very good sort of penitence in a vagabond who has wasted the best time of his
life to go back then to decent people that he never was a credit to and live
upon them but its not my sort The best kind of amends then for having gone
away is to keep away in my opinion«
»But natural affection Mr George« hints Grandfather Smallweed
»For two good names hey« says Mr George shaking his head and still
composedly smoking »No Thats not my sort either«
Grandfather Smallweed has been gradually sliding down in his chair since his
last adjustment and is now a bundle of clothes with a voice in it calling for
Judy That Houri appearing shakes him up in the usual manner and is charged by
the old gentleman to remain near him For he seems chary of putting his visitor
to the trouble of repeating his late attentions
»Ha« he observes when he is in trim again »If you could have traced out
the Captain Mr George it would have been the making of you If when you
first came here in consequence of our advertisements in the newspapers when I
say our Im alluding to the advertisements of my friend in the city and one or
two others who embark their capital in the same way and are so friendly towards
me as sometimes to give me a lift with my little pittance if at that time
you could have helped us Mr George it would have been the making of you«
»I was willing enough to be made as you call it« says Mr George smoking
not quite so placidly as before for since the entrance of Judy he has been in
some measure disturbed by a fascination not of the admiring kind which obliges
him to look at her as she stands by her grandfathers chair »but on the whole
I am glad I wasnt now«
»Why Mr George In the name of of Brimstone why« says Grandfather
Smallweed with a plain appearance of exasperation Brimstone apparently
suggested by his eye lighting on Mrs Smallweed in her slumber
»For two reasons comrade«
»And what two reasons Mr George In the name of the «
»Of our friend in the city« suggests Mr George composedly drinking
»Ay if you like What two reasons«
»In the first place« returns Mr George but still looking at Judy as if
she being so old and so like her grandfather it is indifferent which of the two
he addresses »you gentlemen took me in You advertised that Mr Hawdon Captain
Hawdon if you hold to the saying Once a captain always a captain was to hear
of something to his advantage«
»Well« returns the old man shrilly and sharply
»Well« says Mr George smoking on »It wouldnt have been much to his
advantage to have been clapped into prison by the whole bill and judgment trade
of London«
»How do you know that Some of his rich relations might have paid his debts
or compounded for em Besides he had taken us in He owed us immense sums all
round I would sooner have strangled him than had no return If I sit here
thinking of him« snarls the old man holding up his impotent ten fingers »I
want to strangle him now« And in a sudden access of fury he throws the cushion
at the unoffending Mrs Smallweed but it passes harmlessly on one side of her
chair
»I dont need to be told« returns the trooper taking his pipe from his
lips for a moment and carrying his eyes back from following the progress of the
cushion to the pipebowl which is burning low »that he carried on heavily and
went to ruin I have been at his right hand many a day when he was charging
upon ruin fullgallop I was with him when he was sick and well rich and poor
I laid this hand upon him after he had run through everything and broken down
everything beneath him when he held a pistol to his head«
»I wish he had let it off« says the benevolent old man »and blown his head
into as many pieces as he owed pounds«
»That would have been a smash indeed« returns the trooper coolly »any way
he had been young hopeful and handsome in the days gone by and I am glad I
never found him when he was neither to lead to a result so much to his
advantage Thats reason number one«
»I hope number twos as good« snarls the old man
»Why no Its more of a selfish reason If I had found him I must have
gone to the other world to look He was there«
»How do you know he was there«
»He wasnt here«
»How do you know he wasnt here«
»Dont lose your temper as well as your money« says Mr George calmly
knocking the ashes out of his pipe »He was drowned long before I am convinced
of it He went over a ships side Whether intentionally or accidentally I
dont know Perhaps your friend in the city does Do you know what that tune
is Mr Smallweed« he adds after breaking off to whistle one accompanied on
the table with the empty pipe
»Tune« replies the old man »No We never have tunes here«
»Thats the Dead March in Saul They bury soldiers to it so its the
natural end of the subject Now if your pretty granddaughter excuse me miss
will condescend to take care of this pipe for two months we shall save the
cost of one next time Good evening Mr Smallweed«
»My dear friend« The old man gives him both his hands
»So you think your friend in the city will be hard upon me if I fail in a
payment« says the trooper looking down upon him like a giant
»My dear friend I am afraid he will« returns the old man looking up at
him like a pigmy
Mr George laughs and with a glance at Mr Smallweed and a parting
salutation to the scornful Judy strides out of the parlour clashing imaginary
sabres and other metallic appurtenances as he goes
»Youre a damned rogue« says the old gentleman making a hideous grimace at
the door as he shuts it »But Ill lime you you dog Ill lime you«
After this amiable remark his spirit soars into those enchanting regions of
reflection which its education and pursuits have opened to it and again he and
Mrs Smallweed while away the rosy hours two unrelieved sentinels forgotten as
aforesaid by the Black Serjeant
While the twain are faithful to their post Mr George strides through the
streets with a massive kind of swagger and a graveenough face It is eight
oclock now and the day is fast drawing in He stops hard by Waterloo Bridge
and reads a playbill decides to go to Astleys Theatre Being there is much
delighted with the horses and the feats of strength looks at the weapons with a
critical eye disapproves of the combats as giving evidences of unskilful
swordsmanship but is touched home by the sentiments In the last scene when
the Emperor of Tartary gets up into a cart and condescends to bless the united
lovers by hovering over them with the UnionJack his eyelashes are moistened
with emotion
The theatre over Mr George comes across the water again and makes his way
to that curious region lying about the Haymarket and Leicester Square which is
a centre of attraction to indifferent foreign hotels and indifferent foreigners
racketcourts fightingmen swordsmen footguards old china gaminghouses
exhibitions and a large medley of shabbiness and shrinking out of sight
Penetrating to the heart of this region he arrives by a court and a long
whitewashed passage at a great brick building composed of bare walls floors
roofrafters and skylights on the front of which if it can be said to have
any front is painted GEORGES SHOOTING GALLERY etc
Into Georges Shooting Gallery etc he goes and in it there are
gaslights partly turned off now and two whitened targets for rifleshooting
and archery accommodation and fencing appliances and all necessaries for the
British art of boxing None of these sports or exercises being pursued in
Georges Shooting Gallery tonight which is so devoid of company that a little
grotesque man with a large head has it all to himself and lies asleep upon
the floor
The little man is dressed something like a gunsmith in a green baize apron
and cap and his face and hands are dirty with gunpowder and begrimed with the
loading of guns As he lies in the light before a glaring white target the
black upon him shines again Not far off is the strong rough primitive table
with a vice upon it at which he has been working He is a little man with a
face all crushed together who appears from a certain blue and speckled
appearance that one of his cheeks presents to have been blown up in the way of
business at some odd time or times
»Phil« says the trooper in a quiet voice
»All right« cries Phil scrambling to his feet
»Anything been doing«
»Flat as ever so much swipes« says Phil »Five dozen rifle and a dozen
pistol As to aim« Phil gives a howl at the recollection
»Shut up shop Phil«
As Phil moves about to execute this order it appears that he is lame
though able to move very quickly On the speckled side of his face he has no
eyebrow and on the other side he has a bushy black one which want of
uniformity gives him a very singular and rather sinister appearance Everything
seems to have happened to his hands that could possibly take place consistently
with the retention of all the fingers for they are notched and seamed and
crumpled all over He appears to be very strong and lifts heavy benches about
as if he had no idea what weight was He has a curious way of limping round the
gallery with his shoulder against the wall and tacking off at objects he wants
to lay hold of instead of going straight to them which has left a smear all
round the four walls conventionally called Phils mark
This custodian of Georges Gallery in Georges absence concludes his
proceedings when he has locked the great doors and turned out all the lights
but one which he leaves to glimmer by dragging out from a wooden cabin in a
corner two mattresses and bedding These being drawn to opposite ends of the
gallery the trooper makes his own bed and Phil makes his
»Phil« says the master walking towards him without his coat and waistcoat
and looking more soldierly than ever in his braces »You were found in a
doorway werent you«
»Gutter« says Phil »Watchman tumbled over me«
»Then vagabondizing came natural to you from the beginning«
»As natral as possible« says Phil
»Good night«
»Good night guvner«
Phil cannot even go straight to bed but finds it necessary to shoulder
round two sides of the gallery and then tack off at his mattress The trooper
after taking a turn or two in the rifledistance and looking up at the moon now
shining through the skylights strides to his own mattress by a shorter route
and goes to bed too
Chapter XXII
Mr Bucket
Allegory looks pretty cool in Lincolns Inn Fields though the evening is hot
for both Mr Tulkinghorns windows are wide open and the room is lofty gusty
and gloomy These may not be desirable characteristics when November comes with
fog and sleet or January with ice and snow but they have their merits in the
sultry long vacation weather They enable Allegory though it has cheeks like
peaches and knees like bunches of blossoms and rosy swellings for calves to
its legs and muscles to its arms to look tolerably cool tonight
Plenty of dust comes in at Mr Tulkinghorns windows and plenty more has
generated among his furniture and papers It lies thick everywhere When a
breeze from the country that has lost its way takes fright and makes a blind
hurry to rush out again it flings as much dust in the eyes of Allegory as the
law or Mr Tulkinghorn one of its trustiest representatives may scatter on
occasion in the eyes of the laity
In his lowering magazine of dust the universal article into which his
papers and himself and all his clients and all things of earth animate and
inanimate are resolving Mr Tulkinghorn sits at one of the open windows
enjoying a bottle of old port Though a hardgrained man close dry and
silent he can enjoy old wine with the best He has a priceless binn of port in
some artful cellar under the Fields which is one of his many secrets When he
dines alone in chambers as he has dined today and has his bit of fish and his
steak or chicken brought in from the coffeehouse he descends with a candle to
the echoing regions below the deserted mansion and heralded by a remote
reverberation of thundering doors comes gravely back encircled by an earthy
atmosphere and carrying a bottle from which he pours a radiant nectar two
score and ten years old that blushes in the glass to find itself so famous and
fills the whole room with the fragrance of southern grapes
Mr Tulkinghorn sitting in the twilight by the open window enjoys his
wine As if it whispered to him of its fifty years of silence and seclusion it
shuts him up the closer More impenetrable than ever he sits and drinks and
mellows as it were in secrecy pondering at that twilight hour on all the
mysteries he knows associated with darkening woods in the country and vast
blank shutup houses in town and perhaps sparing a thought or two for himself
and his family history and his money and his will all a mystery to every one
and that one bachelor friend of his a man of the same mould and a lawyer too
who lived the same kind of life until he was seventyfive years old and then
suddenly conceiving as it is supposed an impression that it was too
monotonous gave his gold watch to his hairdresser one summer evening and
walked leisurely home to the Temple and hanged himself
But Mr Tulkinghorn is not alone tonight to ponder at his usual length
Seated at the same table though with his chair modestly and uncomfortably drawn
a little way from it sits a bald mild shining man who coughs respectfully
behind his hand when the lawyer bids him fill his glass
»Now Snagsby« says Mr Tulkinghorn »to go over this odd story again«
»If you please sir«
»You told me when you were so good as to step round here last night «
»For which I must ask you to excuse me if it was a liberty sir but I
remember that you had taken a sort of an interest in that person and I thought
it possible that you might just wish to «
Mr Tulkinghorn is not the man to help him to any conclusion or to admit
anything as to any possibility concerning himself So Mr Snagsby trails off
into saying with an awkward cough »I must ask you to excuse the liberty sir
I am sure«
»Not at all« says Mr Tulkinghorn »You told me Snagsby that you put on
your hat and came round without mentioning your intention to your wife That was
prudent I think because its not a matter of such importance that it requires
to be mentioned«
»Well sir« returns Mr Snagsby »you see my little woman is not to put
too fine a point upon it inquisitive Shes inquisitive Poor little thing
shes liable to spasms and its good for her to have her mind employed In
consequence of which she employs it I should say upon every individual thing
she can lay hold of whether it concerns her or not especially not My little
woman has a very active mind sir«
Mr Snagsby drinks and murmurs with an admiring cough behind his hand
»Dear me very fine wine indeed«
»Therefore you kept your visit to yourself last night« says Mr
Tulkinghorn »And tonight too«
»Yes sir and tonight too My little woman is at present in not to put
too fine a point on it in a pious state or in what she considers such and
attends the Evening Exertions which is the name they go by of a reverend party
of the name of Chadband He has a great deal of eloquence at his command
undoubtedly but I am not quite favourable to his style myself Thats neither
here nor there My little woman being engaged in that way made it easier for me
to step round in a quiet manner«
Mr Tulkinghorn assents »Fill your glass Snagsby«
»Thank you sir I am sure« returns the stationer with his cough of
deference »This is wonderfully fine wine sir«
»It is a rare wine now« says Mr Tulkinghorn »It is fifty years old«
»Is it indeed sir But I am not surprised to hear it I am sure It might
be any age almost« After rendering this general tribute to the port Mr
Snagsby in his modesty coughs an apology behind his hand for drinking anything
so precious
»Will you run over once again what the boy said« asks Mr Tulkinghorn
putting his hands into the pockets of his rusty smallclothes and leaning
quietly back in his chair
»With pleasure sir«
Then with fidelity though with some prolixity the lawstationer repeats
Jos statement made to the assembled guests at his house On coming to the end
of his narrative he gives a great start and breaks off with »Dear me sir I
wasnt aware there was any other gentleman present«
Mr Snagsby is dismayed to see standing with an attentive face between
himself and the lawyer at a little distance from the table a person with a hat
and stick in his hand who was not there when he himself came in and has not
since entered by the door or by either of the windows There is a press in the
room but its hinges have not creaked nor has a step been audible upon the
floor Yet this third person stands there with his attentive face and his hat
and stick in his hands and his hands behind him a composed and quiet listener
He is a stoutly built steadylooking sharpeyed man in black of about the
middleage Except that he looks at Mr Snagsby as if he were going to take his
portrait there is nothing remarkable about him at first sight but his ghostly
manner of appearing
»Dont mind this gentleman« says Mr Tulkinghorn in his quiet way »This
is only Mr Bucket«
»O indeed sir« returns the stationer expressing by a cough that he is
quite in the dark as to who Mr Bucket may be
»I wanted him to hear this story« says the lawyer »because I have half a
mind for a reason to know more of it and he is very intelligent in such
things What do you say to this Bucket«
»Its very plain sir Since our people have moved this boy on and hes not
to be found on his old lay if Mr Snagsby dont object to go down with me to
TomallAlones and point him out we can have him here in less than a couple of
hours time I can do it without Mr Snagsby of course but this is the
shortest way«
»Mr Bucket is a detective officer Snagsby« says the lawyer in
explanation
»Is he indeed sir« says Mr Snagsby with a strong tendency in his clump
of hair to stand on end
»And if you have no real objection to accompany Mr Bucket to the place in
question« pursues the lawyer »I shall feel obliged to you if you will do so«
In a moments hesitation on the part of Mr Snagsby Bucket dips down to the
bottom of his mind
»Dont you be afraid of hurting the boy« he says »You wont do that Its
all right as far as the boys concerned We shall only bring him here to ask him
a question or so I want to put to him and hell be paid for his trouble and
sent away again Itll be a good job for him I promise you as a man that you
shall see the boy sent away all right Dont you be afraid of hurting him you
ant going to do that«
»Very well Mr Tulkinghorn« cries Mr Snagsby cheerfully and reassured
»since thats the case «
»Yes and lookee here Mr Snagsby« resumes Bucket taking him aside by the
arm tapping him familiarly on the breast and speaking in a confidential tone
»Youre a man of the world you know and a man of business and a man of sense.
Thats what you are«
»I am sure I am much obliged to you for your good opinion« returns the
stationer with his cough of modesty »but «
»Thats what you are you know« says Bucket »Now it ant necessary to say
to a man like you engaged in your business which is a business of trust and
requires a person to be wide awake and have his senses about him and his head
screwed on tight I had an uncle in your business once it ant necessary to
say to a man like you that its the best and wisest way to keep little matters
like this quiet Dont you see Quiet«
»Certainly certainly« returns the other
»I dont mind telling you« says Bucket with an engaging appearance of
frankness »that as far as I can understand it there seems to be a doubt
whether this dead person wasnt entitled to a little property and whether this
female hasnt been up to some games respecting that property dont you see«
»O« says Mr Snagsby but not appearing to see quite distinctly
»Now what you want« pursues Bucket again tapping Mr Snagsby on the chest
in a comfortable and soothing manner »is that every person should have their
rights according to justice Thats what you want«
»To be sure« returns Mr Snagsby with a nod
»On account of which and at the same time to oblige a do you call it in
your business customer or client I forget how my uncle used to call it«
»Why I generally say customer myself« replies Mr Snagsby
»Youre right« returns Mr Bucket shaking hands with him quite
affectionately »on account of which and at the same time to oblige a real
good customer you mean to go down with me in confidence to TomallAlones
and to keep the whole thing quiet ever afterwards and never mention it to any
one Thats about your intentions if I understand you«
»You are right sir You are right« says Mr Snagsby
»Then heres your hat« returns his new friend quite as intimate with it as
if he had made it »and if youre ready I am«
They leave Mr Tulkinghorn without a ruffle on the surface of his
unfathomable depths drinking his old wine and go down into the streets
»You dont happen to know a very good sort of person of the name of Gridley
do you« says Bucket in friendly converse as they descend the stairs
»No« says Mr Snagsby considering »I dont know anybody of that name
Why«
»Nothing particular« says Bucket »only having allowed his temper to get a
little the better of him and having been threatening some respectable people
he is keeping out of the way of a warrant I have got against him which its a
pity that a man of sense should do«
As they walk along Mr Snagsby observes as a novelty that however quick
their pace may be his companion still seems in some undefinable manner to lurk
and lounge also that whenever he is going to turn to the right or left he
pretends to have a fixed purpose in his mind of going straight ahead and wheels
off sharply at the very last moment Now and then when they pass a
policeconstable on his beat Mr Snagsby notices that both the constable and
his guide fall into a deep abstraction as they come towards each other and
appear entirely to overlook each other and to gaze into space In a few
instances Mr Bucket coming behind some undersized young man with a shining
hat on and his sleek hair twisted into one flat curl on each side of his head
almost without glancing at him touches him with his stick upon which the young
man looking round instantly evaporates For the most part Mr Bucket notices
things in general with a face as unchanging as the great mourning ring on his
little finger or the brooch composed of not much diamond and a good deal of
setting which he wears in his shirt
When they come at last to TomallAlones Mr Bucket stops for a moment at
the corner and takes a lighted bullseye from the constable on duty there who
then accompanies him with his own particular bullseye at his waist Between
his two conductors Mr Snagsby passes along the middle of a villainous street
undrained unventilated deep in black mud and corrupt water though the roads
are dry elsewhere and reeking with such smells and sights that he who has
lived in London all his life can scarce believe his senses Branching from this
street and its heaps of ruins are other streets and courts so infamous that Mr
Snagsby sickens in body and mind and feels as if he were going every moment
deeper down into the infernal gulf
»Draw off a bit here Mr Snagsby« says Bucket as a kind of shabby
palanquin is borne towards them surrounded by a noisy crowd »Heres the fever
coming up the street«
As the unseen wretch goes by the crowd leaving that object of attraction
hovers round the three visitors like a dream of horrible faces and fades away
up alleys and into ruins and behind walls and with occasional cries and shrill
whistles of warning thenceforth flits about them until they leave the place
»Are those the feverhouses Darby« Mr Bucket coolly asks as he turns his
bullseye on a line of stinking ruins
Darby replies that all them are and further that in all for months and
months the people have been down by dozens and have been carried out dead and
dying like sheep with the rot Bucket observing to Mr Snagsby as they go on
again that he looks a little poorly Mr Snagsby answers that he feels as if he
couldnt breathe the dreadful air
There is inquiry made at various houses for a boy named Jo As few people
are known in TomallAlones by any Christian sign there is much reference to
Mr Snagsby whether he means Carrots or the Colonel or Gallows or Young
Chisel or Terrier Tip or Lanky or the Brick Mr Snagsby describes over and
over again There are conflicting opinions respecting the original of his
picture Some think it must be Carrots some say the Brick The Colonel is
produced, but is not at all near the thing Whenever Mr Snagsby and his
conductors are stationary the crowd flows round and from its squalid depths
obsequious advice heaves up to Mr Bucket Whenever they move and the angry
bullseyes glare it fades away and flits about them up the alleys and in the
ruins and behind the walls as before
At last there is a lair found out where Toughy or the Tough Subject lays
him down at night and it is thought that the Tough Subject may be Jo
Comparison of notes between Mr Snagsby and the proprietress of the house a
drunken face tied up in a black bundle and flaring out of a heap of rags on the
floor of a doghutch which is her private apartment leads to the establishment
of this conclusion Toughy has gone to the Doctors to get a bottle of stuff for
a sick woman but will be here anon
»And who have we got here tonight« says Mr Bucket opening another door
and glaring in with his bullseye »Two drunken men eh And two women The men
are sound enough« turning back each sleepers arm from his face to look at him
»Are these your good men my dears«
»Yes sir« returns one of the women »They are our husbands«
»Brickmakers eh«
»Yes sir«
»What are you doing here You dont belong to London«
»No sir We belong to Hertfordshire«
»Whereabouts in Hertfordshire«
»Saint Albans«
»Come up on the tramp«
»We walked up yesterday Theres no work down with us at present but we
have done no good by coming here and shall do none I expect«
»Thats not the way to do much good« says Mr Bucket turning his head in
the direction of the unconscious figures on the ground
»It ant indeed« replies the woman with a sigh »Jenny and me knows it full
well«
The room though two or three feet higher than the door is so low that the
head of the tallest of the visitors would touch the blackened ceiling if he
stood upright It is offensive to every sense even the gross candle burns pale
and sickly in the polluted air There are a couple of benches and a higher
bench by way of table The men lie asleep where they stumbled down but the
women sit by the candle Lying in the arms of the woman who has spoken is a
very young child
»Why what age do you call that little creature« says Bucket »It looks as
if it was born yesterday« He is not at all rough about it and as he turns his
light gently on the infant Mr Snagsby is strangely reminded of another infant
encircled with light that he has seen in pictures
»He is not three weeks old yet sir« says the woman
»Is he your child«
»Mine«
The other woman who was bending over it when they came in stoops down
again and kisses it as it lies asleep
»You seem as fond of it as if you were the mother yourself« says Mr
Bucket
»I was the mother of one like it master and it died«
»Ah Jenny Jenny« says the other woman to her »better so Much better to
think of dead than alive Jenny Much better«
»Why you ant such an unnatural woman I hope« returns Bucket sternly
»as to wish your own child dead«
»God knows you are right master« she returns »I am not Id stand between
it and death with my own life if I could as true as any pretty lady«
»Then dont talk in that wrong manner« says Mr Bucket mollified again
»Why do you do it«
»Its brought into my head master« returns the woman her eyes filling
with tears »when I look down at the child lying so If it was never to wake no
more youd think me mad I should take on so I know that very well I was with
Jenny when she lost hers warnt I Jenny and I know how she grieved But
look around you at this place Look at them« glancing at the sleepers on the
ground »Look at the boy youre waiting for whos gone out to do me a good
turn Think of the children that your business lays with often and often and
that you see grow up«
»Well well« says Mr Bucket »you train him respectable and hell be a
comfort to you and look after you in your old age you know«
»I mean to try hard« she answers wiping her eyes »But I have been
athinking, being overtired tonight and not well with the ague of all the
many things thatll come in his way My master will be against it and hell be
beat and see me beat and made to fear his home and perhaps to stray wild If
I work for him ever so much and ever so hard theres no one to help me and if
he should be turned bad spite of all I could do and the time should come when
I should sit by him in his sleep made hard and changed ant it likely I should
think of him as he lies in my lap now and wish he had died as Jennys child
died«
»There there« says Jenny »Liz youre tired and ill Let me take him«
In doing so she displaces the mothers dress but quickly readjusts it over
the wounded and bruised bosom where the baby has been lying
»Its my dead child« says Jenny walking up and down as she nurses »that
makes me love this child so dear and its my dead child that makes her love it
so dear too as even to think of its being taken away from her now While she
thinks that I think what fortune would I give to have my darling back But we
mean the same thing if we knew how to say it us two mothers does in our poor
hearts«
As Mr Snagsby blows his nose and coughs his cough of sympathy a step is
heard without Mr Bucket throws his light into the doorway and says to Mr
Snagsby »Now what do you say to Toughy Will he do«
»Thats Jo« says Mr Snagsby
Jo stands amazed in the disc of light like a ragged figure in a
magiclanthorn trembling to think that he has offended against the law in not
having moved on far enough Mr Snagsby however giving him the consolatory
assurance »Its only a job you will be paid for Jo« he recovers and on
being taken outside by Mr Bucket for a little private confabulation tells his
tale satisfactorily though out of breath
»I have squared it with the lad« says Mr Bucket returning »and its all
right Now Mr Snagsby were ready for you«
First Jo has to complete his errand of goodnature by handing over the
physic he has been to get which he delivers with the laconic verbal direction
that »its to be all took drectly« Secondly Mr Snagsby has to lay upon the
table halfacrown his usual panacea for an immense variety of afflictions
Thirdly Mr Bucket has to take Jo by the arm a little above the elbow and walk
him on before him without which observance neither the Tough Subject nor any
other Subject could be professionally conducted to Lincolns Inn Fields These
arrangements completed they give the women good night and come out once more
into black and foul TomallAlones
By the noisome ways through which they descended into that pit they
gradually emerge from it the crowd flitting and whistling and skulking about
them until they come to the verge where restoration of the bullseyes is made
to Darby Here the crowd like a concourse of imprisoned demons turns back
yelling and is seen no more Through the clearer and fresher streets never so
clear and fresh to Mr Snagsbys mind as now they walk and ride until they
come to Mr Tulkinghorns gate
As they ascend the dim stairs Mr Tulkinghorns chambers being on the first
floor Mr Bucket mentions that he has the key of the outer door in his pocket
and that there is no need to ring For a man so expert in most things of that
kind Bucket takes time to open the door and makes some noise too It may be
that he sounds a note of preparation
Howbeit they come at last into the hall where a lamp is burning and so
into Mr Tulkinghorns usual room the room where he drank his old wine
tonight He is not there but his two oldfashioned candlesticks are and the
room is tolerably light
Mr Bucket still having his professional hold of Jo and appearing to Mr
Snagsby to possess an unlimited number of eyes makes a little way into this
room when Jo starts and stops
»Whats the matter« says Bucket in a whisper
»There she is« cries Jo
»Who«
»The lady«
A female figure closely veiled stands in the middle of the room where the
light falls upon it It is quite still and silent The front of the figure is
towards them but it takes no notice of their entrance and remains like a
statue
»Now tell me« says Bucket aloud »how you know that to be the lady«
»I know the wale« replies Jo staring »and the bonnet and the gownd«
»Be quite sure of what you say Tough« returns Bucket narrowly observant
of him »Look again«
»I am alooking as hard as ever I can look« says Jo with starting eyes
»and that theres the wale the bonnet and the gownd«
»What about those rings you told me of« asks Bucket
»Asparkling all over here« says Jo rubbing the fingers of his left hand
on the knuckles of his right without taking his eyes from the figure
The figure removes the righthand glove and shows the hand
»Now what do you say to that« asks Bucket
Jo shakes his head »Not rings a bit like them Not a hand like that«
»What are you talking of« says Bucket evidently pleased though and well
pleased too
»Hand was a deal whiter a deal delicater and a deal smaller« returns Jo
»Why youll tell me Im my own mother next« says Mr Bucket »Do you
recollect the ladys voice«
»I think I does« says Jo
The figure speaks »Was it at all like this I will speak as long as you
like if you are not sure Was it this voice or at all like this voice«
Jo looks aghast at Mr Bucket »Not a bit«
»Then what« retorts that worthy pointing to the figure »did you say it
was the lady for«
»Cos« says Jo with a perplexed stare but without being at all shaken in
his certainty »Cos that theres the wale the bonnet and the gownd It is her
and it ant her It ant her hand nor yet her rings nor yet her woice But
that theres the wale the bonnet and the gownd and theyre wore the same way
wot she wore em and its her height wot she wos and she giv me a sovring and
hooked it«
»Well« says Mr Bucket slightly »we havent got much good out of you
But however heres five shillings for you Take care how you spend it and
dont get yourself into trouble« Bucket stealthily tells the coins from one
hand into the other like counters which is a way he has his principal use of
them being in these games of skill and then puts them in a little pile into
the boys hand and takes him out to the door leaving Mr Snagsby not by any
means comfortable under these mysterious circumstances alone with the veiled
figure But on Mr Tulkinghorns coming into the room the veil is raised and a
sufficiently goodlooking Frenchwoman is revealed though her expression is
something of the intensest
»Thank you Mademoiselle Hortense« says Mr Tulkinghorn with his usual
equanimity »I will give you no further trouble about this little wager«
»You will do me the kindness to remember sir that I am not at present
placed« says Mademoiselle
»Certainly certainly«
»And to confer upon me the favour of your distinguished recommendation«
»By all means Mademoiselle Hortense«
»A word from Mr Tulkinghorn is so powerful« »It shall not be wanting
Mademoiselle« »Receive the assurance of my devoted gratitude dear sir«
»Good night« Mademoiselle goes out with an air of native gentility and Mr
Bucket to whom it is on an emergency as natural to be groom of the ceremonies
as it is to be anything else shows her downstairs not without gallantry
»Well Bucket« quoth Mr Tulkinghorn on his return
»Its all squared you see as I squared it myself sir There ant a doubt
that it was the other one with this ones dress on The boy was exact respecting
colours and everything Mr Snagsby I promised you as a man that he should be
sent away all right Dont say it wasnt done«
»You have kept your word sir« returns the stationer »and if I can be of
no further use Mr Tulkinghorn I think as my little woman will be getting
anxious «
»Thank you Snagsby no further use« says Mr Tulkinghorn »I am quite
indebted to you for the trouble you have taken already«
»Not at all sir I wish you good night«
»You see Mr Snagsby« says Mr Bucket accompanying him to the door and
shaking hands with him over and over again »what I like in you is that youre
a man its of no use pumping thats what you are When you know you have done a
right thing you put it away and its done with and gone and theres an end of
it Thats what you do«
»That is certainly what I endeavour to do sir« returns Mr Snagsby
»No you dont do yourself justice It ant what you endeavour to do« says
Mr Bucket shaking hands with him and blessing him in the tenderest manner
»its what you do Thats what I estimate in a man in your way of business«
Mr Snagsby makes a suitable response and goes homeward so confused by the
events of the evening that he is doubtful of his being awake and out doubtful
of the reality of the streets through which he goes doubtful of the reality of
the moon that shines above him He is presently reassured on these subjects by
the unchallengeable reality of Mrs Snagsby sitting up with her head in a
perfect beehive of curlpapers and nightcap who has despatched Guster to the
policestation with official intelligence of her husbands being made away with
and who within the last two hours has passed through every stage of swooning
with the greatest decorum But as the little woman feelingly says many thanks
she gets for it
Chapter XXIII
Esthers Narrative
We came home from Mr Boythorns after six pleasant weeks We were often in the
park and in the woods and seldom passed the Lodge where we had taken shelter
without looking in to speak to the keepers wife but we saw no more of Lady
Dedlock except at church on Sundays There was company at Chesney Wold and
although several beautiful faces surrounded her her face retained the same
influence on me as at first I do not quite know even now whether it was
painful or pleasurable whether it drew me towards her or made me shrink from
her I think I admired her with a kind of fear and I know that in her presence
my thoughts always wandered back as they had done at first to that old time of
my life
I had a fancy on more than one of these Sundays that what this lady so
curiously was to me I was to her I mean that I disturbed her thoughts as she
influenced mine though in some different way But when I stole a glance at her
and saw her so composed and distant and unapproachable I felt this to be a
foolish weakness Indeed I felt the whole state of my mind in reference to her
to be weak and unreasonable and I remonstrated with myself about it as much as
I could
One incident that occurred before we quitted Mr Boythorns house I had
better mention in this place
I was walking in the garden with Ada when I was told that some one wished
to see me Going into the breakfastroom where this person was waiting I found
it to be the French maid who had cast off her shoes and walked through the wet
grass on the day when it thundered and lightened
»Mademoiselle« she began looking fixedly at me with her tooeager eyes
though otherwise presenting an agreeable appearance and speaking neither with
boldness nor servility »I have taken a great liberty in coming here but you
know how to excuse it being so amiable mademoiselle«
»No excuse is necessary« I returned »if you wish to speak to me«
»That is my desire mademoiselle A thousand thanks for the permission I
have your leave to speak Is it not« she said in a quick natural way
»Certainly« said I
»Mademoiselle you are so amiable Listen then if you please I have left
my Lady We could not agree My Lady is so high so very high Pardon
Mademoiselle you are right« Her quickness anticipated what I might have said
presently but as yet had only thought »It is not for me to come here to
complain of my Lady But I say she is so high so very high I will not say a
word more All the world knows that«
»Go on if you please« said I
»Assuredly mademoiselle I am thankful for your politeness Mademoiselle I
have an inexpressible desire to find service with a young lady who is good
accomplished beautiful You are good accomplished and beautiful as an angel
Ah could I have the honour of being your domestic«
»I am sorry « I began
»Do not dismiss me so soon mademoiselle« she said with an involuntary
contraction of her fine black eyebrows »Let me hope a moment Mademoiselle I
know this service would be more retired than that which I have quitted Well I
wish that I know this service would be less distinguished than that which I
have quitted Well I wish that I know that I should win less as to wages
here Good I am content«
»I assure you« said I quite embarrassed by the mere idea of having such an
attendant »that I keep no maid «
»Ah mademoiselle but why not Why not when you can have one so devoted to
you Who would be enchanted to serve you who would be so true so zealous and
so faithful every day Mademoiselle I wish with all my heart to serve you Do
not speak of money at present Take me as I am For nothing«
She was so singularly earnest that I drew back almost afraid of her
Without appearing to notice it in her ardour she still pressed herself upon me
speaking in a rapid subdued voice though always with a certain grace and
propriety
»Mademoiselle I come from the South country where we are quick and where
we like and dislike very strong My Lady was too high for me I was too high for
her It is done past finished Receive me as your domestic and I will serve
you well I will do more for you than you figure to yourself now Chut
mademoiselle I will no matter I will do my utmost possible in all things
If you accept my service you will not repent it Mademoiselle you will not
repent it and I will serve you well You dont know how well«
There was a lowering energy in her face as she stood looking at me while I
explained the impossibility of my engaging her without thinking it necessary to
say how very little I desired to do so which seemed to bring visibly before me
some woman from the streets of Paris in the reign of terror She heard me out
without interruption and then said with her pretty accent and in her mildest
voice
»Hey mademoiselle I have received my answer I am sorry of it But I must
go elsewhere and seek what I have not found here Will you graciously let me
kiss your hand«
She looked at me more intently as she took it and seemed to take note with
her momentary touch of every vein in it »I fear I surprised you mademoiselle
on the day of the storm« she said with a parting curtsey
I confessed that she had surprised us all
»I took an oath mademoiselle« she said smiling »and I wanted to stamp it
on my mind so that I might keep it faithfully And I will Adieu
mademoiselle«
So ended our conference which I was very glad to bring to a close I
supposed she went away from the village for I saw her no more and nothing else
occurred to disturb our tranquil summer pleasures until six weeks were out and
we returned home as I began just now by saying
At that time and for a good many weeks after that time Richard was
constant in his visits Besides coming every Saturday or Sunday and remaining
with us until Monday morning he sometimes rode out on horseback unexpectedly
and passed the evening with us and rode back again early next day He was as
vivacious as ever and told us he was very industrious but I was not easy in my
mind about him It appeared to me that his industry was all misdirected I could
not find that it led to anything but the formation of delusive hopes in
connexion with the suit already the pernicious cause of so much sorrow and ruin
He had got at the core of that mystery now he told us and nothing could be
plainer than that the will under which he and Ada were to take I dont know how
many thousands of pounds must be finally established if there were any sense
or justice in the Court of Chancery but O what a great if that sounded in my
ears and that this happy conclusion could not be much longer delayed He
proved this to himself by all the weary arguments on that side he had read and
every one of them sunk him deeper in the infatuation He had even begun to haunt
the Court He told us how he saw Miss Flite there daily how they talked
together and how he did her little kindnesses and how while he laughed at
her he pitied her from his heart But he never thought never my poor dear
sanguine Richard capable of so much happiness then and with such better things
before him what a fatal link was riveting between his fresh youth and her
faded age between his free hopes and her caged birds and her hungry garret
and her wandering mind
Ada loved him too well to mistrust him much in anything he said or did and
my guardian though he frequently complained of the east wind and read more than
usual in the Growlery preserved a strict silence on the subject So I thought
one day when I went to London to meet Caddy Jellyby at her solicitation I
would ask Richard to be in waiting for me at the coachoffice that we might
have a little talk together I found him there when I arrived and we walked
away arm in arm
»Well Richard« said I as soon as I could begin to be grave with him »are
you beginning to feel more settled now«
»O yes my dear« returned Richard »Im all right enough«
»But settled« said I
»How do you mean settled« returned Richard with his gay laugh
»Settled in the law« said I
»O aye« replied Richard »Im all right enough«
»You said that before my dear Richard«
»And you dont think its an answer eh Well Perhaps its not Settled
You mean do I feel as if I were settling down«
»Yes«
»Why no I cant say I am settling down« said Richard strongly
emphasising down as if that expressed the difficulty »because one cant settle
down while this business remains in such an unsettled state When I say this
business of course I mean the forbidden subject«
»Do you think it will ever be in a settled state« said I
»Not the least doubt of it« answered Richard
We walked a little way without speaking and presently Richard addressed me
in his frankest and most feeling manner thus
»My dear Esther I understand you and I wish to Heaven I were a more
constant sort of fellow I dont mean constant to Ada for I love her dearly
better and better every day but constant to myself Somehow I mean something
that I cant very well express but youll make it out If I were a more
constant sort of fellow I should have held on either to Badger or to Kenge
and Carboy like grim Death and should have begun to be steady and systematic
by this time and shouldnt be in debt and «
»Are you in debt Richard«
»Yes« said Richard »I am a little so my dear Also I have taken rather
too much to billiards and that sort of thing Now the murders out you despise
me Esther dont you«
»You know I dont« said I
»You are kinder to me than I often am to myself« he returned »My dear
Esther I am a very unfortunate dog not to be more settled but how can I be
more settled If you lived in an unfinished house you couldnt settle down in
it if you were condemned to leave everything you undertook unfinished you
would find it hard to apply yourself to anything and yet thats my unhappy
case I was born into this unfinished contention with all its chances and
changes and it began to unsettle me before I quite knew the difference between
a suit at law and a suit of clothes and it has gone on unsettling me ever
since and here I am now conscious sometimes that I am but a worthless fellow
to love my confiding cousin Ada«
We were in a solitary place and he put his hands before his eyes and sobbed
as he said the words
»O Richard« said I »do not be so moved You have a noble nature and Adas
love may make you worthier every day«
»I know my dear« he replied pressing my arm »I know all that You
mustnt mind my being a little soft now for I have had all this upon my mind
for a long time and have often meant to speak to you and have sometimes wanted
opportunity and sometimes courage I know what the thought of Ada ought to do
for me but it doesnt do it I am too unsettled even for that I love her most
devotedly and yet I do her wrong in doing myself wrong every day and hour
But it cant last for ever We shall come on for a final hearing and get
judgment in our favour and then you and Ada shall see what I can really be«
It had given me a pang to hear him sob and see the tears start out between
his fingers but that was infinitely less affecting to me than the hopeful
animation with which he said these words
»I have looked well into the papers Esther I have been deep in them for
months« he continued recovering his cheerfulness in a moment »and you may
rely upon it that we shall come out triumphant As to years of delay there has
been no want of them Heaven knows and there is the greater probability of our
bringing the matter to a speedy close in fact its on the paper now It will
be all right at last and then you shall see«
Recalling how he had just now placed Messrs Kenge and Carboy in the same
category with Mr Badger I asked him when he intended to be articled in
Lincolns Inn
»There again I think not at all Esther« he returned with an effort »I
fancy I have had enough of it Having worked at Jarndyce and Jarndyce like a
galley slave I have slaked my thirst for the law and satisfied myself that I
shouldnt like it Besides I find it unsettles me more and more to be so
constantly upon the scene of action So what« continued Richard confident
again by this time »do I naturally turn my thoughts to«
»I cant imagine« said I
»Dont look so serious« returned Richard »because its the best thing I
can do my dear Esther I am certain Its not as if I wanted a profession for
life These proceedings will come to a termination and then I am provided for
No I look upon it as a pursuit which is in its nature more or less unsettled
and therefore suited to my temporary condition I may say precisely suited
What is it that I naturally turn my thoughts to«
I looked at him and shook my head
»What« said Richard in a tone of perfect conviction »but the army«
»The army« said I
»The army of course What I have to do is to get a commission and
there I am you know« said Richard
And then he showed me proved by elaborate calculations in his pocketbook
that supposing he had contracted say two hundred pounds of debt in six months
out of the army and that he contracted no debt at all within a corresponding
period in the army as to which he had quite made up his mind this step must
involve a saving of four hundred pounds in a year or two thousand pounds in
five years which was a considerable sum And then he spoke so ingenuously and
sincerely of the sacrifice he made in withdrawing himself for a time from Ada
and of the earnestness with which he aspired as in thought he always did I
know full well to repay her love and to ensure her happiness and to conquer
what was amiss in himself and to acquire the very soul of decision that he
made my heart ache keenly sorely For I thought how would this end how could
this end when so soon and so surely all his manly qualities were touched by the
fatal blight that ruined everything it rested on
I spoke to Richard with all the earnestness I felt and all the hope I could
not quite feel then and implored him for Adas sake not to put any trust in
Chancery To all I said Richard readily assented riding over the Court and
everything else in his easy way and drawing the brightest pictures of the
character he was to settle into alas when the grievous suit should loose its
hold upon him We had a long talk but it always came back to that in
substance
At last we came to Soho Square where Caddy Jellyby had appointed to wait
for me as a quiet place in the neighbourhood of Newman Street Caddy was in the
garden in the centre and hurried out as soon as I appeared After a few
cheerful words Richard left us together
»Prince has a pupil over the way Esther« said Caddy »and got the key for
us So if you will walk round and round here with me we can lock ourselves in
and I can tell you comfortably what I wanted to see your dear good face about«
»Very well my dear« said I »Nothing could be better« So Caddy after
affectionately squeezing the dear good face as she called it locked the gate
and took my arm and we began to walk round the garden very cosily
»You see Esther« said Caddy who thoroughly enjoyed a little confidence
»after you spoke to me about its being wrong to marry without Mas knowledge or
even to keep Ma long in the dark respecting our engagement though I dont
believe Ma cares much for me I must say I thought it right to mention your
opinions to Prince In the first place because I want to profit by everything
you tell me and in the second place because I have no secrets from Prince«
»I hope he approved Caddy«
»O my dear I assure you he would approve of anything you could say You
have no idea what an opinion he has of you«
»Indeed«
»Esther its enough to make anybody but me jealous« said Caddy laughing
and shaking her head »but it only makes me joyful for you are the first friend
I ever had and the best friend I ever can have and nobody can respect and love
you too much to please me«
»Upon my word Caddy« said I »you are in the general conspiracy to keep me
in a good humour Well my dear«
»Well I am going to tell you« replied Caddy crossing her hands
confidentially upon my arm »So we talked a good deal about it and so I said to
Prince Prince as Miss Summerson «
»I hope you didnt say Miss Summerson«
»No I didnt« cried Caddy greatly pleased and with the brightest of
faces »I said Esther I said to Prince As Esther is decidedly of that
opinion Prince and has expressed it to me and always hints it when she writes
those kind notes which you are so fond of hearing me read to you I am prepared
to disclose the truth to Ma whenever you think proper And I think Prince said
I that Esther thinks that I should be in a better and truer and more
honourable position altogether if you did the same to your Papa«
»Yes my dear« said I »Esther certainly does think so«
»So I was right you see« exclaimed Caddy »Well this troubled Prince a
good deal not because he had the least doubt about it but because he is so
considerate of the feelings of old Mr Turveydrop and he had his apprehensions
that old Mr Turveydrop might break his heart or faint away or be very much
overcome in some affecting manner or other if he made such an announcement He
feared old Mr Turveydrop might consider it undutiful and might receive too
great a shock For old Mr Turveydrops deportment is very beautiful you know
Esther« said Caddy »and his feelings are extremely sensitive«
»Are they my dear«
»O extremely sensitive Prince says so Now this has caused my darling
child I didnt mean to use the expression to you Esther« Caddy apologised
her face suffused with blushes »but I generally call Prince my darling child«
I laughed and Caddy laughed and blushed and went on
»This has caused him Esther «
»Caused whom my dear«
»O you tiresome thing« said Caddy laughing with her pretty face on fire
»My darling child if you insist upon it This has caused him weeks of
uneasiness and has made him delay from day to day in a very anxious manner
At last he said to me Caddy if Miss Summerson who is a great favourite with
my father could be prevailed upon to be present when I broke the subject I
think I could do it So I promised I would ask you And I made up my mind
besides« said Caddy looking at me hopefully but timidly »that if you
consented I would ask you afterwards to come with me to Ma This is what I
meant when I said in my note that I had a great favour and a great assistance
to beg of you And if you thought you could grant it Esther we should both be
very grateful«
»Let me see Caddy« said I pretending to consider »Really I think I could
do a greater thing than that if the need were pressing I am at your service
and the darling childs my dear whenever you like«
Caddy was quite transported by this reply of mine being I believe as
susceptible to the least kindness or encouragement as any tender heart that ever
beat in this world and after another turn or two round the garden during which
she put on an entirely new pair of gloves and made herself as resplendent as
possible that she might do no avoidable discredit to the Master of Deportment
we went to Newman Street direct
Prince was teaching of course We found him engaged with a not very hopeful
pupil a stubborn little girl with a sulky forehead a deep voice and an
inanimate dissatisfied mamma whose case was certainly not rendered more
hopeful by the confusion into which we threw her preceptor The lesson at last
came to an end after proceeding as discordantly as possible and when the
little girl had changed her shoes and had had her white muslin extinguished in
shawls she was taken away After a few words of preparation we then went in
search of Mr Turveydrop whom we found grouped with his hat and gloves as a
model of Deportment on the sofa in his private apartment the only comfortable
room in the house He appeared to have dressed at his leisure in the intervals
of a light collation and his dressingcase brushes and so forth all of quite
an elegant kind lay about
»Father Miss Summerson Miss Jellyby«
»Charmed Enchanted« said Mr Turveydrop rising with his highshouldered
bow »Permit me« handing chairs »Be seated« kissing the tips of his left
fingers »Overjoyed« shutting his eyes and rolling »My little retreat is made
a Paradise« Recomposing himself on the sofa like the second gentleman in
Europe
»Again you find us Miss Summerson« said he »using our little arts to
polish polish Again the sex stimulates us and rewards us by the
condescension of its lovely presence It is much in these times and we have
made an awfully degenerating business of it since the days of His Royal Highness
the Prince Regent my patron if I may presume to say so to experience that
Deportment is not wholly trodden under foot by mechanics That it can yet bask
in the smile of Beauty my dear madam«
I said nothing which I thought a suitable reply and he took a pinch of
snuff
»My dear son« said Mr Turveydrop »you have four schools this afternoon I
would recommend a hasty sandwich«
»Thank you father« returned Prince »I will be sure to be punctual My
dear father may I beg you to prepare your mind for what I am going to say«
»Good Heaven« exclaimed the model pale and aghast as Prince and Caddy
hand in hand bent down before him »What is this Is this lunacy Or what is
this«
»Father« returned Prince with great submission »I love this young lady
and we are engaged«
»Engaged« cried Mr Turveydrop reclining on the sofa and shutting out the
sight with his hand »An arrow launched at my brain by my own child«
»We have been engaged for some time father« faltered Prince »and Miss
Summerson hearing of it advised that we should declare the fact to you and
was so very kind as to attend on the present occasion Miss Jellyby is a young
lady who deeply respects you father«
Mr Turveydrop uttered a groan
»No pray dont Pray dont father« urged his son »Miss Jellyby is a
young lady who deeply respects you and our first desire is to consider your
comfort«
Mr Turveydrop sobbed
»No pray dont father« cried his son
»Boy« said Mr Turveydrop »it is well that your sainted mother is spared
this pang Strike deep and spare not Strike home sir strike home«
»Pray dont say so father« implored Prince in tears »It goes to my
heart I do assure you father that our first wish and intention is to consider
your comfort Caroline and I do not forget our duty what is my duty is
Carolines as we have often said together and with your approval and
consent father we will devote ourselves to making your life agreeable«
»Strike home« murmured Mr Turveydrop »Strike home«
But he seemed to listen I thought too
»My dear father« returned Prince »we well know what little comforts you
are accustomed to and have a right to and it will always be our study and our
pride to provide those before anything If you will bless us with your approval
and consent father we shall not think of being married until it is quite
agreeable to you and when we are married we shall always make you of course
our first consideration You must ever be the Head and Master here father
and we feel how truly unnatural it would be in us, if we failed to know it or
if we failed to exert ourselves in every possible way to please you«
Mr Turveydrop underwent a severe internal struggle and came upright on the
sofa again with his cheeks puffing over his stiff cravat a perfect model of
parental deportment
»My son« said Mr Turveydrop »My children I cannot resist your prayer Be
happy«
His benignity as he raised his future daughterinlaw and stretched out his
hand to his son who kissed it with affectionate respect and gratitude was the
most confusing sight I ever saw
»My children« said Mr Turveydrop paternally encircling Caddy with his
left arm as she sat beside him and putting his right hand gracefully on his
hip »My son and daughter your happiness shall be my care I will watch over
you You shall always live with me« meaning of course I will always live with
you »this house is henceforth as much yours as mine consider it your home May
you long live to share it with me«
The power of his Deportment was such that they really were as much overcome
with thankfulness as if instead of quartering himself upon them for the rest of
his life he were making some munificent sacrifice in their favour
»For myself my children« said Mr Turveydrop »I am falling into the sear
and yellow leaf and it is impossible to say how long the last feeble traces of
gentlemanly Deportment may linger in this weaving and spinning age But so
long I will do my duty to society and will show myself as usual about town
My wants are few and simple My little apartment here my few essentials for the
toilet my frugal morning meal and my little dinner will suffice I charge
your dutiful affection with the supply of these requirements and I charge
myself with all the rest«
They were overpowered afresh by his uncommon generosity
»My son« said Mr Turveydrop »for those little points in which you are
deficient points of Deportment which are born with a man which may be
improved by cultivation but can never be originated you may still rely on me
I have been faithful to my post since the days of His Royal Highness the Prince
Regent and I will not desert it now No my son If you have ever contemplated
your fathers poor position with a feeling of pride you may rest assured that
he will do nothing to tarnish it For yourself Prince whose character is
different we cannot be all alike nor is it advisable that we should work be
industrious earn money and extend the connexion as much as possible«
»That you may depend I will do dear father with all my heart« replied
Prince
»I have no doubt of it« said Mr Turveydrop »Your qualities are not
shining my dear child but they are steady and useful And to both of you my
dear children I would merely observe in the spirit of a sainted Wooman on
whose path I had the happiness of casting I believe some ray of light take
care of the establishment take care of my simple wants and bless you both«
Old Mr Turveydrop then became so very gallant in honour of the occasion
that I told Caddy we must really go to Thavies Inn at once if we were to go at
all that day So we took our departure after a very loving farewell between
Caddy and her betrothed and during our walk she was so happy and so full of
old Mr Turveydrops praises that I would not have said a word in his
disparagement for any consideration
The house in Thavies Inn had bills in the windows announcing that it was to
let and it looked dirtier and gloomier and ghastlier than ever The name of
poor Mr Jellyby had appeared in the list of Bankrupts but a day or two before
and he was shut up in the diningroom with two gentlemen and a heap of blue
bags accountbooks and papers making the most desperate endeavours to
understand his affairs They appeared to me to be quite beyond his
comprehension for when Caddy took me into the diningroom by mistake and we
came upon Mr Jellyby in his spectacles forlornly fenced into a corner by the
great diningtable and the two gentlemen he seemed to have given up the whole
thing and to be speechless and insensible
Going upstairs to Mrs Jellybys room the children were all screaming in
the kitchen and there was no servant to be seen we found that lady in the
midst of a voluminous correspondence opening reading and sorting letters
with a great accumulation of torn covers on the floor She was so preoccupied
that at first she did not know me though she sat looking at me with that
curious brighteyed faroff look of hers
»Ah Miss Summerson« she said at last »I was thinking of something so
different I hope you are well I am happy to see you Mr Jarndyce and Miss
Clare quite well«
I hoped in return that Mr Jellyby was quite well
»Why not quite my dear« said Mrs Jellyby in the calmest manner »He has
been unfortunate in his affairs and is a little out of spirits Happily for me
I am so much engaged that I have no time to think about it We have at the
present moment one hundred and seventy families Miss Summerson averaging five
persons in each either gone or going to the left bank of the Niger«
I thought of the one family so near us who were neither gone nor going to
the left bank of the Niger and wondered how she could be so placid
»You have brought Caddy back I see« observed Mrs Jellyby with a glance
at her daughter »It has become quite a novelty to see her here She has almost
deserted her old employment and in fact obliges me to employ a boy«
»I am sure Ma « began Caddy
»Now you know Caddy« her mother mildly interposed »that I do employ a
boy who is now at his dinner What is the use of your contradicting«
»I was not going to contradict Ma« returned Caddy »I was only going to
say that surely you wouldnt have me be a mere drudge all my life«
»I believe my dear« said Mrs Jellyby still opening her letters casting
her bright eyes smilingly over them and sorting them as she spoke »that you
have a business example before you in your mother Besides A mere drudge If
you had any sympathy with the destinies of the human race it would raise you
high above any such idea But you have none I have often told you Caddy you
have no such sympathy«
»Not if its Africa Ma I have not«
»Of course you have not Now if I were not happily so much engaged Miss
Summerson« said Mrs Jellyby sweetly casting her eyes for a moment on me and
considering where to put the particular letter she had just opened »this would
distress and disappoint me But I have so much to think of in connexion with
BorrioboolaGha and it is so necessary I should concentrate myself that there
is my remedy you see«
As Caddy gave me a glance of entreaty and as Mrs Jellyby was looking far
away into Africa straight through my bonnet and head I thought it a good
opportunity to come to the subject of my visit and to attract Mrs Jellybys
attention
»Perhaps« I began »you will wonder what has brought me here to interrupt
you«
»I am always delighted to see Miss Summerson« said Mrs Jellyby pursuing
her employment with a placid smile »Though I wish« and she shook her head
»she was more interested in the Borrioboolan project«
»I have come with Caddy« said I »because Caddy justly thinks she ought not
to have a secret from her mother and fancies I shall encourage and aid her
though I am sure I dont know how in imparting one«
»Caddy« said Mrs Jellyby pausing for a moment in her occupation and then
serenely pursuing it after shaking her head »you are going to tell me some
nonsense«
Caddy untied the strings of her bonnet took her bonnet off and letting it
dangle on the floor by the strings and crying heartily said »Ma I am
engaged«
»O you ridiculous child« observed Mrs Jellyby with an abstracted air as
she looked over the despatch last opened »what a goose you are«
»I am engaged Ma« sobbed Caddy »to young Mr Turveydrop at the Academy
and old Mr Turveydrop who is a very gentlemanly man indeed has given his
consent and I beg and pray youll give us yours Ma because I never could be
happy without it I never never could« sobbed Caddy quite forgetful of her
general complainings and of everything but her natural affection
»You see again Miss Summerson« observed Mrs Jellyby serenely »what a
happiness it is to be so much occupied as I am and to have this necessity for
selfconcentration that I have Here is Caddy engaged to a dancingmasters son
mixed up with people who have no more sympathy with the destinies of the human
race than she has herself This too when Mr Quale one of the first
philanthropists of our time has mentioned to me that he was really disposed to
be interested in her«
»Ma I always hated and detested Mr Quale« sobbed Caddy
»Caddy Caddy« returned Mrs Jellyby opening another letter with the
greatest complacency »I have no doubt you did How could you do otherwise
being totally destitute of the sympathies with which he overflows Now if my
public duties were not a favourite child to me if I were not occupied with
large measures on a vast scale these petty details might grieve me very much
Miss Summerson But can I permit the film of a silly proceeding on the part of
Caddy from whom I expect nothing else to interpose between me and the great
African continent No No« repeated Mrs Jellyby in a calm clear voice and
with an agreeable smile as she opened more letters and sorted them »No
indeed«
I was so unprepared for the perfect coolness of this reception though I
might have expected it that I did not know what to say Caddy seemed equally at
a loss Mrs Jellyby continued to open and sort letters and to repeat
occasionally in quite a charming tone of voice and with a smile of perfect
composure »No indeed«
»I hope Ma« sobbed poor Caddy at last »you are not angry«
»O Caddy you really are an absurd girl« returned Mrs Jellyby »to ask
such questions after what I have said of the preoccupation of my mind«
»And I hope Ma you give us your consent and wish us well« said Caddy
»You are a nonsensical child to have done anything of this kind« said Mrs
Jellyby »and a degenerate child when you might have devoted yourself to the
great public measure But the step is taken and I have engaged a boy and there
is no more to be said Now pray Caddy« said Mrs Jellyby for Caddy was
kissing her »dont delay me in my work but let me clear off this heavy batch
of papers before the afternoon post comes in«
I thought I could not do better than take my leave I was detained for a
moment by Caddys saying
»You wont object to my bringing him to see you Ma«
»O dear me Caddy« cried Mrs Jellyby who had relapsed into that distant
contemplation »have you begun again Bring whom«
»Him Ma«
»Caddy Caddy« said Mrs Jellyby quite weary of such little matters »Then
you must bring him some evening which is not a Parent Society night or a Branch
night or a Ramification night You must accommodate the visit to the demands
upon my time My dear Miss Summerson it was very kind of you to come here to
help out this silly chit Goodbye When I tell you that I have fiftyeight new
letters from manufacturing families anxious to understand the details of the
Native and Coffee Cultivation question this morning I need not apologise for
having very little leisure«
I was not surprised by Caddys being in low spirits when we went
downstairs or by her sobbing afresh on my neck or by her saying she would far
rather have been scolded than treated with such indifference or by her
confiding to me that she was so poor in clothes that how she was ever to be
married creditably she didnt know I gradually cheered her up by dwelling on
the many things she would do for her unfortunate father and for Peepy when she
had a home of her own and finally we went downstairs into the damp dark
kitchen where Peepy and his little brothers and sisters were grovelling on the
stone floor and where we had such a game of play with them that to prevent
myself from being quite torn to pieces I was obliged to fall back on my fairy
tales From time to time I heard loud voices in the parlour overhead and
occasionally a violent tumbling about of the furniture The last effect I am
afraid was caused by poor Mr Jellybys breaking away from the diningtable and
making rushes at the window with the intention of throwing himself into the
area whenever he made any new attempt to understand his affairs
As I rode quietly home at night after the days bustle I thought a good
deal of Caddys engagement and felt confirmed in my hopes in spite of the
elder Mr Turveydrop that she would be the happier and better for it And if
there seemed to be but a slender chance of her and her husband ever finding out
what the model of Deportment really was why that was all for the best too and
who would wish them to be wiser I did not wish them to be any wiser and indeed
was half ashamed of not entirely believing in him myself And I looked up at the
stars and thought about travellers in distant countries and the stars they saw
and hoped I might always be so blest and happy as to be useful to some one in my
small way
They were so glad to see me when I got home as they always were that I
could have sat down and cried for joy if that had not been a method of making
myself disagreeable Everybody in the house from the lowest to the highest
showed me such a bright face of welcome and spoke so cheerily and was so happy
to do anything for me that I suppose there never was such a fortunate little
creature in the world
We got into such a chatty state that night through Ada and my guardian
drawing me out to tell them all about Caddy that I went on prose prose
prosing for a length of time At last I got up to my own room quite red to
think how I had been holding forth and then I heard a soft tap at my door So I
said »Come in« and there came in a pretty little girl neatly dressed in
mourning who dropped a curtsey
»If you please miss« said the little girl in a soft voice »I am
Charley«
»Why so you are« said I stooping down in astonishment and giving her a
kiss »How glad am I to see you Charley«
»If you please miss« pursued Charley in the same soft voice »Im your
maid«
»Charley«
»If you please miss Im a present to you with Mr Jarndyces love«
I sat down with my hand on Charleys neck and looked at Charley
»And O miss« says Charley clapping her hands with the tears starting
down her dimpled cheeks »Toms at school if you please and learning so good
And little Emma shes with Mrs Blinder miss a being took such care of And
Tom he would have been at school and Emma she would have been left with Mrs
Blinder and me I should have been here all a deal sooner miss only Mr
Jarndyce thought that Tom and Emma and me had better get a little used to
parting first we was so small Dont cry if you please miss«
»I cant help it Charley«
»No miss nor I cant help it« says Charley »And if you please miss Mr
Jarndyces love and he thinks youll like to teach me now and then And if you
please Tom and Emma and me is to see each other once a month And Im so happy
and so thankful miss« cried Charley with a heaving heart »and Ill try to be
such a good maid«
»O Charley dear never forget who did all this«
»No miss I never will Nor Tom wont Nor yet Emma It was all you miss«
»I have known nothing of it It was Mr Jarndyce Charley«
»Yes miss but it was all done for the love of you and that you might be
my mistress If you please miss I am a little present with his love and it
was all done for the love of you Me and Tom was to be sure to remember it«
Charley dried her eyes and entered on her functions going in her matronly
little way about and about the room and folding up everything she could lay her
hands upon Presently Charley came creeping back to my side and said
»O dont cry if you please miss«
And I said again »I cant help it Charley«
And Charley said again »No miss nor I cant help it« And so after all
I did cry for joy indeed and so did she
Chapter XXIV
An Appeal Case
As soon as Richard and I had held the conversation of which I have given an
account Richard communicated the state of his mind to Mr Jarndyce I doubt if
my guardian were altogether taken by surprise when he received the
representation; though it caused him much uneasiness and disappointment He and
Richard were often closeted together late at night and early in the morning
and passed whole days in London and had innumerable appointments with Mr
Kenge and laboured through a quantity of disagreeable business While they were
thus employed my guardian though he underwent considerable inconvenience from
the state of the wind and rubbed his head so constantly that not a single hair
upon it ever rested in its right place was as genial with Ada and me as at any
other time but maintained a steady reserve on these matters And as our utmost
endeavours could only elicit from Richard himself sweeping assurances that
everything was going on capitally and that it really was all right at last our
anxiety was not much relieved by him
We learnt however as the time went on that a new application was made to
the Lord Chancellor on Richards behalf as an Infant and a Ward and I dont
know what and that there was a quantity of talking and that the Lord
Chancellor described him in open court as a vexatious and capricious infant
and that the matter was adjourned and readjourned and referred and reported
on and petitioned about until Richard began to doubt as he told us whether
if he entered the army at all it would not be as a veteran of seventy or eighty
years of age At last an appointment was made for him to see the Lord Chancellor
again in his private room and there the Lord Chancellor very seriously reproved
him for trifling with time and not knowing his mind »a pretty good joke I
think« said Richard »from that quarter« and at last it was settled that his
application should be granted His name was entered at the Horse Guards as an
applicant for an Ensigns commission the purchasemoney was deposited at an
Agents and Richard in his usual characteristic way plunged into a violent
course of military study and got up at five oclock every morning to practise
the broadsword exercise
Thus vacation succeeded term and term succeeded vacation We sometimes
heard of Jarndyce and Jarndyce as being in the paper or out of the paper or as
being to be mentioned or as being to be spoken to and it came on and it went
off Richard who was now in a Professors house in London was able to be with
us less frequently than before my guardian still maintained the same reserve
and so time passed until the commission was obtained and Richard received
directions with it to join a regiment in Ireland
He arrived posthaste with the intelligence one evening and had a long
conference with my guardian Upwards of an hour elapsed before my guardian put
his head into the room where Ada and I were sitting and said »Come in my
dears« We went in and found Richard whom we had last seen in high spirits
leaning on the chimneypiece looking mortified and angry
»Rick and I Ada« said Mr Jarndyce »are not quite of one mind Come
come Rick put a brighter face upon it«
»You are very hard with me sir« said Richard »The harder because you
have been so considerate to me in all other respects and have done me
kindnesses that I can never acknowledge I never could have been set right
without you sir«
»Well well« said Mr Jarndyce »I want to set you more right yet I want
to set you more right with yourself«
»I hope you will excuse my saying sir« returned Richard in a fiery way
but yet respectfully »that I think I am the best judge about myself«
»I hope you will excuse my saying my dear Rick« observed Mr Jarndyce with
the sweetest cheerfulness and good humour »that its quite natural in you to
think so but I dont think so I must do my duty Rick or you could never care
for me in cool blood and I hope you will always care for me cool and hot«
Ada had turned so pale that he made her sit down in his readingchair and
sat beside her
»Its nothing my dear« he said »its nothing Rick and I have only had a
friendly difference which we must state to you for you are the theme Now you
are afraid of whats coming«
»I am not indeed cousin John« replied Ada with a smile »if it is to come
from you«
»Thank you my dear Do you give me a minutes calm attention without
looking at Rick And little woman do you likewise My dear girl« putting his
hand on hers as it lay on the side of the easychair »you recollect the talk
we had we four when the little woman told me of a little love affair«
»It is not likely that either Richard or I can ever forget your kindness
that day cousin John«
»I can never forget it« said Richard
»And I can never forget it« said Ada
»So much the easier what I have to say and so much the easier for us to
agree« returned my guardian his face irradiated by the gentleness and honour
of his heart »Ada my bird you should know that Rick has now chosen his
profession for the last time All that he has of certainty will be expended when
he is fully equipped He has exhausted his resources and is bound henceforward
to the tree he has planted«
»Quite true that I have exhausted my present resources and I am quite
content to know it But what I have of certainty sir« said Richard »is not
all I have«
»Rick Rick« cried my guardian with a sudden terror in his manner and in
an altered voice and putting up his hands as if he would have stopped his ears
»for the love of God dont found a hope or expectation on the family curse
Whatever you do on this side the grave never give one lingering glance towards
the horrible phantom that has haunted us so many years Better to borrow better
to beg better to die«
We were all startled by the fervour of this warning Richard bit his lip and
held his breath and glanced at me as if he felt and knew that I felt too how
much he needed it
»Ada my dear« said Mr Jarndyce recovering his cheerfulness »these are
strong words of advice but I live in Bleak House and have seen a sight here
Enough of that All Richard had to start him in the race of life is ventured
I recommend to him and you for his sake and your own that he should depart
from us with the understanding that there is no sort of contract between you I
must go further I will be plain with you both You were to confide freely in
me and I will confide freely in you I ask you wholly to relinquish for the
present any tie but your relationship«
»Better to say at once sir« returned Richard »that you renounce all
confidence in me and that you advise Ada to do the same«
»Better to say nothing of the sort Rick because I dont mean it«
»You think I have begun ill sir« retorted Richard »I have I know«
»How I hoped you would begin and how go on I told you when we spoke of
these things last« said Mr Jarndyce in a cordial and encouraging manner »You
have not made that beginning yet but there is a time for all things and yours
is not gone by rather it is just now fully come Make a clear beginning
altogether You two very young my dears are cousins As yet you are nothing
more What more may come must come of being worked out Rick and no sooner«
»You are very hard with me sir« said Richard »Harder than I could have
supposed you would be«
»My dear boy« said Mr Jarndyce »I am harder with myself when I do
anything that gives you pain You have your remedy in your own hands Ada it is
better for him that he should be free and that there should be no youthful
engagement between you Rick it is better for her much better you owe it to
her Come Each of you will do what is best for the other if not what is best
for yourselves«
»Why is it best sir« returned Richard hastily »It was not when we
opened our hearts to you You did not say so then«
»I have had experience since I dont blame you Rick but I have had
experience since«
»You mean of me sir«
»Well Yes of both of you« said Mr Jarndyce kindly »The time is not
come for your standing pledged to one another. It is not right and I must not
recognise it Come come my young cousins begin afresh Byegones shall be
byegones and a new page turned for you to write your lives in«
Richard gave an anxious glance at Ada but said nothing
»I have avoided saying one word to either of you or to Esther« said Mr
Jarndyce »until now in order that we might be open as the day and all on
equal terms I now affectionately advise I now most earnestly entreat you two
to part as you came here Leave all else to time truth and steadfastness If
you do otherwise you will do wrong and you will have made me do wrong in ever
bringing you together«
A long silence succeeded
»Cousin Richard« said Ada then raising her blue eyes tenderly to his
face »after what our cousin John has said I think no choice is left us Your
mind may be quite at ease about me for you will leave me here under his care
and will be sure that I can have nothing to wish for quite sure if I guide
myself by his advice I I dont doubt cousin Richard« said Ada a little
confused »that you are very fond of me and I I dont think you will fall in
love with anybody else But I should like you to consider well about it too as
I should like you to be in all things very happy You may trust in me cousin
Richard I am not at all changeable but I am not unreasonable and should never
blame you Even cousins may be sorry to part and in truth I am very very
sorry Richard though I know its for your welfare I shall always think of you
affectionately and often talk of you with Esther and and perhaps you will
sometimes think a little of me cousin Richard So now« said Ada going up to
him and giving him her trembling hand »we are only cousins again Richard for
the time perhaps and I pray for a blessing on my dear cousin wherever he
goes«
It was strange to me that Richard should not be able to forgive my guardian
for entertaining the very same opinion of him which he himself had expressed of
himself in much stronger terms to me But it was certainly the case I
observed with great regret that from this hour he never was as free and open
with Mr Jarndyce as he had been before He had every reason given him to be so
but he was not and solely on his side an estrangement began to arise between
them
In the business of preparation and equipment he soon lost himself and even
his grief at parting from Ada who remained in Hertfordshire while he Mr
Jarndyce and I went up to London for a week He remembered her by fits and
starts even with bursts of tears and at such times would confide to me the
heaviest selfreproaches But in a few minutes he would recklessly conjure up
some undefinable means by which they were both to be made rich and happy for
ever and would become as gay as possible
It was a busy time and I trotted about with him all day long buying a
variety of things of which he stood in need Of the things he would have
bought if he had been left to his own ways I say nothing He was perfectly
confidential with me and often talked so sensibly and feelingly about his
faults and his vigorous resolutions and dwelt so much upon the encouragement he
derived from these conversations that I could never have been tired if I had
tried
There used in that week to come backward and forward to our lodging to
fence with Richard a person who had formerly been a cavalry soldier he was a
fine blufflooking man of a frank free bearing with whom Richard had practised
for some months I heard so much about him not only from Richard but from my
guardian too that I was purposely in the room with my work one morning after
breakfast when he came
»Good morning Mr George« said my guardian who happened to be alone with
me »Mr Carstone will be here directly Meanwhile Miss Summerson is very happy
to see you I know Sit down«
He sat down a little disconcerted by my presence I thought and without
looking at me drew his heavy sunburnt hand across and across his upper lip
»You are as punctual as the sun« said Mr Jarndyce
»Military time sir« he replied »Force of habit A mere habit in me sir
I am not at all businesslike«
»Yet you have a large establishment too I am told« said Mr Jarndyce
»Not much of a one sir I keep a shooting gallery but not much of a one«
»And what kind of a shot and what kind of a swordsman do you make of Mr
Carstone« said my guardian
»Pretty good sir« he replied folding his arms upon his broad chest and
looking very large »If Mr Carstone was to give his full mind to it he would
come out very good«
»But he dont I suppose« said my guardian
»He did at first sir but not afterwards Not his full mind Perhaps he has
something else upon it some young lady perhaps« His bright dark eyes glanced
at me for the first time
»He has not me upon his mind I assure you Mr George« said I laughing
»though you seem to suspect me«
He reddened a little through his brown and made me a troopers bow »No
offence I hope miss I am one of the Roughs«
»Not at all« said I »I take it as a compliment«
If he had not looked at me before he looked at me now in three or four
quick successive glances »I beg your pardon sir« he said to my guardian with
a manly kind of diffidence »but you did me the honour to mention the young
ladys name «
»Miss Summerson«
»Miss Summerson« he repeated and looked at me again
»Do you know the name« I asked
»No miss To my knowledge I never heard it I thought I had seen you
somewhere«
»I think not« I returned raising my head from my work to look at him and
there was something so genuine in his speech and manner that I was glad of the
opportunity »I remember faces very well«
»So do I miss« he returned meeting my look with the fulness of his dark
and broad forehead »Humph What set me off now upon that«
His once more reddening through his brown and being disconcerted by his
efforts to remember the association brought my guardian to his relief
»Have you many pupils Mr George«
»They vary in their number sir Mostly theyre but a small lot to live
by«
»And what classes of chance people come to practise at your gallery«
»All sorts sir Natives and foreigners From gentlemen to prentices I
have had French women come before now and show themselves dabs at
pistolshooting Mad people out of number, of course but they go everywhere
where the doors stand open«
»People dont come with grudges and schemes of finishing their practice
with live targets I hope« said my guardian smiling
»Not much of that sir though that has happened Mostly they come for skill
or idleness Six of one and halfadozen of the other I beg your pardon«
said Mr George sitting stiffly upright and squaring an elbow on each knee
»but I believe youre a Chancery suitor if I have heard correct«
»I am sorry to say I am«
»I have had one of your compatriots in my time sir«
»A Chancery suitor« returned my guardian »How was that«
»Why the man was so badgered and worried and tortured by being knocked
about from post to pillar and from pillar to post« said Mr George »that he
got out of sorts I dont believe he had any idea of taking aim at anybody but
he was in that condition of resentment and violence that he would come and pay
for fifty shots and fire away till he was red hot One day I said to him when
there was nobody by and he had been talking to me angrily about his wrongs If
this practice is a safetyvalve comrade well and good but I dont altogether
like your being so bent upon it in your present state of mind Id rather you
took to something else I was on my guard for a blow he was that passionate
but he received it in very good part and left off directly We shook hands and
struck up a sort of friendship«
»What was that man« asked my guardian in a new tone of interest
»Why he began by being a small Shropshire farmer before they made a baited
bull of him« said Mr George
»Was his name Gridley«
»It was sir«
Mr George directed another succession of quick bright glances at me as my
guardian and I exchanged a word or two of surprise at the coincidence and I
therefore explained to him how we knew the name He made me another of his
soldierly bows in acknowledgment of what he called my condescension
»I dont know« he said as he looked at me »what it is that sets me off
again but bosh whats my head running against« He passed one of his heavy
hands over his crisp dark hair as if to sweep the broken thoughts out of his
mind and sat a little forward with one arm akimbo and the other resting on his
leg looking in a brown study at the ground
»I am sorry to learn that the same state of mind has got this Gridley into
new troubles and that he is in hiding« said my guardian
»So I am told sir« returned Mr George still musing and looking on the
ground »So I am told«
»You dont know where«
»No sir« returned the trooper lifting up his eyes and coming out of his
reverie »I cant say anything about him He will be worn out soon I expect
You may file a strong mans heart away for a good many years but it will tell
all of a sudden at last«
Richards entrance stopped the conversation Mr George rose made me
another of his soldierly bows wished my guardian a good day and strode heavily
out of the room
This was the morning of the day appointed for Richards departure We had no
more purchases to make now I had completed all his packing early in the
afternoon and our time was disengaged until night when he was to go to
Liverpool for Holyhead Jarndyce and Jarndyce being again expected to come on
that day Richard proposed to me that we should go down to the Court and hear
what passed As it was his last day and he was eager to go and I had never
been there I gave my consent and we walked down to Westminster where the
Court was then sitting We beguiled the way with arrangements concerning the
letters that Richard was to write to me and the letters that I was to write to
him and with a great many hopeful projects My guardian knew where we were
going and therefore was not with us
When we came to the Court there was the Lord Chancellor the same whom I
had seen in his private room in Lincolns Inn sitting in great state and
gravity on the bench with the mace and seals on a red table below him and an
immense flat nosegay like a little garden which scented the whole Court Below
the table again was a long row of solicitors with bundles of papers on the
matting at their feet and then there were the gentlemen of the bar in wigs and
gowns some awake and some asleep and one talking and nobody paying much
attention to what he said The Lord Chancellor leaned back in his very easy
chair with his elbow on the cushioned arm and his forehead resting on his
hand some of those who were present dozed some read the newspapers some
walked about or whispered in groups all seemed perfectly at their ease by no
means in a hurry very unconcerned and extremely comfortable
To see everything going on so smoothly and to think of the roughness of the
suitors lives and deaths to see all that full dress and ceremony and to think
of the waste and want and beggared misery it represented to consider that
while the sickness of hope deferred was raging in so many hearts this polite
show went calmly on from day to day and year to year in such good order and
composure to behold the Lord Chancellor and the whole array of practitioners
under him looking at one another and at the spectators as if nobody had ever
heard that all over England the name in which they were assembled was a bitter
jest was held in universal horror contempt and indignation was known for
something so flagrant and bad that little short of a miracle could bring any
good out of it to any one this was so curious and selfcontradictory to me who
had no experience of it that it was at first incredible and I could not
comprehend it I sat where Richard put me and tried to listen and looked about
me but there seemed to be no reality in the whole scene except poor little
Miss Flite the madwoman standing on a bench and nodding at it
Miss Flite soon espied us and came to where we sat She gave me a gracious
welcome to her domain and indicated with much gratification and pride its
principal attractions Mr Kenge also came to speak to us and did the honours
of the place in much the same way with the bland modesty of a proprietor It
was not a very good day for a visit he said he would have preferred the first
day of term but it was imposing it was imposing
When we had been there half an hour or so the case in progress if I may
use a phrase so ridiculous in such a connexion seemed to die but of its own
vapidity without coming or being by anybody expected to come to any result
The Lord Chancellor then threw down a bundle of papers from his desk to the
gentlemen below him and somebody said »JARNDYCE AND JARNDYCE« Upon this there
was a buzz and a laugh and a general withdrawal of the bystanders and a
bringing in of great heaps and piles and bags and bagsfull of papers
I think it came on for further directions about some bill of costs to
the best of my understanding which was confused enough But I counted
twentythree gentlemen in wigs who said they were in it and none of them
appeared to understand it much better than I They chatted about it with the
Lord Chancellor and contradicted and explained among themselves and some of
them said it was this way and some of them said it was that way and some of
them jocosely proposed to read huge volumes of affidavits and there was more
buzzing and laughing and everybody concerned was in a state of idle
entertainment and nothing could be made of it by anybody After an hour or so
of this and a good many speeches being begun and cut short it was referred
back for the present as Mr Kenge said and the papers were bundled up again
before the clerks had finished bringing them in
I glanced at Richard on the termination of these hopeless proceedings and
was shocked to see the worn look of his handsome young face »It cant last for
ever Dame Durden Better luck next time« was all he said
I had seen Mr Guppy bringing in papers and arranging them for Mr Kenge
and he had seen me and made me a forlorn bow which rendered me desirous to get
out of the Court Richard had given me his arm and was taking me away when Mr
Guppy came up
»I beg your pardon Mr Carstone« said he in a whisper »and Miss
Summersons also but theres a lady here a friend of mine who knows her and
wishes to have the pleasure of shaking hands« As he spoke I saw before me as
if she had started into bodily shape from my remembrance Mrs Rachael of my
godmothers house
»How do you do Esther« said she »Do you recollect me«
I gave her my hand and told her yes and that she was very little altered
»I wonder you remember those times Esther« she returned with her old
asperity »They are changed now Well I am glad to see you and glad you are
not too proud to know me« But indeed she seemed disappointed that I was not
»Proud Mrs Rachael« I remonstrated
»I am married Esther« she returned coldly correcting me »and am Mrs
Chadband Well I wish you good day and I hope youll do well«
Mr Guppy who had been attentive to this short dialogue heaved a sigh in
my ear and elbowed his own and Mrs Rachaels way through the confused little
crowd of people coming in and going out which we were in the midst of and
which the change in the business had brought together Richard and I were making
our way through it and I was yet in the first chill of the late unexpected
recognition when I saw coming towards us but not seeing us no less a person
than Mr George He made nothing of the people about him as he tramped on
staring over their heads into the body of the Court
»George« said Richard as I called his attention to him
»You are well met sir« he returned »And you miss Could you point a
person out for me I want I dont understand these places«
Turning as he spoke and making an easy way for us he stopped when we were
out of the press in a corner behind a great red curtain
»Theres a little cracked old woman« he began »that «
I put up my finger for Miss Flite was close by me having kept beside me
all the time and having called the attention of several of her legal
acquaintance to me as I had overheard to my confusion by whispering in their
ears »Hush FitzJarndyce on my left«
»Hem« said Mr George »You remember miss that we passed some
conversation on a certain man this morning Gridley« in a low whisper behind
his hand
»Yes« said I
»He is hiding at my place I couldnt mention it Hadnt his authority He
is on his last march miss and has a whim to see her He says they can feel for
one another, and she has been almost as good as a friend to him here I came
down to look for her for when I sat by Gridley this afternoon I seemed to hear
the roll of the muffled drums«
»Shall I tell her« said I
»Would you be so good« he returned with a glance of something like
apprehension at Miss Flite »Its a Providence I met you miss I doubt if I
should have known how to get on with that lady« And he put one hand in his
breast and stood upright in a martial attitude as I informed little Miss
Flite in her ear of the purport of his kind errand
»My angry friend from Shropshire Almost as celebrated as myself« she
exclaimed »Now really My dear I will wait upon him with the greatest
pleasure«
»He is living concealed at Mr Georges« said I »Hush This is Mr
George«
»Indeed« returned Miss Flite »Very proud to have the honour A military
man my dear You know a perfect General« she whispered to me
Poor Miss Flite deemed it necessary to be so courtly and polite as a mark
of her respect for the army and to curtsey so very often that it was no easy
matter to get her out of the Court When this was at last done and addressing
Mr George as General she gave him her arm to the great entertainment of some
idlers who were looking on he was so discomposed and begged me so respectfully
not to desert him that I could not make up my mind to do it especially as Miss
Flite was always tractable with me and as she too said »FitzJarndyce my
dear you will accompany us of course« As Richard seemed quite willing and
even anxious that we should see them safely to their destination we agreed to
do so And as Mr George informed us that Gridleys mind had run on Mr Jarndyce
all the afternoon after hearing of their interview in the morning I wrote a
hasty note in pencil to my guardian to say where we were gone and why Mr
George sealed it at a coffeehouse that it might lead to no discovery and we
sent it off by a ticketporter
We then took a hackneycoach and drove away to the neighbourhood of
Leicester Square We walked through some narrow courts for which Mr George
apologised and soon came to the Shooting Gallery the door of which was closed
As he pulled a bellhandle which hung by a chain to the doorpost a very
respectable old gentleman with grey hair wearing spectacles and dressed in a
black spencer and gaiters and a broadbrimmed hat and carrying a large
goldheaded cane addressed him
»I ask your pardon my good friend« said he »but is this Georges Shooting
Gallery«
»It is sir« returned Mr George glancing up at the great letters in which
that inscription was painted on the whitewashed wall
»Oh To be sure« said the old gentleman following his eyes »Thank you
Have you rung the bell«
»My name is George sir and I have rung the bell«
»Oh indeed« said the old gentleman »Your name is George Then I am here
as soon as you you see You came for me no doubt«
»No sir You have the advantage of me«
»Oh indeed« said the old gentleman »Then it was your young man who came
for me I am a physician and was requested five minutes ago to come and
visit a sick man at Georges Shooting Gallery«
»The muffled drums« said Mr George turning to Richard and me and gravely
shaking his head »Its quite correct sir Will you please to walk in«
The door being at that moment opened by a very singularlooking little man
in a green baize cap and apron whose face and hands and dress were blackened
all over we passed along a dreary passage into a large building with bare brick
walls where there were targets and guns and swords and other things of that
kind When we had all arrived here the physician stopped and taking off his
hat appeared to vanish by magic and to leave another and quite a different man
in his place
»Now lookee here George« said the man turning quickly round upon him
and tapping him on the breast with a large forefinger »You know me and I know
you Youre a man of the world and Im a man of the world My names Bucket as
you are aware and I have got a peacewarrant against Gridley You have kept him
out of the way a long time and you have been artful in it and it does you
credit«
Mr George looking hard at him bit his lip and shook his head
»Now George« said the other keeping close to him »youre a sensible man
and a wellconducted man thats what you are beyond a doubt And mind you I
dont talk to you as a common character because you have served your country
and you know that when duty calls we must obey Consequently youre very far
from wanting to give trouble If I required assistance youd assist me thats
what youd do Phil Squod dont you go asidling round the gallery like that«
the dirty little man was shuffling about with his shoulder against the wall and
his eyes on the intruder in a manner that looked threatening »because I know
you and wont have it«
»Phil« said Mr George
»Yes guvner«
»Be quiet«
The little man with a low growl stood still
»Ladies and gentlemen« said Mr Bucket »youll excuse anything that may
appear to be disagreeable in this for my names Inspector Bucket of the
Detective and I have a duty to perform George I know where my man is because
I was on the roof last night and saw him through the skylight and you along
with him He is in there you know« pointing »thats where he is on a sofy
Now I must see my man and I must tell my man to consider himself in custody
but you know me and you know I dont want to take any uncomfortable measures
You give me your word as from one man to another and an old soldier mind you
likewise that its honourable between us two and Ill accommodate you to the
utmost of my power«
»I give it« was the reply »But it wasnt handsome in you Mr Bucket«
»Gammon George Not handsome« said Mr Bucket tapping him on his broad
breast again and shaking hands with him »I dont say it wasnt handsome in you
to keep my man so close do I Be equally goodtempered to me old boy Old
William Tell Old Shaw the Life Guardsman Why hes a model of the whole
British army in himself ladies and gentlemen Id give a fiftypun note to be
such a figure of a man«
The affair being brought to this head Mr George after a little
consideration proposed to go in first to his comrade as he called him taking
Miss Flite with him Mr Bucket agreeing they went away to the further end of
the gallery leaving us sitting and standing by a table covered with guns Mr
Bucket took this opportunity of entering into a little light conversation
asking me if I were afraid of firearms as most young ladies were asking
Richard if he were a good shot asking Phil Squod which he considered the best
of those rifles and what it might be worth firsthand telling him in return
that it was a pity he ever gave way to his temper for he was naturally so
amiable that he might have been a young woman and making himself generally
agreeable
After a time he followed us to the further end of the gallery and Richard
and I were going quietly away when Mr George came after us He said that if we
had no objection to see his comrade he would take a visit from us very kindly
The words had hardly passed his lips when the bell was rung and my guardian
appeared »on the chance« he slightly observed »of being able to do any little
thing for a poor fellow involved in the same misfortune as himself« We all four
went back together and went into the place where Gridley was
It was a bare room partitioned off from the gallery with unpainted wood As
the screening was not more than eight or ten feet high and only enclosed the
sides not the top the rafters of the high gallery roof were overhead and the
skylight through which Mr Bucket had looked down The sun was low near
setting and its light came redly in above without descending to the ground
Upon a plain canvascovered sofa lay the man from Shropshire dressed much as
we had seen him last but so changed that at first I recognised no likeness in
his colourless face to what I recollected
He had been still writing in his hidingplace and still dwelling on his
grievances hour after hour A table and some shelves were covered with
manuscript papers and with worn pens and a medley of such tokens Touchingly
and awfully drawn together he and the little mad woman were side by side and
as it were alone She sat on a chair holding his hand and none of us went
close to them
His voice had faded with the old expression of his face with his strength
with his anger with his resistance to the wrongs that had at last subdued him
The faintest shadow of an object full of form and colour is such a picture of
it as he was of the man from Shropshire whom we had spoken with before
He inclined his head to Richard and me and spoke to my guardian
»Mr Jarndyce it is very kind of you to come to see me I am not long to be
seen I think I am very glad to take your hand sir You are a good man
superior to injustice and God knows I honour you«
They shook hands earnestly and my guardian said some words of comfort to
him
»It may seem strange to you sir« returned Gridley »I should not have
liked to see you if this had been the first time of our meeting But you know
I made a fight for it you know I stood up with my single hand against them all
you know I told them the truth to the last and told them what they were and
what they had done to me so I dont mind your seeing me this wreck«
»You have been courageous with them many and many a time« returned my
guardian
»Sir I have been« with a faint smile »I told you what would come of it
when I ceased to be so and see here Look at us look at us« He drew the
hand Miss Flite held through her arm and brought her something nearer to him
»This ends it Of all my old associations of all my old pursuits and hopes
of all the living and the dead world this one poor soul alone comes natural to
me and I am fit for There is a tie of many suffering years between us two and
it is the only tie I ever had on earth that Chancery has not broken«
»Accept my blessing Gridley« said Miss Flite in tears »Accept my
blessing«
»I thought boastfully that they never could break my heart Mr Jarndyce
I was resolved that they should not I did believe that I could and would
charge them with being the mockery they were until I died of some bodily
disorder But I am worn out How long I have been wearing out I dont know I
seemed to break down in an hour I hope they may never come to hear of it I
hope everybody here will lead them to believe that I died defying them
consistently and perseveringly as I did through so many years«
Here Mr Bucket who was sitting in a corner by the door goodnaturedly
offered such consolation as he could administer
»Come come« he said from his corner »Dont go on in that way Mr
Gridley You are only a little low We are all of us a little low sometimes I
am Hold up hold up Youll lose your temper with the whole round of em again
and again and I shall take you on a score of warrants yet if I have luck«
He only shook his head
»Dont shake your head« said Mr Bucket »Nod it thats what I want to see
you do Why Lord bless your soul what times we have had together Havent I
seen you in the Fleet over and over again for contempt Havent I come into
Court twenty afternoons for no other purpose than to see you pin the
Chancellor like a bulldog Dont you remember when you first began to threaten
the lawyers and the peace was sworn against you two or three times a week Ask
the little old lady there she has been always present Hold up Mr Gridley
hold up sir«
»What are you going to do about him« asked George in a low voice
»I dont know yet« said Bucket in the same tone Then resuming his
encouragement he pursued aloud
»Worn out Mr Gridley After dodging me for all these weeks and forcing me
to climb the roof here like a Tom Cat and to come to see you as a Doctor That
aint like being worn out I should think not Now I tell you what you want You
want excitement you know to keep you up thats what you want Youre used to
it and you cant do without it I couldnt myself Very well then heres this
warrant got by Mr Tulkinghorn of Lincolns Inn Fields and backed into
halfadozen counties since What do you say to coming along with me upon this
warrant and having a good angry argument before the Magistrates Itll do you
good itll freshen you up and get you into training for another turn at the
Chancellor Give in Why I am surprised to hear a man of your energy talk of
giving in You mustnt do that Youre half the fun of the fair in the Court of
Chancery George you lend Mr Gridley a hand and lets see now whether he
wont be better up than down«
»He is very weak« said the trooper in a low voice
»Is he« returned Bucket anxiously »I only want to rouse him I dont like
to see an old acquaintance giving in like this It would cheer him up more than
anything if I could make him a little waxy with me Hes welcome to drop into
me right and left if he likes I shall never take advantage of it«
The roof rang with a scream from Miss Flite which still rings in my ears
»O no Gridley« she cried as he fell heavily and calmly back from before
her »not without my blessing After so many years«
The sun was down the light had gradually stolen from the roof and the shadow
had crept upward But to me the shadow of that pair one living and one dead
fell heavier on Richards departure than the darkness of the darkest night And
through Richards farewell words I heard it echoed
»Of all my old associations of all my old pursuits and hopes of all the
living and the dead world this one poor soul alone comes natural to me and I
am fit for There is a tie of many suffering years between us two and it is the
only tie I ever had on earth that Chancery has not broken«
Chapter XXV
Mrs Snagsby Sees It All
There is disquietude in Cooks Court Cursitor Street Black suspicion hides in
that peaceful region The mass of CooksCourtiers are in their usual state of
mind no better and no worse but Mr Snagsby is changed and his little woman
knows it
For TomallAlones and Lincolns Inn Fields persist in harnessing
themselves a pair of ungovernable coursers to the chariot of Mr Snagsbys
imagination and Mr Bucket drives and the passengers are Jo and Mr
Tulkinghorn and the complete equipage whirls through the Law Stationery
business at wild speed all round the clock Even in the little front kitchen
where the family meals are taken it rattles away at a smoking pace from the
dinnertable when Mr Snagsby pauses in carving the first slice of the leg of
mutton baked with potatoes and stares at the kitchen wall
Mr Snagsby cannot make out what it is that he has had to do with Something
is wrong somewhere but what something what may come of it to whom when and
from which unthoughtof and unheardof quarter is the puzzle of his life His
remote impressions of the robes and coronets the stars and garters that
sparkle through the surfacedust of Mr Tulkinghorns chambers his veneration
for the mysteries presided over by that best and closest of his customers whom
all the Inns of Court all Chancery Lane and all the legal neighbourhood agree
to hold in awe his remembrance of Detective Mr Bucket with his forefinger and
his confidential manner impossible to be evaded or declined persuade him that
he is a party to some dangerous secret without knowing what it is And it is
the fearful peculiarity of this condition that at any hour of his daily life
at any opening of the shopdoor at any pull of the bell at any entrance of a
messenger or any delivery of a letter the secret may take air and fire
explode and blow up Mr Bucket only knows whom
For which reason whenever a man unknown comes into the shop as many men
unknown do and says »Is Mr Snagsby in« or words to that innocent effect
Mr Snagsbys heart knocks hard at his guilty breast He undergoes so much from
such inquiries that when they are made by boys he revenges himself by flipping
at their ears over the counter and asking the young dogs what they mean by it
and why they cant speak out at once More impracticable men and boys persist in
walking into Mr Snagsbys sleep and terrifying him with unaccountable
questions so that often when the cock at the little dairy in Cursitor Street
breaks out in his usual absurd way about the morning Mr Snagsby finds himself
in a crisis of nightmare with his little woman shaking him and saying »Whats
the matter with the man«
The little woman herself is not the least item in his difficulty To know
that he is always keeping a secret from her that he has under all
circumstances to conceal and hold fast a tender double tooth which her
sharpness is ever ready to twist out of his head gives Mr Snagsby in her
dentistical presence much of the air of a dog who has a reservation from his
master and will look anywhere rather than meet his eye
These various signs and tokens marked by the little woman are not lost
upon her They impel her to say »Snagsby has something on his mind« And thus
suspicion gets into Cooks Court Cursitor Street From suspicion to jealousy
Mrs Snagsby finds the road as natural and short as from Cooks Court to
Chancery Lane And thus jealousy gets into Cooks Court Cursitor Street Once
there and it was always lurking thereabout it is very active and nimble in
Mrs Snagsbys breast prompting her to nocturnal examinations of Mr Snagsbys
pockets to secret perusals of Mr Snagsbys letters to private researches in
the Day Book and Ledger till cashbox and iron safe to watchings at windows
listenings behind doors and a general putting of this and that together by the
wrong end
Mrs Snagsby is so perpetually on the alert that the house becomes ghostly
with creaking boards and rustling garments The prentices think somebody may
have been murdered there in bygone times Guster holds certain loose atoms of
an idea picked up at Tooting where they were found floating among the
orphans that there is buried money underneath the cellar guarded by an old
man with a white beard who cannot get out for seven thousand years because he
said the Lords Prayer backwards
»Who was Nimrod« Mrs Snagsby repeatedly inquires of herself »Who was that
lady that creature And who is that boy« Now Nimrod being as dead as the
mighty hunter whose name Mrs Snagsby has appropriated and the lady being
unproducible she directs her mental eye for the present with redoubled
vigilance to the boy »And who« quoth Mrs Snagsby for the thousand and first
time »is that boy Who is that « And there Mrs Snagsby is seized with an
inspiration
He has no respect for Mr Chadband No to be sure and he wouldnt have of
course Naturally he wouldnt under those contagious circumstances He was
invited and appointed by Mr Chadband why Mrs Snagsby heard it herself with
her own ears to come back and be told where he was to go to be addressed by
Mr Chadband and he never came Why did he never come Because he was told not
to come Who told him not to come Who Ha ha Mrs Snagsby sees it all
But happily and Mrs Snagsby tightly shakes her head and tightly smiles
that boy was met by Mr Chadband yesterday in the streets and that boy as
affording a subject which Mr Chadband desires to improve for the spiritual
delight of a select congregation was seized by Mr Chadband and threatened with
being delivered over to the police unless he showed the reverend gentleman
where he lived and unless he entered into and fulfilled an undertaking to
appear in Cooks Court tomorrow night »tomorrow night« Mrs Snagsby
repeats for mere emphasis with another tight smile and another tight shake of
her head and tomorrow night that boy will be here and tomorrow night Mrs
Snagsby will have her eye upon him and upon some one else and O you may walk a
long while in your secret ways says Mrs Snagsby with haughtiness and scorn
but you cant blind ME
Mrs Snagsby sounds no timbrel in anybodys ears but holds her purpose
quietly and keeps her counsel Tomorrow comes the savoury preparations for
the Oil Trade come the evening comes Comes Mr Snagsby in his black coat
come the Chadbands come when the gorging vessel is replete the prentices
and Guster to be edified comes at last with his slouching head and his
shuffle backward and his shuffle forward and his shuffle to the right and his
shuffle to the left and his bit of fur cap in his muddy hand which he picks as
if it were some mangy bird he had caught and was plucking before eating raw
Jo the very very tough subject Mr Chadband is to improve
Mrs Snagsby screws a watchful glance on Jo as he is brought into the
little drawingroom by Guster He looks at Mr Snagsby the moment he comes in
Aha Why does he look at Mr Snagsby Mr Snagsby looks at him Why should he do
that but that Mrs Snagsby sees it all Why else should that look pass between
them why else should Mr Snagsby be confused and cough a signal cough behind
his hand It is as clear as crystal that Mr Snagsby is that boys father
»Peace my friends« says Chadband rising and wiping the oily exudations
from his reverend visage »Peace be with us My friends why with us Because«
with his fat smile »it cannot be against us because it must be for us because
it is not hardening because it is softening because it does not make war like
the hawk but comes home untoe us like the dove Therefore my friends peace be
with us My human boy come forward«
Stretching forth his flabby paw Mr Chadband lays the same on Jos arm and
considers where to station him Jo very doubtful of his reverend friends
intentions and not at all clear but that something practical and painful is
going to be done to him mutters »You let me alone I never said nothink to
you You let me alone«
»No my young friend« says Chadband smoothly »I will not let you alone
And why Because I am a harvestlabourer because I am a toiler and a moiler
because you are delivered over untoe me and are become as a precious instrument
in my hands My friends may I so employ this instrument as to use it toe your
advantage toe your profit toe your gain toe your welfare toe your
enrichment My young friend sit upon this stool«
Jo apparently possessed by an impression that the reverend gentleman wants
to cut his hair shields his head with both arms and is got into the required
position with great difficulty and every possible manifestation of reluctance
When he is at last adjusted like a layfigure Mr Chadband retiring behind
the table holds up his bearspaw and says »My friends« This is the signal
for a general settlement of the audience The prentices giggle internally and
nudge each other Guster falls into a staring and vacant state compounded of a
stunned admiration of Mr Chadband and pity for the friendless outcast whose
condition touches her nearly Mrs Snagsby silently lays trains of gunpowder
Mrs Chadband composes herself grimly by the fire and warms her knees finding
that sensation favourable to the reception of eloquence
It happens that Mr Chadband has a pulpit habit of fixing some member of his
congregation with his eye and fatly arguing his points with that particular
person who is understood to be expected to be moved to an occasional grunt
groan gasp or other audible expression of inward working which expression of
inward working being echoed by some elderly lady in the next pew and so
communicated like a game of forfeits through a circle of the more fermentable
sinners present serves the purpose of parliamentary cheering and gets Mr
Chadbands steam up From mere force of habit Mr Chadband in saying »My
friends« has rested his eye on Mr Snagsby and proceeds to make that
illstarred stationer already sufficiently confused the immediate recipient of
his discourse
»We have here among us my friends« says Chadband »a Gentile and a
Heathen a dweller in the tents of TomallAlones and a moveron upon the
surface of the earth We have here among us my friends« and Mr Chadband
untwisting the point with his dirty thumbnail bestows an oily smile on Mr
Snagsby signifying that he will throw him an argumentative backfall presently
if he be not already down »a brother and a boy Devoid of parents devoid of
relations devoid of flocks and herds devoid of gold and silver and of
precious stones Now my friends why do I say he is devoid of these
possessions Why Why is he« Mr Chadband states the question as if he were
propounding an entirely new riddle of much ingenuity and merit to Mr Snagsby
and entreating him not to give it up
Mr Snagsby greatly perplexed by the mysterious look he received just now
from his little woman at about the period when Mr Chadband mentioned the word
parents is tempted into modestly remarking »I dont know Im sure sir« On
which interruption Mrs Chadband glares and Mrs Snagsby says »For shame«
»I hear a voice« says Chadband »is it a still small voice my friends I
fear not though I fain would hope so «
»Ahh« from Mrs Snagsby
»Which says I dont know Then I will tell you why I say this brother
present here among us is devoid of parents devoid of relations devoid of
flocks and herds devoid of gold of silver and of precious stones because he
is devoid of the light that shines in upon some of us What is that light What
is it I ask you what is that light«
Mr Chadband draws back his head and pauses but Mr Snagsby is not to be
lured on to his destruction again Mr Chadband leaning forward over the table
pierces what he has got to follow directly into Mr Snagsby with the
thumbnail already mentioned
»It is« says Chadband »the ray of rays the sun of suns the moon of
moons the star of stars It is the light of Terewth«
Mr Chadband draws himself up again and looks triumphantly at Mr Snagsby
as if he would be glad to know how he feels after that
»Of Terewth« says Mr Chadband hitting him again »Say not to me it is not
the lamp of lamps I say to you it is I say to you a million times over it
is It is I say to you that I will proclaim it to you whether you like it or
not nay that the less you like it the more I will proclaim it to you With a
speakingtrumpet I say to you that if you rear yourself against it you shall
fall you shall be bruised you shall be battered you shall be flayed you
shall be smashed«
The present effect of this flight of oratory much admired for its general
power by Mr Chadbands followers being not only to make Mr Chadband
unpleasantly warm but to represent the innocent Mr Snagsby in the light of a
determined enemy to virtue with a forehead of brass and a heart of adamant
that unfortunate tradesman becomes yet more disconcerted and is in a very
advanced state of low spirits and false position when Mr Chadband accidentally
finishes him
»My friends« he resumes after dabbing his fat head for some time and it
smokes to such an extent that he seems to light his pockethandkerchief at it
which smokes too after every dab »to pursue the subject we are endeavouring
with our lowly gifts to improve let us in a spirit of love inquire what is that
Terewth to which I have alluded For my young friends« suddenly addressing the
prentices and Guster to their consternation »if I am told by the doctor that
calomel or castoroil is good for me I may naturally ask what is calomel and
what is castoroil I may wish to be informed of that before I dose myself with
either or with both Now my young friends what is this Terewth then Firstly
in a spirit of love what is the common sort of Terewth the working clothes
the everyday wear my young friends Is it deception«
»Ahh« from Mrs Snagsby
»Is it suppression«
A shiver in the negative from Mrs Snagsby
»Is it reservation«
A shake of the head from Mrs Snagsby very long and very tight
»No my friends it is neither of these Neither of these names belongs to
it When this young Heathen now among us who is now my friends asleep the
seal of indifference and perdition being set upon his eyelids but do not wake
him for it is right that I should have to wrestle and to combat and to
struggle and to conquer for his sake when this young hardened Heathen told
us a story of a Cock and of a Bull and of a lady and of a sovereign was that
the Terewth No Or if it was partly was it wholly and entirely No my
friends no«
If Mr Snagsby could withstand his little womans look as it enters at his
eyes the windows of his soul and searches the whole tenement he were other
than the man he is He cowers and droops
»Or my juvenile friends« says Chadband descending to the level of their
comprehension with a very obtrusive demonstration in his greasily meek smile
of coming a long way downstairs for the purpose »if the master of this house
was to go forth into the city and there see an eel and was to come back and
was to call untoe him the mistress of this house and was to say Sarah rejoice
with me for I have seen an elephant would that be Terewth«
Mrs Snagsby in tears
»Or put it my juvenile friends that he saw an elephant and returning
said Lo the city is barren I have seen but an eel would that be Terewth«
Mrs Snagsby sobbing loudly
»Or put it my juvenile friends« said Chadband stimulated by the sound
»that the unnatural parents of this slumbering Heathen for parents he had my
juvenile friends beyond a doubt after casting him forth to the wolves and the
vultures and the wild dogs and the young gazelles and the serpents went back
to their dwellings and had their pipes and their pots and their flutings and
their dancings and their malt liquors and their butchers meat and poultry
would that be Terewth«
Mrs Snagsby replies by delivering herself a prey to spasms not an
unresisting prey but a crying and a tearing one so that Cooks Court reechoes
with her shrieks Finally becoming cataleptic she has to be carried up the
narrow staircase like a grand piano After unspeakable suffering productive of
the utmost consternation she is pronounced by expresses from the bedroom free
from pain though much exhausted in which state of affairs Mr Snagsby
trampled and crushed in the pianoforte removal and extremely timid and feeble
ventures to come out from behind the door in the drawingroom
All this time Jo has been standing on the spot where he woke up ever
picking his cap and putting bits of fur in his mouth He spits them out with a
remorseful air for he feels that it is in his nature to be an unimprovable
reprobate and that its no good his trying to keep awake for he wont never
know nothink Though it may be Jo that there is a history so interesting and
affecting even to minds as near the brutes as thine recording deeds done on
this earth for common men that if the Chadbands removing their own persons
from the light would but show it thee in simple reverence would but leave it
unimproved would but regard it as being eloquent enough without their modest
aid it might hold thee awake and thou might learn from it yet
Jo never heard of any such book Its compilers and the Reverend Chadband
are all one to him except that he knows the Reverend Chadband and would
rather run away from him for an hour than hear him talk for five minutes »It
ant no good my waiting here no longer« thinks Jo »Mr Snagsby ant agoing to
say nothink to me tonight« And downstairs he shuffles
But downstairs is the charitable Guster holding by the handrail of the
kitchen stairs and warding off a fit as yet doubtfully the same having been
induced by Mrs Snagsbys screaming She has her own supper of bread and cheese
to hand to Jo with whom she ventures to interchange a word or so for the first
time
»Heres something to eat poor boy« says Guster
»Thankee mum« says Jo
»Are you hungry«
»Jist« says Jo
»Whats gone of your father and your mother eh«
Jo stops in the middle of a bite and looks petrified For this orphan
charge of the Christian saint whose shrine was at Tooting has patted him on the
shoulder and it is the first time in his life that any decent hand has been so
laid upon him
»I never knowd nothink about em« says Jo
»No more didnt I of mine« cries Guster She is repressing symptoms
favourable to the fit when she seems to take alarm at something and vanishes
down the stairs
»Jo« whispers the lawstationer softly as the boy lingers on the step
»Here I am Mr Snagsby«
»I didnt know you were gone theres another halfcrown Jo It was quite
right of you to say nothing about the lady the other night when we were out
together It would breed trouble You cant be too quiet Jo«
»I am fly master«
And so good night
A ghostly shade frilled and nightcapped follows the lawstationer to the
room he came from and glides higher up And henceforth he begins go where he
will to be attended by another shadow than his own hardly less constant than
his own hardly less quiet than his own And into whatsoever atmosphere of
secrecy his own shadow may pass let all concerned in the secrecy beware For
the watchful Mrs Snagsby is there too bone of his bone flesh of his flesh
shadow of his shadow
Chapter XXVI
Sharpshooters
Wintry morning looking with dull eyes and sallow face upon the neighbourhood of
Leicester Square finds its inhabitants unwilling to get out of bed Many of
them are not early risers at the brightest of times being birds of night who
roost when the sun is high and are wide awake and keen for prey when the stars
shine out Behind dingy blind and curtain in upper story and garret skulking
more or less under false names false hair false titles false jewellery and
false histories a colony of brigands lie in their first sleep Gentlemen of the
green baize road who could discourse from personal experience of foreign
galleys and home treadmills spies of strong governments that eternally quake
with weakness and miserable fear broken traitors cowards bullies gamesters
shufflers swindlers and false witnesses some not unmarked by the
brandingiron beneath their dirty braid all with more cruelty in them than was
in Nero and more crime than is in Newgate For howsoever bad the devil can be
in fustian or smockfrock and he can be very bad in both he is a more
designing callous and intolerable devil when he sticks a pin in his
shirtfront calls himself a gentleman backs a card or colour plays a game or
so of billiards and knows a little about bills and promissory notes than in
any other form he wears And in such form Mr Bucket shall find him when he
will still pervading the tributary channels of Leicester Square
But the wintry morning wants him not and wakes him not It wakes Mr George
of the Shooting Gallery and his Familiar They arise roll up and stow away
their mattresses Mr George having shaved himself before a lookingglass of
minute proportions then marches out bareheaded and barechested to the Pump
in the little yard and anon comes back shining with yellow soap friction
drifting rain and exceedingly cold water As he rubs himself upon a large
jacktowel blowing like a military sort of diver just come up his crisp hair
curling tighter and tighter on his sunburnt temples the more he rubs it so
that it looks as if it never could be loosened by any less coercive instrument
than an iron rake or a currycomb as he rubs and puffs and polishes and
blows turning his head from side to side the more conveniently to excoriate
his throat and standing with his body well bent forward to keep the wet from
his martial legs Phil on his knees lighting a fire looks round as if it were
enough washing for him to see all that done and sufficient renovation for one
day to take in the superfluous health his master throws off
When Mr George is dry he goes to work to brush his head with two hard
brushes at once to that unmerciful degree that Phil shouldering his way round
the gallery in the act of sweeping it winks with sympathy This chafing over
the ornamental part of Mr Georges toilet is soon performed He fills his pipe
lights it and marches up and down smoking as his custom is while Phil
raising a powerful odour of hot rolls and coffee prepares breakfast He smokes
gravely and marches in slow time Perhaps this mornings pipe is devoted to the
memory of Gridley in his grave
»And so Phil« says George of the Shooting Gallery after several turns in
silence »you were dreaming of the country last night«
Phil bythebye said as much in a tone of surprise as he scrambled out
of bed
»Yes guvner«
»What was it like«
»I hardly know what it was like guvner« said Phil considering
»How did you know it was the country«
»On account of the grass I think And the swans upon it« says Phil after
further consideration
»What were the swans doing on the grass«
»They was aeating of it I expect« says Phil
The master resumes his march and the man resumes his preparation of
breakfast It is not necessarily a lengthened preparation being limited to the
setting forth of very simple breakfast requisites for two and the broiling of a
rasher of bacon at the fire in the rusty grate but as Phil has to sidle round a
considerable part of the gallery for every object he wants and never brings two
objects at once it takes time under the circumstances At length the breakfast
is ready Phil announcing it Mr George knocks the ashes out of his pipe on the
hob stands his pipe itself in the chimney corner and sits down to the meal
When he has helped himself Phil follows suit sitting at the extreme end of the
little oblong table and taking his plate on his knees Either in humility or
to hide his blackened hands or because it is his natural manner of eating
»The country« says Mr George plying his knife and fork »why I suppose
you never clapped your eyes on the country Phil«
»I see the marshes once« says Phil contentedly eating his breakfast
»What marshes«
»The marshes commander« returns Phil
»Where are they«
»I dont know where they are« says Phil »but I see em guvner They was
flat And miste«
Governor and Commander are interchangeable terms with Phil expressive of
the same respect and deference and applicable to nobody but Mr George
»I was born in the country Phil«
»Was you indeed commander«
»Yes And bred there«
Phil elevates his one eyebrow and after respectfully staring at his master
to express interest swallows a great gulp of coffee still staring at him
»Theres not a birds note that I dont know« says Mr George »Not many an
English leaf or berry that I couldnt name Not many a tree that I couldnt
climb yet if I was put to it I was a real country boy once My good mother
lived in the country«
»She must have been a fine old lady guvner« Phil observes
»Ay and not so old either fiveandthirty years ago« says Mr George
»But Ill wager that at ninety she would be near as upright as me and near as
broad across the shoulders«
»Did she die at ninety guvner« inquires Phil
»No Bosh Let her rest in peace God bless her« says the trooper »What
set me on about country boys and runaways and goodfornothings You to be
sure So you never clapped your eyes upon the country marshes and dreams
excepted Eh«
Phil shakes his head
»Do you want to see it«
»Nno I dont know as I do particular« says Phil
»The towns enough for you eh«
»Why you see commander« says Phil »I aint acquainted with anythink
else and I doubt if I aint agetting too old to take to novelties«
»How old are you Phil« asks the trooper pausing as he conveys his smoking
saucer to his lips
»Im something with a eight in it« says Phil »It cant be eighty Nor yet
eighteen Its betwixt em somewheres«
Mr George slowly putting down his saucer without tasting its contents is
laughingly beginning »Why what the deuce Phil« when he stops seeing that
Phil is counting on his dirty fingers
»I was just eight« says Phil »agreeable to the parish calculation when I
went with the tinker I was sent on a errand and I see him a sittin under a old
buildin with a fire all to himself wery comfortable and he says Would you like
to come along a me my man I says Yes and him and me and the fire goes home to
Clerkenwell together That was April Fool Day I was able to count up to ten
and when April Fool Day come round again I says to myself Now old chap
youre one and a eight in it April Fool Day after that Now old chap youre
two and a eight in it In course of time I come to ten and a eight in it two
tens and a eight in it When it got so high it got the upper hand of me but
this is how I always know theres a eight in it«
»Ah« says Mr George resuming his breakfast »And wheres the tinker«
»Drink put him in the hospital guvner and the hospital put him in a
glass case I have heerd« Phil replies mysteriously
»By that means you got promotion Took the business Phil«
»Yes commander I took the business Such as it was It wasnt much of a
beat round Saffron Hill Hatton Garden Clerkenwell Smiffeld and there
poor neighbourhood where they uses up the kettles till theyre past mending
Most of the tramping tinkers used to come and lodge at our place that was the
best part of my masters earnings But they didnt come to me I warnt like
him He could sing em a good song I couldnt He could play em a tune on any
sort of pot you please so as it was iron or block tin I never could do nothing
with a pot but mend it or bile it never had a note of music in me Besides I
was too illlooking and their wives complained of me«
»They were mighty particular You would pass muster in a crowd Phil« says
the trooper with a pleasant smile
»No guvner« returns Phil shaking his head »No I shouldnt I was
passable enough when I went with the tinker though nothing to boast of then
but what with blowing the fire with my mouth when I was young and spileing my
complexion and singeing my hair off and swallering the smoke and what with
being natrally unfortnate in the way of running against hot metal and marking
myself by sich means and what with having turnups with the tinker as I got
older almost whenever he was too far gone in drink which was almost always
my beauty was queer wery queer even at that time As to since what with a
dozen years in a dark forge where the men was given to larking and what with
being scorched in a accident at a gasworks and what with being blowed out of
winder casefilling at the firework business I am ugly enough to be made a
show on«
Resigning himself to which condition with a perfectly satisfied manner Phil
begs the favour of another cup of coffee While drinking it he says
»It was after the casefilling blowup when I first see you commander You
remember«
»I remember Phil You were walking along in the sun«
»Crawling guvner again a wall «
»True Phil shouldering your way on «
»In a nightcap« exclaims Phil excited
»In a nightcap «
»And hobbling with a couple of sticks« cries Phil still more excited
»With a couple of sticks When «
»When you stops you know« cries Phil putting down his cup and saucer and
hastily removing his plate from his knees »and says to me What comrade You
have been in the wars I didnt say much to you commander then for I was took
by surprise that a person so strong and healthy and bold as you was should
stop to speak to such a limping bag of bones as I was But you says to me says
you delivering it out of your chest as hearty as possible so that it was like
a glass of something hot What accident have you met with You have been badly
hurt Whats amiss old boy Cheer up and tell us about it Cheer up I was
cheered already I says as much to you you says more to me I says more to you
you says more to me and here I am commander Here I am commander« cries
Phil who has started from his chair and unaccountably begun to sidle away »If
a marks wanted or if it will improve the business let the customers take aim
at me They cant spoil my beauty Im all right Come on If they want a man to
box at let em box at me Let em knock me well about the head I dont mind
If they want a lightweight to be throwed for practice Cornwall Devonshire
or Lancashire let em throw me They wont hurt me I have been throwed all
sorts of styles all my life«
With this unexpected speech energetically delivered and accompanied by
action illustrative of the various exercises referred to Phil Squod shoulders
his way round three sides of the gallery and abruptly tacking off at his
commander makes a butt at him with his head intended to express devotion to
his service He then begins to clear away the breakfast
Mr George after laughing cheerfully and clapping him on the shoulder
assists in these arrangements and helps to get the gallery into business order
That done he takes a turn at the dumbbells and afterwards weighing himself
and opining that he is getting too fleshy engages with great gravity in
solitary broadsword practice Meanwhile Phil has fallen to work at his usual
table where he screws and unscrews and cleans and files and whistles into
small apertures and blackens himself more and more and seems to do and undo
everything that can be done and undone about a gun
Master and man are at length disturbed by footsteps in the passage where
they make an unusual sound denoting the arrival of unusual company These
steps advancing nearer and nearer to the gallery bring into it a group at
first sight scarcely reconcilable with any day in the year but the fifth of
November
It consists of a limp and ugly figure carried in a chair by two bearers and
attended by a lean female with a face like a pinched mask who might be expected
immediately to recite the popular verses commemorative of the time when they
did contrive to blow Old England up alive but for her keeping her lips tightly
and defiantly closed as the chair is put down At which point the figure in it
gasping »O Lord O dear me I am shaken« adds »How de do my dear friend how
de do« Mr George then descries in the procession the venerable Mr Smallweed
out for an airing attended by his granddaughter Judy as bodyguard
»Mr George my dear friend« says Grandfather Smallweed removing his right
arm from the neck of one of his bearers whom he has nearly throttled coming
along »how de do Youre surprised to see me my dear friend«
»I should hardly have been more surprised to have seen your friend in the
city« returns Mr George
»I am very seldom out« pants Mr Smallweed »I havent been out for many
months Its inconvenient and it comes expensive But I longed so much to see
you my dear Mr George How de do sir«
»I am well enough« says Mr George »I hope you are the same«
»You cant be too well my dear friend« Mr Smallweed takes him by both
hands »I have brought my granddaughter Judy I couldnt keep her away She
longed so much to see you«
»Hum She bears it calmly« mutters Mr George
»So we got a hackneycab and put a chair in it and just round the corner
they lifted me out of the cab and into the chair and carried me here that I
might see my dear friend in his own establishment This« says Grandfather
Smallweed alluding to the bearer who has been in danger of strangulation and
who withdraws adjusting his windpipe »is the driver of the cab He has nothing
extra It is by agreement included in his fare This person« the other bearer
»we engaged in the street outside for a pint of beer Which is twopence Judy
give the person twopence I was not sure you had a workman of your own here my
dear friend or we neednt have employed this person«
Grandfather Smallweed refers to Phil with a glance of considerable terror
and a halfsubdued »O Lord O dear me« Nor is his apprehension on the surface
of things without some reason for Phil who has never beheld the apparition in
the black velvet cap before has stopped short with a gun in his hand with much
of the air of a dead shot intent on picking Mr Smallweed off as an ugly old
bird of the crow species
»Judy my child« says Grandfather Smallweed »give the person his twopence
Its a great deal for what he has done«
The person who is one of those extraordinary specimens of human fungus that
spring up spontaneously in the western streets of London ready dressed in an
old red jacket with a »Mission« for holding horses and calling coaches
receives his twopence with anything but transport tosses the money into the
air catches it overhanded and retires
»My dear Mr George« says Grandfather Smallweed »would you be so kind as
help to carry me to the fire I am accustomed to a fire and I am an old man
and I soon chill O dear me«
His closing exclamation is jerked out of the venerable gentleman by the
suddenness with which Mr Squod like a genie catches him up chair and all
and deposits him on the hearthstone
»O Lord« says Mr Smallweed panting »O dear me O my stars My dear
friend your workman is very strong and very prompt O Lord he is very
prompt Judy draw me back a little Im being scorched in the legs« which
indeed is testified to the noses of all present by the smell of his worsted
stockings
The gentle Judy having backed her grandfather a little way from the fire
and having shaken him up as usual and having released his overshadowed eye from
its black velvet extinguisher Mr Smallweed again says »O dear me O Lord«
and looking about and meeting Mr Georges glance again stretches out both
hands
»My dear friend So happy in this meeting And this is your establishment
Its a delightful place Its a picture You never find that anything goes off
here accidentally do you my dear friend« adds Grandfather Smallweed very
ill at ease
»No no No fear of that«
»And your workman He O dear me he never lets anything off without
meaning it does he my dear friend«
»He has never hurt anybody but himself« says Mr George smiling
»But he might you know He seems to have hurt himself a good deal and he
might hurt somebody else« the old gentleman returns »He mightnt mean it or
he even might Mr George will you order him to leave his infernal firearms
alone and go away«
Obedient to a nod from the trooper Phil retires emptyhanded to the other
end of the gallery Mr Smallweed reassured falls to rubbing his legs
»And youre doing well Mr George« he says to the trooper squarely
standing faced about towards him with his broadsword in his hand »You are
prospering please the Powers«
Mr George answers with a cool nod adding »Go on You have not come to say
that I know«
»You are so sprightly Mr George« returns the venerable grandfather »You
are such good company«
»Ha ha Go on« says Mr George
»My dear friend But that sword looks awful gleaming and sharp It might
cut somebody by accident It makes me shiver Mr George Curse him« says the
excellent old gentleman apart to Judy as the trooper takes a step or two away
to lay it aside »He owes me money and might think of paying off old scores in
this murdering place I wish your brimstone grandmother was here and hed shave
her head off«
Mr George returning folds his arms and looking down at the old man
sliding every moment lower and lower in his chair says quietly »Now for it«
»Ho« cries Mr Smallweed rubbing his hands with an artful chuckle »Yes
Now for it Now for what my dear friend«
»For a pipe« says Mr George who with great composure sets his chair in
the chimneycorner takes his pipe from the grate fills it and lights it and
falls to smoking peacefully
This tends to the discomfiture of Mr Smallweed who finds it so difficult
to resume his object whatever it may be that he becomes exasperated and
secretly claws the air with an impotent vindictiveness expressive of an intense
desire to tear and rend the visage of Mr George As the excellent old
gentlemans nails are long and leaden and his hands lean and veinous and his
eyes green and watery and over and above this as he continues while he
claws to slide down in his chair and to collapse into a shapeless bundle he
becomes such a ghastly spectacle even in the accustomed eyes of Judy that that
young virgin pounces at him with something more than the ardour of affection
and so shakes him up and pats and pokes him in divers parts of his body but
particularly in that part which the science of self-defence would call his wind
that in his grievous distress he utters enforced sounds like a paviours rammer
When Judy has by these means set him up again in his chair with a white
face and a frosty nose but still clawing she stretches out her weazen
forefinger and gives Mr George one poke in the back The trooper raising his
head she makes another poke at her esteemed grandfather and having thus
brought them together stares rigidly at the fire
»Aye aye Ho ho Uuuugh« chatters Grandfather Smallweed swallowing
his rage »My dear friend« still clawing
»I tell you what« says Mr George »If you want to converse with me you
must speak out I am one of the Roughs and I cant go about and about I
havent the art to do it I am not clever enough It dont suit me When you go
winding round and round me« says the trooper putting his pipe between his lips
again »damme if I dont feel as if I was being smothered«
And he inflates his broad chest to its utmost extent as if to assure
himself that he is not smothered yet
»If you have come to give me a friendly call« continues Mr George »I am
obliged to you how are you If you have come to see whether theres any
property on the premises look about you you are welcome If you want to out
with something out with it«
The blooming Judy without removing her gaze from the fire gives her
grandfather one ghostly poke
»You see Its her opinion too And why the devil that young woman wont
sit down like a Christian« says Mr George with his eyes musingly fixed on
Judy »I cant comprehend«
»She keeps at my side to attend to me sir« says Grandfather Smallweed »I
am an old man my dear Mr George and I need some attention I can carry my
years I am not a Brimstone pollparrot« snarling and looking unconsciously
for the cushion »but I need attention my dear friend«
»Well« returns the trooper wheeling his chair to face the old man »Now
then«
»My friend in the city Mr George has done a little business with a pupil
of yours«
»Has he« says Mr George »I am sorry to hear it«
»Yes sir« Grandfather Smallweed rubs his legs »He is a fine young soldier
now Mr George by the name of Carstone Friends came forward and paid it all
up honourable«
»Did they« returns Mr George »Do you think your friend in the city would
like a piece of advice«
»I think he would my dear friend From you«
»I advise him then to do no more business in that quarter Theres no more
to be got by it The young gentleman to my knowledge, is brought to a dead
halt«
»No no my dear friend No no Mr George No no no sir« remonstrates
Grandfather Smallweed cunningly rubbing his spare legs »Not quite a dead halt
I think He has good friends and he is good for his pay and he is good for the
selling price of his commission and he is good for his chance in a lawsuit and
he is good for his chance in a wife and oh do you know Mr George I think
my friend would consider the young gentleman good for something yet« says
Grandfather Smallweed turning up his velvet cap and scratching his ear like a
monkey
Mr George who has put aside his pipe and sits with an arm on his
chairback beats a tattoo on the ground with his right foot as if he were not
particularly pleased with the turn the conversation has taken
»But to pass from one subject to another« resumes Mr Smallweed »To
promote the conversation as a joker might say To pass Mr George from the
ensign to the captain«
»What are you up to now« asks Mr George pausing with a frown in stroking
the recollection of his moustache »What captain«
»Our captain The captain we know of Captain Hawdon«
»O thats it is it« says Mr George with a low whistle as he sees both
grandfather and granddaughter looking hard at him »you are there Well what
about it Come I wont be smothered any more Speak«
»My dear friend« returns the old man »I was applied Judy shake me up a
little I was applied to yesterday about the captain and my opinion still
is that the captain is not dead«
»Bosh« observes Mr George
»What was your remark my dear friend« inquires the old man with his hand
to his ear
»Bosh«
»Ho« says Grandfather Smallweed »Mr George of my opinion you can judge
for yourself according to the questions asked of me and the reasons given for
asking em Now what do you think the lawyer making the inquiries wants«
»A job« says Mr George
»Nothing of the kind«
»Cant be a lawyer then« says Mr George folding his arms with an air of
confirmed resolution
»My dear friend he is a lawyer and a famous one He wants to see some
fragment in Captain Hawdons writing He dont want to keep it He only wants to
see it and compare it with a writing in his possession«
»Well«
»Well Mr George Happening to remember the advertisement concerning
Captain Hawdon and any information that could be given respecting him he
looked it up and came to me just as you did my dear friend Will you shake
hands So glad you came that day I should have missed forming such a
friendship if you hadnt come«
»Well Mr Smallweed« says Mr George again after going through the
ceremony with some stiffness
»I had no such thing I have nothing but his signature Plague pestilence
and famine battle murder and sudden death upon him« says the old man making a
curse out of one of his few remembrances of a prayer and squeezing up his
velvet cap between his angry hands »I have half a million of his signatures I
think But you« breathlessly recovering his mildness of speech as Judy
readjusts the cap on his skittleball of a head »you my dear Mr George are
likely to have some letter or paper that would suit the purpose Anything would
suit the purpose written in the hand«
»Some writing in that hand« says the trooper pondering »may be I have«
»My dearest friend«
»May be I have not«
»Ho« says Grandfather Smallweed crestfallen
»But if I had bushels of it I would not show as much as would make a
cartridge without knowing why«
»Sir I have told you why My dear Mr George I have told you why«
»Not enough« says the trooper shaking his head »I must know more and
approve it«
»Then will you come to the lawyer My dear friend will you come and see
the gentleman« urges Grandfather Smallweed pulling out a lean old silver
watch with hands like the leg of a skeleton »I told him it was probable I
might call upon him between ten and eleven this forenoon and its now half
after ten Will you come and see the gentleman Mr George«
»Hum« says he gravely »I dont mind that Though why this should concern
you so much I dont know«
»Everything concerns me that has a chance in it of bringing anything to
light about him Didnt he take us all in Didnt he owe us immense sums all
round Concern me Who can anything about him concern more than me Not my
dear friend« says Grandfather Smallweed lowering his tone »that I want you to
betray anything Far from it Are you ready to come my dear friend«
»Ay Ill come in a moment I promise nothing you know«
»No my dear Mr George no«
»And you mean to say youre going to give me a lift to this place wherever
it is without charging for it« Mr George inquires getting his hat and thick
washleather gloves
This pleasantry so tickles Mr Smallweed that he laughs long and low
before the fire But ever while he laughs he glances over his paralytic
shoulder at Mr George and eagerly watches him as he unlocks the padlock of a
homely cupboard at the distant end of the gallery looks here and there upon the
higher shelves and ultimately takes something out with a rustling of paper
folds it and puts it in his breast Then Judy pokes Mr Smallweed once and Mr
Smallweed pokes Judy once
»I am ready« says the trooper coming back »Phil you can carry this old
gentleman to his coach and make nothing of him«
»O dear me O Lord Stop a moment« says Mr Smallweed »Hes so very
prompt Are you sure you can do it carefully my worthy man«
Phil makes no reply but seizing the chair and its load sidles away
tightly hugged by the now speechless Mr Smallweed and bolts along the passage
as if he had an acceptable commission to carry the old gentleman to the nearest
volcano His shorter trust however terminating at the cab he deposits him
there and the fair Judy takes her place beside him and the chair embellishes
the roof and Mr George takes the vacant place upon the box
Mr George is quite confounded by the spectacle he beholds from time to time
as he peeps into the cab through the window behind him where the grim Judy is
always motionless and the old gentleman with his cap over one eye is always
sliding off the seat into the straw and looking upward at him out of his other
eye with a helpless expression of being jolted in the back
Chapter XXVII
More Old Soldiers than One
Mr George has not far to ride with folded arms upon the box for their
destination is Lincolns Inn Fields When the driver stops his horses Mr
George alights and looking in at the window says
»What Mr Tulkinghorns your man is he«
»Yes my dear friend Do you know him Mr George«
»Why I have heard of him seen him too I think But I dont know him and
he dont know me«
There ensues the carrying of Mr Smallweed upstairs which is done to
perfection with the troopers help He is borne into Mr Tulkinghorns great
room and deposited on the Turkey rug before the fire Mr Tulkinghorn is not
within at the present moment but will be back directly The occupant of the pew
in the hall having said thus much stirs the fire and leaves the triumvirate
to warm themselves
Mr George is mightily curious in respect of the room He looks up at the
painted ceiling looks round at the old lawbooks contemplates the portraits of
the great clients reads aloud the names on the boxes
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet« Mr George reads thoughtfully »Ha Manor
of Chesney Wold Humph« Mr George stands looking at these boxes a long while
as if they were pictures and comes back to the fire repeating »Sir Leicester
Dedlock Baronet and Manor of Chesney Wold hey«
»Worth a mint of money Mr George« whispers Grandfather Smallweed rubbing
his legs »Powerfully rich«
»Who do you mean This old gentleman or the Baronet«
»This gentleman this gentleman«
»So I have heard and knows a thing or two Ill hold a wager Not bad
quarters either« says Mr George looking round again »See the strong box
yonder«
This reply is cut short by Mr Tulkinghorns arrival There is no change in
him of course Rustily drest with his spectacles in his hand and their very
case worn threadbare In manner close and dry In voice husky and low In
face watchful behind a blind habitually not uncensorious and contemptuous
perhaps The peerage may have warmer worshippers and faithfuller believers than
Mr Tulkinghorn after all if everything were known
»Good morning Mr Smallweed good morning« he says as he comes in »You
have brought the serjeant I see Sit down serjeant«
As Mr Tulkinghorn takes off his gloves and puts them in his hat he looks
with halfclosed eyes across the room to where the trooper stands and says
within himself perchance »Youll do my friend«
»Sit down serjeant« he repeats as he comes to his table which is set on
one side of the fire and takes his easychair »Cold and raw this morning cold
and raw« Mr Tulkinghorn warms before the bars alternately the palms and
knuckles of his hands and looks from behind that blind which is always down
at the trio sitting in a little semicircle before him
»Now I can feel what I am about« as perhaps he can in two senses Mr
Smallweed The old gentleman is newly shaken up by Judy to bear his part in the
conversation »You have brought our good friend the serjeant I see«
»Yes sir« returns Mr Smallweed very servile to the lawyers wealth and
influence
»And what does the serjeant say about this business«
»Mr George« says Grandfather Smallweed with a tremulous wave of his
shrivelled hand »this is the gentleman sir«
Mr George salutes the gentleman but otherwise sits bolt upright and
profoundly silent very forward in his chair as if the full complement of
regulation appendages for a fieldday hung about him
Mr Tulkinghorn proceeds »Well George I believe your name is George«
»It is so sir«
»What do you say George«
»I ask your pardon sir« returns the trooper »but I should wish to know
what you say«
»Do you mean in point of reward«
»I mean in point of everything sir«
This is so very trying to Mr Smallweeds temper that he suddenly breaks
out with »Youre a Brimstone beast« and as suddenly asks pardon of Mr
Tulkinghorn excusing himself for this slip of the tongue by saying to Judy »I
was thinking of your grandmother my dear«
»I supposed serjeant« Mr Tulkinghorn resumes as he leans on one side of
his chair and crosses his legs »that Mr Smallweed might have sufficiently
explained the matter It lies in the smallest compass however You served under
Captain Hawdon at one time and were his attendant in illness and rendered him
many little services and were rather in his confidence I am told That is so
is it not«
»Yes sir that is so« says Mr George with military brevity
»Therefore you may happen to have in your possession something anything
no matter what accounts instructions orders a letter anything in Captain
Hawdons writing I wish to compare his writing with some that I have If you
can give me the opportunity you shall be rewarded for your trouble Three
four five guineas you would consider handsome I dare say«
»Noble my dear friend« cries Grandfather Smallweed screwing up his eyes
»If not say how much more in your conscience as a soldier you can demand
There is no need for you to part with the writing against your inclination
though I should prefer to have it«
Mr George sits squared in exactly the same attitude looks at the painted
ceiling and says never a word The irascible Mr Smallweed scratches the air
»The question is« says Mr Tulkinghorn in his methodical subdued
uninterested way »first whether you have any of Captain Hawdons writing«
»First whether I have any of Captain Hawdons writing sir« repeats Mr
George
»Secondly what will satisfy you for the trouble of producing it«
»Secondly what will satisfy me for the trouble of producing it sir«
repeats Mr George
»Thirdly you can judge for yourself whether it is at all like that« says
Mr Tulkinghorn suddenly handing him some sheets of written paper tied
together
»Whether it is at all like that sir Just so« repeats Mr George
All three repetitions Mr George pronounces in a mechanical manner looking
straight at Mr Tulkinghorn nor does be so much as glance at the affidavit in
Jarndyce and Jarndyce that has been given to him for his inspection though he
still holds it in his hand but continues to look at the lawyer with an air of
troubled meditation
»Well« says Mr Tulkinghorn »What do you say«
»Well sir« replies Mr George rising erect and looking immense »I would
rather if youll excuse me have nothing to do with this«
Mr Tulkinghorn outwardly quite undisturbed demands »Why not«
»Why sir« returns the trooper »Except on military compulsion I am not a
man of business Among civilians I am what they call in Scotland a
neerdoweel I have no head for papers sir I can stand any fire better than
a fire of cross questions I mentioned to Mr Smallweed only an hour or so ago
that when I come into things of this kind I feel as if I was being smothered
And that is my sensation« says Mr George looking round upon the company »at
the present moment«
With that he takes three strides forward to replace the papers on the
lawyers table and three strides backward to resume his former station where
he stands perfectly upright now looking at the ground and now at the painted
ceiling with his hands behind him as if to prevent himself from accepting any
other document whatever
Under this provocation Mr Smallweeds favourite adjective of disparagement
is so close to his tongue that he begins the words my dear friend with the
monosyllable Brim thus converting the possessive pronoun into Brimmy and
appearing to have an impediment in his speech Once past this difficulty
however he exhorts his dear friend in the tenderest manner not to be rash but
to do what so eminent a gentleman requires and to do it with a good grace
confident that it must be unobjectionable as well as profitable Mr Tulkinghorn
merely utters an occasional sentence as »You are the best judge of your own
interest serjeant« »Take care you do no harm by this« »Please yourself
please yourself« »If you know what you mean thats quite enough« These he
utters with an appearance of perfect indifference as he looks over the papers
on his table and prepares to write a letter
Mr George looks distrustfully from the painted ceiling to the ground from
the ground to Mr Smallweed from Mr Smallweed to Mr Tulkinghorn and from Mr
Tulkinghorn to the painted ceiling again often in his perplexity changing the
leg on which he rests
»I do assure you sir« says Mr George »not to say it offensively that
between you and Mr Smallweed here I really am being smothered fifty times
over I really am sir I am not a match for you gentlemen Will you allow me to
ask why you want to see the captains hand in the case that I could find any
specimen of it«
Mr Tulkinghorn quietly shakes his head »No If you were a man of business
serjeant you would not need to be informed that there are confidential
reasons very harmless in themselves, for many such wants in the profession to
which I belong But if you are afraid of doing any injury to Captain Hawdon you
may set your mind at rest about that«
»Ay he is dead sir«
»Is he« Mr Tulkinghorn quietly sits down to write
»Well sir« says the trooper looking into his hat after another
disconcerted pause »I am sorry not to have given you more satisfaction If it
would be any satisfaction to any one that I should be confirmed in my judgment
that I would rather have nothing to do with this by a friend of mine who has a
better head for business than I have and who is an old soldier I am willing to
consult with him I I really am so completely smothered myself at present«
says Mr George passing his hand hopelessly across his brow »that I dont know
but what it might be a satisfaction to me«
Mr Smallweed hearing that this authority is an old soldier so strongly
inculcates the expediency of the troopers taking counsel with him and
particularly informing him of its being a question of five guineas or more that
Mr George engages to go and see him Mr Tulkinghorn says nothing either way
»Ill consult my friend then by your leave sir« says the trooper »and
Ill take the liberty of looking in again with the final answer in the course of
the day Mr Smallweed if you wish to be carried downstairs «
»In a moment my dear friend in a moment Will you first let me speak half
a word with this gentleman in private«
»Certainly sir Dont hurry yourself on my account« The trooper retires to
a distant part of the room and resumes his curious inspection of the boxes
strong and otherwise
»If I wasnt as weak as a Brimstone Baby sir« whispers Grandfather
Smallweed drawing the lawyer down to his level by the lappel of his coat and
flashing some halfquenched green fire out of his angry eyes »Id tear the
writing away from him Hes got it buttoned in his breast I saw him put it
there Judy saw him put it there Speak up you crabbed image for the sign of a
walkingstick shop and say you saw him put it there«
This vehement conjuration the old gentleman accompanies with such a thrust
at his granddaughter that it is too much for his strength and he slips away
out of his chair drawing Mr Tulkinghorn with him until he is arrested by
Judy and well shaken
»Violence will not do for me my friend« Mr Tulkinghorn then remarks
coolly
»No no I know I know sir But its chafing and galling its its
worse than your smattering chattering Magpie of a grandmother« to the
imperturbable Judy who only looks at the fire »to know he has got whats
wanted and wont give it up He not to give it up He A vagabond But never
mind sir never mind At the most he has only his own way for a little while
I have him periodically in a vice Ill twist him sir Ill screw him sir If
he wont do it with a good grace Ill make him do it with a bad one sir
Now my dear Mr George« says Grandfather Smallweed winking at the lawyer
hideously as he releases him »I am ready for your kind assistance my
excellent friend«
Mr Tulkinghorn with some shadowy sign of amusement manifesting itself
through his selfpossession stands on the hearthrug with his back to the fire
watching the disappearance of Mr Smallweed and acknowledging the troopers
parting salute with one slight nod
It is more difficult to get rid of the old gentleman Mr George finds than
to bear a hand in carrying him downstairs for when he is replaced in his
conveyance he is so loquacious on the subject of the guineas and retains such
an affectionate hold of his button having in truth a secret longing to rip
his coat open and rob him that some degree of force is necessary on the
troopers part to effect a separation It is accomplished at last and he
proceeds alone in quest of his adviser
By the cloisterly Temple and by Whitefriars there not without a glance at
HangingSword Alley which would seem to be something in his way and by
Blackfriars Bridge and Blackfriars Road Mr George sedately marches to a
street of little shops lying somewhere in that ganglion of roads from Kent and
Surrey and of streets from the bridges of London centring in the farfamed
Elephant who has lost his castle formed of a thousand fourhorse coaches to a
stronger iron monster than he ready to chop him into mincemeat any day he
dares To one of the little shops in this street which is a musicians shop
having a few fiddles in the window and some Pans pipes and a tambourine and a
triangle, and certain elongated scraps of music Mr George directs his massive
tread And halting at a few paces from it as he sees a soldierlylooking woman
with her outer skirts tucked up come forth with a small wooden tub and in that
tub commence a whisking and a splashing on the margin of the pavement Mr
George says to himself »Shes as usual washing greens I never saw her except
upon a baggagewaggon when she wasnt washing greens«
The subject of this reflection is at all events so occupied in washing
greens at present that she remains unsuspicious of Mr Georges approach
until lifting up herself and her tub together when she has poured the water
off into the gutter she finds him standing near her Her reception of him is
not flattering
»George I never see you but I wish you was a hundred mile away«
The trooper without remarking on this welcome follows into the musical
instrument shop where the lady places her tub of greens upon the counter and
having shaken hands with him rests her arms upon it
»I never« she says »George consider Matthew Bagnet safe a minute when
youre near him You are that restless and that roving «
»Yes I know I am Mrs Bagnet I know I am«
»You know you are« says Mrs Bagnet »Whats the use of that Why are you«
»The nature of the animal I suppose« returns the trooper goodhumouredly
»Ah« cries Mrs Bagnet something shrilly »but what satisfaction will the
nature of the animal be to me when the animal shall have tempted my Mat away
from the musical business to New Zealand or Australey«
Mrs Bagnet is not at all an illlooking woman Rather largeboned a little
coarse in the grain and freckled by the sun and wind which have tanned her hair
upon the forehead but healthy wholesome and brighteyed A strong busy
active honestfaced woman of from fortyfive to fifty Clean hardy and so
economically dressed though substantially that the only article of ornament
of which she stands possessed appears to be her weddingring around which her
finger has grown to be so large since it was put on that it will never come off
again until it shall mingle with Mrs Bagnets dust
»Mrs Bagnet« says the trooper »I am on my parole with you Mat will get
no harm from me You may trust me so far«
»Well I think I may But the very looks of you are unsettling« Mrs Bagnet
rejoins »Ah George George If you had only settled down and married Joe
Pouchs widow when he died in North America shed have combed your hair for
you«
»It was a chance for me certainly« returns the trooper halflaughingly
halfseriously »but I shall never settle down into a respectable man now Joe
Pouchs widow might have done me good there was something in her and
something of her but I couldnt make up my mind to it If I had had the luck
to meet with such a wife as Mat found«
Mrs Bagnet who seems in a virtuous way to be under little reserve with a
good sort of fellow but to be another good sort of fellow herself for that
matter receives this compliment by flicking Mr George in the face with a head
of greens and taking her tub into the little room behind the shop
»Why Quebec my poppet« says George following on invitation into that
department »And little Malta too Come and kiss your Bluffy«
These young ladies not supposed to have been actually christened by the
names applied to them though always so called in the family from the places of
their birth in barracks are respectively employed on threelegged stools the
younger some five or six years old in learning her letters out of a penny
primer the elder eight or nine perhaps in teaching her and sewing with
great assiduity Both hail Mr George with acclamations as an old friend and
after some kissing and romping plant their stools beside him
»And hows young Woolwich« says Mr George
»Ah There now« cries Mrs Bagnet turning about from her saucepans for
she is cooking dinner with a bright flush on her face »Would you believe it
Got an engagement at the Theayter with his father to play the fife in a
military piece«
»Well done my godson« cries Mr George slapping his thigh
»I believe you« says Mrs Bagnet »Hes a Briton Thats what Woolwich is
A Briton«
»And Mat blows away at his bassoon and youre respectable civilians one and
all« says Mr George »Family people Children growing up Mats old mother in
Scotland and your old father somewhere else corresponded with and helped a
little and well well To be sure I dont know why I shouldnt be wished a
hundred mile away for I have not much to do with all this«
Mr George is becoming thoughtful sitting before the fire in the
whitewashed room which has a sanded floor and a barrack smell and contains
nothing superfluous and has not a visible speck of dirt or dust in it from the
faces of Quebec and Malta to the bright tin pots and pannikins upon the dresser
shelves Mr George is becoming thoughtful sitting here while Mrs Bagnet is
busy when Mr Bagnet and young Woolwich opportunely come home Mr Bagnet is an
exartilleryman tall and upright with shaggy eyebrows and whiskers like the
fibres of a cocoanut not a hair upon his head and a torrid complexion His
voice short deep and resonant is not at all unlike the tones of the
instrument to which he is devoted Indeed there may be generally observed in him
an unbending unyielding brassbound air as if he were himself the bassoon of
the human orchestra Young Woolwich is the type and model of a young drummer
Both father and son salute the trooper heartily He saying in due season
that he has come to advise with Mr Bagnet Mr Bagnet hospitably declares that
he will hear of no business until after dinner and that his friend shall not
partake of his counsel without first partaking of boiled pork and greens The
trooper yielding to this invitation he and Mr Bagnet not to embarrass the
domestic preparations go forth to take a turn up and down the little street
which they promenade with measured tread and folded arms as if it were a
rampart
»George« says Mr Bagnet »You know me Its my old girl that advises She
has the head But I never own to it before her Discipline must be maintained
Wait till the greens is off her mind Then well consult Whatever the old girl
says do do it«
»I intend to Mat« replies the other »I would sooner take her opinion than
that of a college«
»College« returns Mr Bagnet in short sentences bassoonlike »What
college could you leave in another quarter of the world with nothing but a
grey cloak and an umbrella to make its way home to Europe The old girl would
do it tomorrow Did it once«
»You are right« says Mr George
»What college« pursues Bagnet »could you set up in life with two
pennorth of white lime a pennorth of fullers earth a haporth of sand
and the rest of the change out of sixpence in money Thats what the old girl
started on In the present business«
»I am rejoiced to hear its thriving Mat«
»The old girl« says Mr Bagnet acquiescing »saves Has a stocking
somewhere With money in it I never saw it But I know shes got it Wait till
the greens is off her mind Then shell set you up«
»She is a treasure« exclaims Mr George
»Shes more But I never own to it before her Discipline must be
maintained It was the old girl that brought out my musical abilities I should
have been in the artillery now but for the old girl Six years I hammered at
the fiddle Ten at the flute The old girl said it wouldnt do intention good
but want of flexibility try the bassoon The old girl borrowed a bassoon from
the bandmaster of the Rifle Regiment I practised in the trenches Got on got
another get a living by it«
George remarks that she looks as fresh as a rose and as sound as an apple
»The old girl« says Mr Bagnet in reply »is a thoroughly fine woman
Consequently she is like a thoroughly fine day Gets finer as she gets on I
never saw the old girls equal But I never own to it before her Discipline
must be maintained«
Proceeding to converse on indifferent matters they walk up and down the
little street keeping step and time until summoned by Quebec and Malta to do
justice to the pork and greens over which Mrs Bagnet like a military
chaplain says a short grace In the distribution of these comestibles as in
every other household duty Mrs Bagnet develops an exact system sitting with
every dish before her allotting to every portion of pork its own portion of
potliquor greens potatoes and even mustard and serving it out complete
Having likewise served out the beer from a can and thus supplied the mess with
all things necessary Mrs Bagnet proceeds to satisfy her own hunger which is
in a healthy state The kit of the mess if the table furniture may be so
denominated is chiefly composed of utensils of horn and tin that have done
duty in several parts of the world Young Woolwichs knife in particular which
is of the oyster kind with the additional feature of a strong shuttingup
movement which frequently balks the appetite of that young musician is
mentioned as having gone in various hands the complete round of foreign service
The dinner done Mrs Bagnet assisted by the younger branches who polish
their own cups and platters knives and forks makes all the dinner garniture
shine as brightly as before and puts it all away first sweeping the hearth to
the end that Mr Bagnet and the visitor may not be retarded in the smoking of
their pipes These household cares involve much pattening and counterpattening
in the back yard and considerable use of a pail which is finally so happy as
to assist in the ablutions of Mrs Bagnet herself That old girl reappearing
byandby quite fresh and sitting down to her needlework then and only then
the greens being only then to be considered as entirely off her mind Mr
Bagnet requests the trooper to state his case
This Mr George does with great discretion appearing to address himself to
Mr Bagnet but having an eye solely on the old girl all the time as Bagnet has
himself She equally discreet busies herself with her needlework The case
fully stated Mr Bagnet resorts to his standard artifice for the maintenance of
discipline
»Thats the whole of it is it George« says he
»Thats the whole of it«
»You act according to my opinion«
»I shall be guided« replies George »entirely by it«
»Old girl« says Mr Bagnet »give him my opinion You know it Tell him
what it is«
It is that he cannot have too little to do with people who are too deep for
him and cannot be too careful of interference with matters he does not
understand that the plain rule is to do nothing in the dark to be a party to
nothing underhanded or mysterious and never to put his foot where he cannot see
the ground This in effect, is Mr Bagnets opinion as delivered through the
old girl and it so relieves Mr Georges mind by confirming his own opinion
and banishing his doubts that he composes himself to smoke another pipe on that
exceptional occasion and to have a talk over old times with the whole Bagnet
family according to their various ranges of experience.
Through these means it comes to pass that Mr George does not again rise to
his full height in that parlour until the time is drawing on when the bassoon
and fife are expected by a British public at the theatre and as it takes time
even then for Mr George in his domestic character of Bluffy to take leave of
Quebec and Malta and insinuate a sponsorial shilling into the pocket of his
godson with felicitations on his success in life it is dark when Mr George
again turns his face towards Lincolns Inn Fields
»A family home« he ruminates as he marches along »however small it is
makes a man like me look lonely But its well I never made that evolution of
matrimony I shouldnt have been fit for it I am such a vagabond still even at
my present time of life that I couldnt hold to the gallery a month together
if it was a regular pursuit or if I didnt camp there gipsy fashion Come I
disgrace nobody and cumber nobody thats something I have not done that for
many a long year«
So he whistles it off and marches on
Arrived in Lincolns Inn Fields and mounting Mr Tulkinghorns stair he
finds the outer door closed and the chambers shut but the trooper not knowing
much about outer doors and the staircase being dark besides he is yet fumbling
and groping about hoping to discover a bellhandle or to open the door for
himself when Mr Tulkinghorn comes up the stairs quietly of course and
angrily asks
»Who is that What are you doing there«
»I ask your pardon sir Its George The serjeant«
»And couldnt George the serjeant see that my door was locked«
»Why no sir I couldnt At any rate I didnt« says the trooper rather
nettled
»Have you changed your mind or are you in the same mind« Mr Tulkinghorn
demands But he knows well enough at a glance
»In the same mind sir«
»I thought so Thats sufficient You can go So you are the man« says Mr
Tulkinghorn opening his door with the key »in whose hidingplace Mr Gridley
was found«
»Yes I am the man« says the trooper stopping two or three stairs down
»What then sir«
»What then I dont like your associates You should not have seen the
inside of my door this morning if I had thought of your being that man
Gridley A threatening murderous dangerous fellow«
With these words spoken in an unusually high tone for him the lawyer goes
into his rooms and shuts the door with a thundering noise
Mr George takes his dismissal in great dudgeon the greater because a
clerk coming up the stairs has heard the last words of all and evidently
applies them to him »A pretty character to bear« the trooper growls with a
hasty oath as he strides downstairs »A threatening murderous dangerous
fellow« and looking up he sees the clerk looking down at him and marking him
as he passes a lamp This so intensifies his dudgeon that for five minutes he
is in an illhumour But he whistles that off like the rest of it and marches
home to the Shooting Gallery
Chapter XXVIII
The Ironmaster
Sir Leicester Dedlock has got the better for the time being of the family
gout and is once more in a literal no less than in a figurative point of view
upon his legs He is at his place in Lincolnshire but the waters are out again
on the lowlying grounds and the cold and damp steal into Chesney Wold though
well defended and eke into Sir Leicesters bones The blazing fires of faggot
and coal Dedlock timber and antediluvian forest that blaze upon the broad
wide hearths and wink in the twilight on the frowning woods sullen to see how
trees are sacrificed do not exclude the enemy The hotwater pipes that trail
themselves all over the house the cushioned doors and windows and the screens
and curtains fail to supply the fires deficiencies and to satisfy Sir
Leicesters need Hence the fashionable intelligence proclaims one morning to
the listening earth that Lady Dedlock is expected shortly to return to town for
a few weeks
It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations
Indeed great men have often more than their fair share of poor relations
inasmuch as very red blood of the superior quality like inferior blood
unlawfully shed will cry aloud and will be heard Sir Leicesters cousins in
the remotest degree are so many Murders in the respect that they will out
Among whom there are cousins who are so poor that one might almost dare to
think it would have been the happier for them never to have been plated links
upon the Dedlock chain of gold but to have been made of common iron at first
and done base service
Service however with a few limited reservations genteel but not
profitable they may not do being of the Dedlock dignity So they visit their
richer cousins and get into debt when they can and live but shabbily when they
cant and find the women no husbands and the men no wives and ride in
borrowed carriages and sit at feasts that are never of their own making and so
go through high life The rich family sum has been divided by so many figures
and they are the something over that nobody knows what to do with
Everybody on Sir Leicester Dedlocks side of the question and of his way of
thinking would appear to be his cousin more or less From my Lord Boodle
through the Duke of Foodle down to Noodle Sir Leicester like a glorious
spider stretches his threads of relationship But while he is stately in the
cousinship of the Everybodys he is a kind and generous man according to his
dignified way in the cousinship of the Nobodys and at the present time in
despite of the damp he stays out the visit of several such cousins at Chesney
Wold with the constancy of a martyr
Of these foremost in the front rank stands Volumnia Dedlock a young lady
of sixty who is doubly highly related having the honour to be a poor
relation by the mothers side to another great family Miss Volumnia
displaying in early life a pretty talent for cutting ornaments out of coloured
paper and also for singing to the guitar in the Spanish tongue and propounding
French conundrums in country houses passed the twenty years of her existence
between twenty and forty in a sufficiently agreeable manner Lapsing then out of
date and being considered to bore mankind by her vocal performances in the
Spanish language she retired to Bath where she lives slenderly on an annual
present from Sir Leicester and whence she makes occasional resurrections in the
country houses of her cousins She has an extensive acquaintance at Bath among
appalling old gentlemen with thin legs and nankeen trousers and is of high
standing in that dreary city But she is a little dreaded elsewhere in
consequence of an indiscreet profusion in the article of rouge and persistency
in an obsolete pearl necklace like a rosary of little birdseggs
In any country in a wholesome state Volumnia would be a clear case for the
pension list Efforts have been made to get her on it and when William Buffy
came in it was fully expected that her name would be put down for a couple of
hundred ayear But William Buffy somehow discovered contrary to all
expectation that these were not the times when it could be done and this was
the first clear indication Sir Leicester Dedlock had conveyed to him that the
country was going to pieces
There is likewise the Honourable Bob Stables who can make warm mashes with
the skill of a veterinary surgeon and is a better shot than most gamekeepers
He has been for some time particularly desirous to serve his country in a post
of good emoluments unaccompanied by any trouble or responsibility In a
wellregulated body politic this natural desire on the part of a spirited young
gentleman so highly connected would be speedily recognised but somehow William
Buffy found when he came in that these were not times in which he could manage
that little matter either and this was the second indication Sir Leicester
Dedlock had conveyed to him that the country was going to pieces
The rest of the cousins are ladies and gentlemen of various ages and
capacities the major part amiable and sensible and likely to have done well
enough in life if they could have overcome their cousinship as it is they are
almost all a little worsted by it and lounge in purposeless and listless paths
and seem to be quite as much at a loss how to dispose of themselves as anybody
else can be how to dispose of them
In this society and where not my Lady Dedlock reigns supreme Beautiful
elegant accomplished and powerful in her little world for the world of
fashion does not stretch all the way from pole to pole her influence in Sir
Leicesters house however haughty and indifferent her manner is greatly to
improve it and refine it The cousins even those older cousins who were
paralysed when Sir Leicester married her do her feudal homage and the
Honourable Bob Stables daily repeats to some chosen person between breakfast
and lunch his favourite original remark that she is the bestgroomed woman in
the whole stud
Such the guests in the long drawingroom at Chesney Wold this dismal night
when the step on the Ghosts Walk inaudible here however might be the step
of a deceased cousin shut out in the cold It is near bedtime Bedroom fires
blaze brightly all over the house raising ghosts of grim furniture on wall and
ceiling Bedroom candlesticks bristle on the distant table by the door and
cousins yawn on ottomans Cousins at the piano cousins at the sodawater tray
cousins rising from the cardtable cousins gathered round the fire Standing on
one side of his own peculiar fire for there are two Sir Leicester On the
opposite side of the broad hearth my Lady at her table Volumnia as one of the
more privileged cousins in a luxurious chair between them Sir Leicester
glancing with magnificent displeasure at the rouge and the pearl necklace
»I occasionally meet on my staircase here« drawls Volumnia whose thoughts
perhaps are already hopping up it to bed after a long evening of very desultory
talk »one of the prettiest girls I think that I ever saw in my life«
»A protégée of my Ladys« observes Sir Leicester
»I thought so I felt sure that some uncommon eye must have picked that girl
out She really is a marvel A dolly sort of beauty perhaps« says Miss
Volumnia reserving her own sort »but in its way perfect such bloom I never
saw«
Sir Leicester with his magnificent glance of displeasure at the rouge
appears to say so too
»Indeed« remarks my Lady languidly »if there is any uncommon eye in the
case it is Mrs Rouncewells and not mine Rosa is her discovery«
»Your maid I suppose«
»No My anything pet secretary messenger I dont know what«
»You like to have her about you as you would like to have a flower or a
bird or a picture or a poodle no not a poodle though or anything else
that was equally pretty« says Volumnia sympathising »Yes how charming now
and how well that delightful old soul Mrs Rouncewell is looking She must be an
immense age and yet she is as active and handsome She is the dearest friend
I have positively«
Sir Leicester feels it to be right and fitting that the housekeeper of
Chesney Wold should be a remarkable person Apart from that he has a real
regard for Mrs Rouncewell and likes to hear her praised So he says »You are
right Volumnia« which Volumnia is extremely glad to hear
»She has no daughter of her own has she«
»Mrs Rouncewell No Volumnia She has a son Indeed she had two«
My Lady whose chronic malady of boredom has been sadly aggravated by
Volumnia this evening glances wearily towards the candlesticks and heaves a
noiseless sigh
»And it is a remarkable example of the confusion into which the present age
has fallen of the obliteration of landmarks the opening of floodgates and the
uprooting of distinctions« says Sir Leicester with stately gloom »that I have
been informed by Mr Tulkinghorn that Mrs Rouncewells son has been invited
to go into Parliament«
Miss Volumnia utters a little sharp scream
»Yes indeed« repeats Sir Leicester »Into Parliament«
»I never heard of such a thing Good gracious what is the man« exclaimed
Volumnia
»He is called I believe an Ironmaster« Sir Leicester says it slowly
and with gravity and doubt as not being sure but that he is called a
Leadmistress or that the right word may be some other word expressive of some
other relationship to some other metal
Volumnia utters another little scream
»He has declined the proposal if my information from Mr Tulkinghorn be
correct as I have no doubt it is Mr Tulkinghorn being always correct and
exact still that does not« says Sir Leicester »that does not lessen the
anomaly which is fraught with strange considerations startling
considerations as it appears to me«
Miss Volumnia rising with a look candlestickwards Sir Leicester politely
performs the grand tour of the drawingroom brings one and lights it at my
Ladys shaded lamp
»I must beg you my Lady« he says while doing so »to remain a few moments
for this individual of whom I speak arrived this evening shortly before dinner
and requested in a very becoming note« Sir Leicester with his habitual
regard to truth dwells upon it »I am bound to say in a very becoming and
wellexpressed note the favour of a short interview with yourself and myself
on the subject of this young girl As it appeared that he wished to depart
tonight I replied that we would see him before retiring«
Miss Volumnia with a third little scream takes flight wishing her hosts O
Lud well rid of the what is it Ironmaster
The other cousins soon disperse to the last cousin there Sir Leicester
rings the bell »Make my compliments to Mr Rouncewell in the housekeepers
apartments and say I can receive him now«
My Lady who has heard all this with slight attention outwardly looks
towards Mr Rouncewell as he comes in He is a little over fifty perhaps of a
good figure like his mother and has a clear voice a broad forehead from which
his dark hair has retired and a shrewd though open face He is a
responsiblelooking gentleman dressed in black portly enough but strong and
active Has a perfectly natural and easy air and is not in the least
embarrassed by the great presence into which he comes
»Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock as I have already apologised for intruding
on you I cannot do better than be very brief I thank you Sir Leicester«
The head of the Dedlocks has motioned towards a sofa between himself and my
Lady Mr Rouncewell quietly takes his seat there
»In these busy times when so many great undertakings are in progress
people like myself have so many workmen in so many places that we are always on
the flight«
Sir Leicester is content enough that the ironmaster should feel that there
is no hurry there there in that ancient house rooted in that quiet park
where the ivy and the moss have had time to mature and the gnarled and warted
elms and the umbrageous oaks stand deep in the fern and leaves of a hundred
years and where the sundial on the terrace has dumbly recorded for centuries
that Time which was as much the property of every Dedlock while he lasted
as the house and lands Sir Leicester sits down in an easychair opposing his
repose and that of Chesney Wold to the restless flights of ironmasters
»Lady Dedlock has been so kind« proceeds Mr Rouncewell with a respectful
glance and a bow that way »as to place near her a young beauty of the name of
Rosa Now my son has fallen in love with Rosa and has asked my consent to his
proposing marriage to her and to their becoming engaged if she will take him
which I suppose she will I have never seen Rosa until today but I have some
confidence in my sons good sense even in love I find her what he represents
her to the best of my judgment and my mother speaks of her with great
commendation«
»She in all respects deserves it« says my Lady
»I am happy Lady Dedlock that you say so and I need not comment on the
value to me of your kind opinion of her«
»That« observes Sir Leicester with unspeakable grandeur for he thinks the
ironmaster a little too glib »must be quite unnecessary«
»Quite unnecessary Sir Leicester Now my son is a very young man and Rosa
is a very young woman As I made my way so my son must make his and his being
married at present is out of the question But supposing I gave my consent to
his engaging himself to this pretty girl if this pretty girl will engage
herself to him I think it a piece of candour to say at once I am sure Sir
Leicester and Lady Dedlock you will understand and excuse me I should make it
a condition that she did not remain at Chesney Wold Therefore before
communicating further with my son I take the liberty of saying that if her
removal would be in any way inconvenient or objectionable I will hold the
matter over with him for any reasonable time and leave it precisely where it
is«
Not remain at Chesney Wold Make it a condition All Sir Leicesters old
misgivings relative to Wat Tyler and the people in the iron districts who do
nothing but turn out by torchlight come in a shower upon his head the fine
grey hair of which as well as of his whiskers actually stirs with indignation
»Am I to understand sir« says Sir Leicester »and is my Lady to
understand« he brings her in thus specially first as a point of gallantry
and next as a point of prudence having great reliance on her sense »am I to
understand Mr Rouncewell and is my Lady to understand sir that you consider
this young woman too good for Chesney Wold or likely to be injured by remaining
here«
»Certainly not Sir Leicester«
»I am glad to hear it« Sir Leicester very lofty indeed
»Pray Mr Rouncewell« says my Lady warning Sir Leicester off with the
slightest gesture of her pretty hand as if he were a fly »explain to me what
you mean«
»Willingly Lady Dedlock There is nothing I could desire more«
Addressing her composed face whose intelligence however, is too quick and
active to be concealed by any studied impassiveness however habitual to the
strong Saxon face of the visitor a picture of resolution and perseverance my
Lady listens with attention occasionally slightly bending her head
»I am the son of your housekeeper Lady Dedlock and passed my childhood
about this house My mother has lived here half a century and will die here I
have no doubt She is one of those examples perhaps as good a one as there is
of love and attachment and fidelity in such a station which England may
well be proud of but of which no order can appropriate the whole pride or the
whole merit because such an instance bespeaks high worth on two sides on the
great side assuredly on the small one no less assuredly«
Sir Leicester snorts a little to hear the law laid down in this way but in
his honour and his love of truth he freely though silently admits the justice
of the ironmasters proposition
»Pardon me for saying what is so obvious but I wouldnt have it hastily
supposed« with the least turn of his eyes towards Sir Leicester »that I am
ashamed of my mothers position here or wanting in all just respect for Chesney
Wold and the family I certainly may have desired I certainly have desired
Lady Dedlock that my mother should retire after so many years and end her
days with me But as I have found that to sever this strong bond would be to
break her heart I have long abandoned that idea«
Sir Leicester very magnificent again at the notion of Mrs Rouncewell being
spirited off from her natural home to end her days with an ironmaster
»I have been« proceeds the visitor in a modest clear way »an apprentice
and a workman I have lived on workmans wages years and years and beyond a
certain point have had to educate myself My wife was a foremans daughter and
plainly brought up We have three daughters besides this son of whom I have
spoken and being fortunately able to give them greater advantages than we have
had ourselves we have educated them well very well It has been one of our
great cares and pleasures to make them worthy of any station«
A little boastfulness in his fatherly tone here as if he added in his
heart even of the Chesney Wold station Not a little more magnificence
therefore on the part of Sir Leicester
»All this is so frequent Lady Dedlock where I live and among the class to
which I belong that what would be generally called unequal marriages are not of
such rare occurrence with us as elsewhere A son will sometimes make it known to
his father that he has fallen in love say with a young woman in the factory
The father who once worked in a factory himself will be a little disappointed
at first very possibly It may be that he had other views for his son However
the chances are that having ascertained the young woman to be of unblemished
character he will say to his son I must be quite sure you are in earnest here
This is a serious matter for both of you Therefore I shall have this girl
educated for two years or it may be I shall place this girl at the same
school with your sisters for such a time during which you will give me your
word and honour to see her only so often If at the expiration of that time
when she has so far profited by her advantages as that you may be upon a fair
equality you are both in the same mind I will do my part to make you happy I
know of several cases such as I describe my Lady and I think they indicate to
me my own course now«
Sir Leicesters magnificence explodes Calmly but terribly
»Mr Rouncewell« says Sir Leicester with his right hand in the breast of
his blue coat the attitude of state in which he is painted in the gallery »do
you draw a parallel between Chesney Wold and a « here he resists a disposition
to choke »a factory«
»I need not reply Sir Leicester that the two places are very different
but for the purposes of this case I think a parallel may be justly drawn
between them«
Sir Leicester directs his majestic glance down one side of the long
drawingroom and up the other before he can believe that he is awake
»Are you aware sir that this young woman whom my Lady my Lady has
placed near her person was brought up at the village school outside the gates«
»Sir Leicester I am quite aware of it A very good school it is and
handsomely supported by this family«
»Then Mr Rouncewell« returns Sir Leicester »the application of what you
have said is to me incomprehensible«
»Will it be more comprehensible Sir Leicester if I say« the ironmaster is
reddening a little »that I do not regard the village school as teaching
everything desirable to be known by my sons wife«
From the village school of Chesney Wold intact as it is this minute to the
whole framework of society from the whole framework of society to the
aforesaid framework receiving tremendous cracks in consequence of people
ironmasters leadmistresses and what not not minding their catechism and
getting out of the station unto which they are called necessarily and for
ever according to Sir Leicesters rapid logic the first station in which they
happen to find themselves and from that to their educating other people out of
their stations and so obliterating the landmarks and opening the floodgates
and all the rest of it this is the swift progress of the Dedlock mind
»My Lady I beg your pardon Permit me for one moment« She has given a
faint indication of intending to speak »Mr Rouncewell our views of duty and
our views of station and our views of education and our views of in short
all our views are so diametrically opposed that to prolong this discussion
must be repellant to your feelings and repellant to my own This young woman is
honoured with my Ladys notice and favour If she wishes to withdraw herself
from that notice and favour or if she chooses to place herself under the
influence of any one who may in his peculiar opinions you will allow me to
say in his peculiar opinions though I readily admit that he is not accountable
for them to me who may in his peculiar opinions withdraw her from that
notice and favour she is at any time at liberty to do so We are obliged to you
for the plainness with which you have spoken It will have no effect of itself,
one way or other on the young womans position here Beyond this we can make
no terms and here we beg if you will be so good to leave the subject«
The visitor pauses a moment to give my Lady an opportunity but she says
nothing He then rises and replies
»Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock allow me to thank you for your attention
and only to observe that I shall very seriously recommend my son to conquer his
present inclinations Good night«
»Mr Rouncewell« says Sir Leicester with all the nature of a gentleman
shining in him »it is late and the roads are dark I hope your time is not so
precious but that you will allow my Lady and myself to offer you the hospitality
of Chesney Wold for tonight at least«
»I hope so« adds my Lady
»I am much obliged to you but I have to travel all night in order to reach
a distant part of the country punctually at an appointed time in the morning«
Therewith the ironmaster takes his departure Sir Leicester ringing the
bell and my Lady rising as he leaves the room
When my Lady goes to her boudoir she sits down thoughtfully by the fire
and inattentive to the Ghosts Walk looks at Rosa writing in an inner room
Presently my Lady calls her
»Come to me child Tell me the truth Are you in love«
»O My Lady«
My Lady looking at the downcast and blushing face says smiling
»Who is it Is it Mrs Rouncewells grandson«
»Yes if you please my Lady But I dont know that I am in love with him
yet«
»Yet you silly little thing Do you know that he loves you yet«
»I think he likes me a little my Lady« And Rosa burst into tears
Is this Lady Dedlock standing beside the village beauty smoothing her dark
hair with that motherly touch and watching her with eyes so full of musing
interest Aye indeed it is
»Listen to me child You are young and true and I believe you are attached
to me«
»Indeed I am my Lady Indeed there is nothing in the world I wouldnt do
to show how much«
»And I dont think you would wish to leave me just yet Rosa even for a
lover«
»No my Lady O no« Rosa looks up for the first time quite frightened at
the thought
»Confide in me my child Dont fear me I wish you to be happy and will
make you so if I can make anybody happy on this earth«
Rosa with fresh tears kneels at her feet and kisses her hand My Lady
takes the hand with which she has caught it and standing with her eyes fixed
on the fire puts it about and about between her own two hands and gradually
lets it fall Seeing her so absorbed Rosa softly withdraws but still my Ladys
eyes are on the fire
In search of what Of any hand that is no more of any hand that never was
of any touch that might have magically changed her life Or does she listen to
the Ghosts Walk and think what step does it most resemble A mans A womans
The pattering of a little childs feet ever coming on on on Some
melancholy influence is upon her or why should so proud a lady close the doors
and sit alone upon the hearth so desolate
Volumnia is away next day and all the cousins are scattered before dinner
Not a cousin of the batch but is amazed to hear from Sir Leicester at
breakfasttime of the obliteration of landmarks and opening of floodgates and
cracking of the framework of society manifested through Mrs Rouncewells son
Not a cousin of the batch but is really indignant and connects it with the
feebleness of William Buffy when in office and really does feel deprived of a
stake in the country or the pension list or something by fraud and wrong
As to Volumnia she is handed down the great staircase by Sir Leicester as
eloquent upon the theme as if there were a general rising in the North of
England to obtain her rougepot and pearl necklace And thus with a clatter of
maids and valets for it is one appurtenance of their cousinship that however
difficult they may find it to keep themselves they must keep maids and valets
the cousins disperse to the four winds of heaven and the one wintry wind that
blows today shakes a shower from the trees near the deserted house as if all
the cousins had been changed into leaves
Chapter XXIX
The Young Man
Chesney Wold is shut up carpets are rolled into great scrolls in corners of
comfortless rooms bright damask does penance in brown holland carving and
gilding puts on mortification and the Dedlock ancestors retire from the light
of day again Around and around the house the leaves fall thick but never
fast for they come circling down with a dead lightness that is sombre and slow
Let the gardener sweep and sweep the turf as he will and press the leaves into
full barrows and wheel them off still they lie ankledeep Howls the shrill
wind round Chesney Wold the sharp rain beats the windows rattle and the
chimneys growl Mists hide in the avenues veil the points of view and move in
funeralwise across the rising grounds On all the house there is a cold blank
smell like the smell of a little church though something dryer suggesting
that the dead and buried Dedlocks walk there in the long nights and leave the
flavour of their graves behind them
But the house in town which is rarely in the same mind as Chesney Wold at
the same time seldom rejoicing when it rejoices or mourning when it mourns
excepting when a Dedlock dies the house in town shines out awakened As warm
and bright as so much state may be as delicately redolent of pleasant scents
that bear no trace of winter as hothouse flowers can make it soft and hushed
so that the ticking of the clocks and the crisp burning of the fires alone
disturb the stillness in the rooms it seems to wrap those chilled bones of Sir
Leicesters in rainbowcoloured wool And Sir Leicester is glad to repose in
dignified contentment before the great fire in the library condescendingly
perusing the backs of his books or honouring the fine arts with a glance of
approbation For he has his pictures ancient and modern Some of the Fancy Ball
School in which Art occasionally condescends to become a master which would be
best catalogued like the miscellaneous articles in a sale As »Three
highbacked chairs a table and cover longnecked bottle containing wine one
flask one Spanish females costume threequarter face portrait of Miss Jogg
the model and a suit of armour containing Don Quixote« Or »One stone terrace
cracked one gondola in distance one Venetian senators dress complete
richly embroidered white satin costume with profile portrait of Miss Jogg the
model one scimetar superbly mounted in gold with jewelled handle elaborate
Moorish dress very rare and Othello«
Mr Tulkinghorn comes and goes pretty often there being estate business to
do leases to be renewed and so on He sees my Lady pretty often too and he
and she are as composed and as indifferent and take as little heed of one
another, as ever Yet it may be that my Lady fears this Mr Tulkinghorn and
that he knows it It may be that he pursues her doggedly and steadily with no
touch of compunction remorse or pity It may be that her beauty and all the
state and brilliancy surrounding her only gives him the greater zest for what
he is set upon and makes him the more inflexible in it Whether he be cold and
cruel whether immovable in what he has made his duty whether absorbed in love
of power whether determined to have nothing hidden from him in ground where he
has burrowed among secrets all his life whether he in his heart despises the
splendour of which he is a distant beam whether he is always treasuring up
slights and offences in the affability of his gorgeous clients whether he be
any of this or all of this it may be that my Lady had better have five
thousand pairs of fashionable eyes upon her in distrustful vigilance than the
two eyes of this rusty lawyer with his wisp of neckcloth and his dull black
breeches tied with ribbons at the knees
Sir Leicester sits in my Ladys room that room in which Mr Tulkinghorn
read the affidavit in Jarndyce and Jarndyce particularly complacent My Lady
as on that day sits before the fire with her screen in her hand Sir Leicester
is particularly complacent because he has found in his newspaper some congenial
remarks bearing directly on the floodgates and the framework of society They
apply so happily to the late case that Sir Leicester has come from the library
to my Ladys room expressly to read them aloud »The man who wrote this
article« he observes by way of preface nodding at the fire as if he were
nodding down at the man from a Mount »has a wellbalanced mind«
The mans mind is not so well balanced but that he bores my Lady who after
a languid effort to listen or rather a languid resignation of herself to a show
of listening becomes distraught and falls into a contemplation of the fire as
if it were her fire at Chesney Wold and she had never left it Sir Leicester
quite unconscious reads on through his double eyeglass occasionally stopping
to remove his glass and express approval as Very true indeed Very properly
put I have frequently made the same remark myself invariably losing his place
after each observation and going up and down the column to find it again
Sir Leicester is reading with infinite gravity and state when the door
opens and the Mercury in powder makes this strange announcement
»The young man my Lady of the name of Guppy«
Sir Leicester pauses stares repeats in a killing voice
»The young man of the name of Guppy«
Looking round he beholds the young man of the name of Guppy much
discomfited and not presenting a very impressive letter of introduction in his
manner and appearance
»Pray« says Sir Leicester to Mercury »what do you mean by announcing with
this abruptness a young man of the name of Guppy«
»I beg your pardon Sir Leicester but my Lady said she would see the young
man whenever he called I was not aware that you were here Sir Leicester«
With this apology Mercury directs a scornful and indignant look at the
young man of the name of Guppy which plainly says »What do you come calling
here for and getting me into a row«
»Its quite right I gave him those directions« says my Lady »Let the
young man wait«
»By no means my Lady Since he has your orders to come I will not
interrupt you« Sir Leicester in his gallantry retires rather declining to
accept a bow from the young man as he goes out and majestically supposing him
to be some shoemaker of intrusive appearance
Lady Dedlock looks imperiously at her visitor when the servant has left the
room casting her eyes over him from head to foot She suffers him to stand by
the door and asks him what he wants
»That your ladyship would have the kindness to oblige me with a little
conversation« returns Mr Guppy embarrassed
»You are of course the person who has written me so many letters«
»Several your ladyship Several before your ladyship condescended to
favour me with an answer«
»And could you not take the same means of rendering a conversation
unnecessary Can you not still«
Mr Guppy screws his mouth into a silent »No« and shakes his head
»You have been strangely importunate If it should appear after all that
what you have to say does not concern me and I dont know how it can and
dont expect that it will you will allow me to cut you short with but little
ceremony Say what you have to say if you please«
My Lady with a careless toss of her screen turns herself towards the fire
again sitting almost with her back to the young man of the name of Guppy
»With your ladyships permission then« says the young man »I will now
enter on my business Hem I am as I told your ladyship in my first letter in
the law Being in the law I have learnt the habit of not committing myself in
writing and therefore I did not mention to your ladyship the name of the firm
with which I am connected and in which my standing and I may add income is
tolerably good I may now state to your ladyship in confidence that the name
of that firm is Kenge and Carboy of Lincolns Inn which may not be altogether
unknown to your ladyship in connexion with the case in Chancery of Jarndyce and
Jarndyce«
My Ladys figure begins to be expressive of some attention She has ceased
to toss the screen and holds it as if she were listening
»Now I may say to your ladyship at once« says Mr Guppy a little
emboldened »it is no matter arising out of Jarndyce and Jarndyce that made me
so desirous to speak to your ladyship which conduct I have no doubt did appear
and does appear obtrusive in fact almost blackguardly« After waiting for a
moment to receive some assurance to the contrary and not receiving any Mr
Guppy proceeds »If it had been Jarndyce and Jarndyce I should have gone at
once to your ladyships solicitor Mr Tulkinghorn of the Fields I have the
pleasure of being acquainted with Mr Tulkinghorn at least we move when we
meet one another and if it had been any business of that sort I should have
gone to him«
My Lady turns a little round and says »You had better sit down«
»Thank your ladyship« Mr Guppy does so »Now your ladyship« Mr Guppy
refers to a little slip of paper on which he has made small notes of his line of
argument and which seems to involve him in the densest obscurity whenever he
looks at it »I O yes I place myself entirely in your ladyships hands If
your ladyship was to make any complaint to Kenge and Carboy or to Mr
Tulkinghorn of the present visit I should be placed in a very disagreeable
situation That I openly admit Consequently I rely upon your ladyships
honour«
My Lady with a disdainful gesture of the hand that holds the screen
assures him of his being worth no complaint from her
»Thank your ladyship« says Mr Guppy »quite satisfactory Now I dash
it The fact is that I put down a head or two here of the order of the points
I thought of touching upon and theyre written short and I cant quite make
out what they mean If your ladyship will excuse me taking it to the window half
a moment I «
Mr Guppy going to the window tumbles into a pair of lovebirds to whom he
says in his confusion »I beg your pardon I am sure« This does not tend to the
greater legibility of his notes He murmurs growing warm and red and holding
the slip of paper now close to his eyes now a long way off »C S Whats C S
for O E S O I know Yes to be sure« And comes back enlightened
»I am not aware« says Mr Guppy standing midway between my Lady and his
chair »whether your ladyship ever happened to hear of or to see a young lady
of the name of Miss Esther Summerson«
My Ladys eyes look at him full »I saw a young lady of that name not long
ago This past autumn«
»Now did it strike your ladyship that she was like anybody« asks Mr
Guppy crossing his arms holding his head on one side and scratching the
corner of his mouth with his memoranda
My Lady removes her eyes from him no more
»No«
»Not like your ladyships family«
»No«
»I think your ladyship« says Mr Guppy »can hardly remember Miss
Summersons face«
»I remember the young lady very well What has this to do with me«
»Your ladyship I do assure you that having Miss Summersons image
imprinted on my art which I mention in confidence I found when I had the
honour of going over your ladyships mansion of Chesney Wold while on a short
out in the county of Lincolnshire with a friend such a resemblance between Miss
Esther Summerson and your ladyships own portrait that it completely knocked me
over so much so that I didnt at the moment even know what it was that knocked
me over And now I have the honour of beholding your ladyship near I have
often since that taken the liberty of looking at your ladyship in your
carriage in the park when I dare say you was not aware of me but I never saw
your ladyship so near its really more surprising than I thought it«
Young man of the name of Guppy There have been times when ladies lived in
strongholds and had unscrupulous attendants within call when that poor life of
yours would not have been worth a minutes purchase with those beautiful eyes
looking at you as they look at this moment
My Lady slowly using her little handscreen as a fan asks him again what
he supposes that his taste for likenesses has to do with her
»Your ladyship« replies Mr Guppy again referring to his paper »I am
coming to that Dash these notes O Mrs Chadband Yes« Mr Guppy draws his
chair a little forward and seats himself again My Lady reclines in her chair
composedly though with a trifle less of graceful ease than usual perhaps and
never falters in her steady gaze »A stop a minute though« Mr Guppy refers
again »ES twice O yes yes I see my way now right on«
Rolling up the slip of paper as an instrument to point his speech with Mr
Guppy proceeds
»Your ladyship there is a mystery about Miss Esther Summersons birth and
bringing up I am informed of that fact because which I mention in confidence
I know it in the way of my profession at Kenge and Carboys Now as I have
already mentioned to your ladyship Miss Summersons image is imprinted on my
art If I could clear this mystery for her or prove her to be well related or
find that having the honour to be a remote branch of your ladyships family she
had a right to be made a party in Jarndyce and Jarndyce why I might make a
sort of a claim upon Miss Summerson to look with an eye of more decided favour
on my proposals than she has exactly done as yet In fact as yet she hasnt
favoured them at all«
A kind of angry smile just dawns upon my Ladys face
»Now its a very singular circumstance your ladyship« says Mr Guppy
»though one of those circumstances that do fall in the way of us professional
men which I may call myself for though not admitted yet I have had a present
of my articles made to me by Kenge and Carboy on my mothers advancing from the
principal of her little income the money for the stamp which comes heavy that
I have encountered the person who lived as servant with the lady who brought
Miss Summerson up before Mr Jarndyce took charge of her That lady was a Miss
Barbary your ladyship«
Is the dead colour on my Ladys face reflected from the screen which has a
green silk ground and which she holds in her raised hand as if she had
forgotten it or is it a dreadful paleness that has fallen on her
»Did your ladyship« says Mr Guppy »ever happen to hear of Miss Barbary«
»I dont know I think so Yes«
»Was Miss Barbary at all connected with your ladyships family«
My ladys lips move but they utter nothing She shakes her head
»Not connected« says Mr Guppy »O Not to your ladyships knowledge
perhaps Ah But might be Yes« After each of these interrogatories she has
inclined her head »Very good Now this Miss Barbary was extremely close
seems to have been extraordinarily close for a female females being generally
in common life at least rather given to conversation and my witness never
had an idea whether she possessed a single relative On one occasion and only
one she seems to have been confidential to my witness on a single point and
she then told her that the little girls real name was not Esther Summerson but
Esther Hawdon«
»My God«
Mr Guppy stares Lady Dedlock sits before him looking him through with
the same dark shade upon her face in the same attitude even to the holding of
the screen with her lips a little apart her brow a little contracted but for
the moment dead He sees her consciousness return sees a tremor pass across
her frame like a ripple over water sees her lips shake sees her compose them
by a great effort sees her force herself back to the knowledge of his presence
and of what he has said All this so quickly that her exclamation and her dead
condition seem to have passed away like the features of those longpreserved
dead bodies sometimes opened up in tombs which struck by the air like
lightning vanish in a breath
»Your ladyship is acquainted with the name of Hawdon«
»I have heard it before«
»Name of any collateral or remote branch of your ladyships family«
»No«
»Now your ladyship« says Mr Guppy »I come to the last point of the case
so far as I have got it up Its going on and I shall gather it up closer and
closer as it goes on Your ladyship must know if your ladyship dont happen
by any chance to know already that there was found dead at the house of a
person named Krook near Chancery Lane some time ago a law-writer in great
distress Upon which lawwriter there was an inquest and which lawwriter was
an anonymous character his name being unknown But your ladyship I have
discovered very lately that that lawwriters name was Hawdon«
»And what is that to me«
»Aye your ladyship thats the question Now your ladyship a queer thing
happened after that mans death A lady started up a disguised lady your
ladyship who went to look at the scene of action and went to look at his
grave She hired a crossingsweeping boy to show it her If your ladyship would
wish to have the boy produced in corroboration of this statement I can lay my
hand upon him at any time«
The wretched boy is nothing to my Lady and she does not wish to have him
produced
»Oh I assure your ladyship its a very queer start indeed« says Mr Guppy
»If you was to hear him tell about the rings that sparkled on her fingers when
she took her glove off youd think it quite romantic«
There are diamonds glittering on the hand that holds the screen My Lady
trifles with the screen and makes them glitter more again with that expression
which in other times might have been so dangerous to the young man of the name
of Guppy
»It was supposed your ladyship that he left no rag or scrap behind him by
which he could be possibly identified But he did He left a bundle of letters«
The screen still goes as before All this time her eyes never once release
him
»They were taken and secreted And tomorrow night your ladyship they will
come into my possession«
»Still I ask you what is this to me«
»Your ladyship I conclude with that« Mr Guppy rises »If you think
theres enough in this chain of circumstances put together in the undoubted
strong likeness of this young lady to your ladyship which is a positive fact
for a jury in her having been brought up by Miss Barbary in Miss Barbary
stating Miss Summersons real name to be Hawdon in your ladyships knowing
both these names very well and in Hawdons dying as he did to give your
ladyship a family interest in going further into the case I will bring these
papers here I dont know what they are except that they are old letters I
have never had them in my possession yet I will bring those papers here as
soon as I get them and go over them for the first time with your ladyship I
have told your ladyship my object I have told your ladyship that I should be
placed in a very disagreeable situation if any complaint was made and all is
in strict confidence«
Is this the full purpose of the young man of the name of Guppy or has he
any other Do his words disclose the length breadth depth of his object and
suspicion in coming here or if not what do they hide He is a match for my
Lady there She may look at him but he can look at the table and keep that
witnessbox face of his from telling anything
»You may bring the letters« says my Lady »if you choose«
»Your Ladyship is not very encouraging upon my word and honour« says Mr
Guppy a little injured
»You may bring the letters« she repeats in the same tone »if you
please«
»It shall be done I wish your ladyship good day«
On a table near her is a rich bauble of a casket barred and clasped like an
old strong chest She looking at him still takes it to her and unlocks it
»Oh I assure your ladyship I am not actuated by any motives of that sort«
says Mr Guppy »and I couldnt accept anything of the kind I wish your
ladyship good day and am much obliged to you all the same«
So the young man makes his bow and goes downstairs where the supercilious
Mercury does not consider himself called upon to leave his Olympus by the
hallfire to let the young man out
As Sir Leicester basks in his library and dozes over his newspaper is
there no influence in the house to startle him not to say to make the very
trees at Chesney Wold fling up their knotted arms the very portraits frown the
very armour stir
No Words sobs and cries are but air and air is so shut in and shut out
throughout the house in town that sounds need be uttered trumpettongued indeed
by my Lady in her chamber to carry any faint vibration to Sir Leicesters ears
and yet this cry is in the house going upward from a wild figure on its knees
»O my child my child Not dead in the first hours of her life as my cruel
sister told me but sternly nurtured by her after she had renounced me and my
name O my child O my child«
Chapter XXX
Esthers Narrative
Richard had been gone away some time when a visitor came to pass a few days
with us It was an elderly lady It was Mrs Woodcourt who having come from
Wales to stay with Mrs Bayham Badger and having written to my guardian by her
son Allans desire to report that she had heard from him and that he was well
and sent his kind remembrances to all of us had been invited by my guardian to
make a visit to Bleak House She stayed with us nearly three weeks She took
very kindly to me and was extremely confidential so much so that sometimes she
almost made me uncomfortable I had no right I knew very well to be
uncomfortable because she confided in me and I felt it was unreasonable still
with all I could do I could not quite help it
She was such a sharp little lady and used to sit with her hands folded in
each other looking so very watchful while she talked to me that perhaps I
found that rather irksome Or perhaps if was her being so upright and trim
though I dont think it was that because I thought that quaintly pleasant Nor
can it have been the general expression of her face which was very sparkling
and pretty for an old lady I dont know what it was Or at least if I do now
I thought I did not then Or at least but it dont matter
Of a night when I was going upstairs to bed she would invite me into her
room where she sat before the fire in a great chair and dear me she would
tell me about Morgan ap Kerrig until I was quite lowspirited Sometimes she
recited a few verses from Crumlinwallinwer and the Mewlinwillinwodd if those
are the right names which I dare say they are not and would become quite
fiery with the sentiments they expressed Though I never knew what they were
being in Welsh further than that they were highly eulogistic of the lineage
of Morgan ap Kerrig
»So Miss Summerson« she would say to me with stately triumph »this you
see is the fortune inherited by my son Wherever my son goes he can claim
kindred with Ap Kerrig He may not have money but he always has what is much
better family my dear«
I had my doubts of their caring so very much for Morgan ap Kerrig in India
and China but of course I never expressed them I used to say it was a great
thing to be so highly connected
»It is my dear a great thing« Mrs Woodcourt would reply »It has its
disadvantages my sons choice of a wife for instance is limited by it but
the matrimonial choice of the Royal family is limited in much the same manner«
Then she would pat me on the arm and smooth my dress as much as to assure
me that she had a good opinion of me the distance between us notwithstanding
»Poor Mr Woodcourt my dear« she would say and always with some emotion
for with her lofty pedigree she had a very affectionate heart »was descended
from a great Highland family the Mac Coorts of Mac Coort He served his king
and country as an officer in the Royal Highlanders and he died on the field My
son is one of the last representatives of two old families With the blessing of
Heaven he will set them up again and unite them with another old family«
It was in vain for me to try to change the subject as I used to try only
for the sake of novelty or perhaps because but I need not be so particular
Mrs Woodcourt never would let me change it
»My dear« she said one night »you have so much sense and you look at the
world in a quiet manner so superior to your time of life that it is a comfort
to me to talk to you about these family matters of mine You dont know much of
my son my dear but you know enough of him I dare say to recollect him«
»Yes maam I recollect him«
»Yes my dear Now my dear I think you are a judge of character and I
should like to have your opinion of him«
»O Mrs Woodcourt« said I »that is so difficult«
»Why is it so difficult my dear« she returned »I dont see it myself«
»To give an opinion «
»On so slight an acquaintance my dear Thats true«
I didnt mean that because Mr Woodcourt had been at our house a good deal
altogether and had become quite intimate with my guardian I said so and added
that he seemed to be very clever in his profession we thought and that his
kindness and gentleness to Miss Flite were above all praise
»You do him justice« said Mrs Woodcourt pressing my hand »You define him
exactly Allan is a dear fellow and in his profession faultless I say it
though I am his mother Still I must confess he is not without faults love«
»None of us are« said I
»Ah But his really are faults that he might correct and ought to correct«
returned the sharp old lady sharply shaking her head »I am so much attached to
you that I may confide in you my dear as a third party wholly disinterested
that he is fickleness itself«
I said I should have thought it hardly possible that he could have been
otherwise than constant to his profession and zealous in the pursuit of it
judging from the reputation he had earned
»You are right again my dear« the old lady retorted »but I dont refer to
his profession look you«
»O« said I
»No« said she »I refer my dear to his social conduct He is always
paying trivial attentions to young ladies and always has been ever since he
was eighteen Now my dear he has never really cared for any one of them and
has never meant in doing this to do any harm or to express anything but
politeness and good nature Still its not right you know is it«
»No« said I as she seemed to wait for me
»And it might lead to mistaken notions you see my dear«
I supposed it might
»Therefore I have told him many times that he really should be more
careful both in justice to himself and in justice to others And he has always
said Mother I will be but you know me better than anybody else does and you
know I mean no harm in short mean nothing All of which is very true my
dear but is no justification However as he is now gone so far away and for
an indefinite time and as he will have good opportunities and introductions we
may consider this past and gone And you my dear« said the old lady who was
now all nods and smiles »regarding your dear self my love«
»Me Mrs Woodcourt«
»Not to be always selfish talking of my son who has gone to seek his
fortune and to find a wife when do you mean to seek your fortune and to find
a husband Miss Summerson Hey look you Now you blush«
I dont think I did blush at all events it was not important if I did
and I said my present fortune perfectly contented me and I had no wish to
change it
»Shall I tell you what I always think of you and the fortune yet to come
for you my love« said Mrs Woodcourt
»If you believe you are a good prophet« said I
»Why then it is that you will marry some one very rich and very worthy
much older fiveandtwenty years perhaps than yourself And you will be an
excellent wife and much beloved and very happy«
»That is a good fortune« said I »But why is it to be mine«
»My dear« she returned »theres suitability in it you are so busy and
so neat and so peculiarly situated altogether that theres suitability in it
and it will come to pass And nobody my love will congratulate you more
sincerely on such a marriage than I shall«
It was curious that this should make me uncomfortable but I think it did I
know it did It made me for some part of that night uncomfortable I was so
ashamed of my folly that I did not like to confess it even to Ada and that
made me more uncomfortable still I would have given anything not to have been
so much in the bright old ladys confidence if I could have possibly declined
it It gave me the most inconsistent opinions of her At one time I thought she
was a storyteller and at another that she was the pink of truth Now I
suspected that she was very cunning next moment I believed her honest Welsh
heart to be perfectly innocent and simple And after all what did it matter to
me and why did it matter to me Why could not I going up to bed with my basket
of keys stop to sit down by her fire and accommodate myself for a little while
to her at least as well as to anybody else and not trouble myself about the
harmless things she said to me Impelled towards her as I certainly was for I
was very anxious that she should like me and was very glad indeed that she did
why should I harp afterwards with actual distress and pain on every word she
said and weigh it over and over again in twenty scales Why was it so worrying
to me to have her in our house and confidential to me every night when I yet
felt that it was better and safer somehow that she should be there than
anywhere else These were perplexities and contradictions that I could not
account for At least if I could but I shall come to all that byandby and
it is mere idleness to go on about it now
So when Mrs Woodcourt went away I was sorry to lose her but was relieved
too And then Caddy Jellyby came down and Caddy brought such a packet of
domestic news that it gave us abundant occupation
First Caddy declared and would at first declare nothing else that I was
the best adviser that ever was known This my pet said was no news at all and
this I said of course was nonsense Then Caddy told us that she was going to
be married in a month and that if Ada and I would be her bridesmaids she was
the happiest girl in the world To be sure this was news indeed and I thought
we never should have done talking about it we had so much to say to Caddy and
Caddy had so much to say to us
It seemed that Caddys unfortunate papa had got over his bankruptcy gone
through the Gazette was the expression Caddy used as if it were a tunnel
with the general clemency and commiseration of his creditors and had got rid of
his affairs in some blessed manner without succeeding in understanding them
and had given up everything he possessed which was not worth much I should
think to judge from the state of the furniture and had satisfied every one
concerned that he could do no more poor man So he had been honourably
dismissed to the office to begin the world again What he did at the office I
never knew Caddy said he was a »CustomHouse and General Agent« and the only
thing I ever understood about that business was that when he wanted money more
than usual he went to the Docks to look for it and hardly ever found it
As soon as her papa had tranquillised his mind by becoming this shorn lamb
and they had removed to a furnished lodging in Hatton Garden where I found the
children when I afterwards went there cutting the horsehair out of the seats
of the chairs and choking themselves with it Caddy had brought about a
meeting between him and old Mr Turveydrop and poor Mr Jellyby being very
humble and meek had deferred to Mr Turveydrops Deportment so submissively
that they had become excellent friends By degrees old Mr Turveydrop thus
familiarised with the idea of his sons marriage had worked up his parental
feelings to the height of contemplating that event as being near at hand and
had given his gracious consent to the young couple commencing housekeeping at
the Academy in Newman Street when they would
»And your papa Caddy What did he say«
»O poor Pa« said Caddy »only cried and said he hoped we might get on
better than he and Ma had got on He didnt say so before Prince he only said
so to me And he said My poor girl you have not been very well taught how to
make a home for your husband but unless you mean with all your heart to strive
to do it you had better murder him than marry him if you really love him«
»And how did you reassure him Caddy«
»Why it was very distressing you know to see poor Pa so low and hear him
say such terrible things and I couldnt help crying myself But I told him that
I did mean it with all my heart and that I hoped our house would be a place for
him to come and find some comfort in of an evening and that I hoped and
thought I could be a better daughter to him there than at home Then I
mentioned Peepys coming to stay with me and then Pa began to cry again and
said the children were Indians«
»Indians Caddy«
»Yes« said Caddy »Wild Indians And Pa said« here she began to sob
poor girl not at all like the happiest girl in the world »that he was
sensible the best thing that could happen to them was their being all
Tomahawked together«
Ada suggested that it was comfortable to know that Mr Jellyby did not mean
these destructive sentiments
»No of course I know Pa wouldnt like his family to be weltering in their
blood« said Caddy »but he means that they are very unfortunate in being Mas
children and that he is very unfortunate in being Mas husband and I am sure
thats true though it seems unnatural to say so«
I asked Caddy if Mrs Jellyby knew that her weddingday was fixed
»O you know what Ma is Esther« she returned »Its impossible to say
whether she knows it or not She has been told it often enough and when she is
told it she only gives me a placid look as if I was I dont know what a
steeple in the distance« said Caddy with a sudden idea »and then she shakes
her head and says O Caddy Caddy what a tease you are and goes on with the
Borrioboola letters«
»And about your wardrobe Caddy« said I For she was under no restraint
with us
»Well my dear Esther« she returned drying her eyes »I must do the best I
can and trust to my dear Prince never to have an unkind remembrance of my
coming so shabbily to him If the question concerned an outfit for Borrioboola
Ma would know all about it and would be quite excited Being what it is she
neither knows nor cares«
Caddy was not at all deficient in natural affection for her mother but
mentioned this with tears as an undeniable fact which I am afraid it was We
were sorry for the poor dear girl and found so much to admire in the good
disposition which had survived under such discouragement that we both at once
I mean Ada and I proposed a little scheme that made her perfectly joyful
This was her staying with us for three weeks my staying with her for one and
our all three contriving and cutting out and repairing and sewing and saving
and doing the very best we could think of to make the most of her stock My
guardian being as pleased with the idea as Caddy was we took her home next day
to arrange the matter and brought her out again in triumph with her boxes and
all the purchases that could be squeezed out of a tenpound note which Mr
Jellyby had found in the Docks I suppose but which he at all events gave her
What my guardian would not have given her if we had encouraged him it would be
difficult to say but we thought it right to compound for no more than her
weddingdress and bonnet He agreed to this compromise and if Caddy had ever
been happy in her life she was happy when we sat down to work
She was clumsy enough with her needle poor girl and pricked her fingers as
much as she had been used to ink them She could not help reddening a little
now and then partly with the smart and partly with vexation at being able to
do no better but she soon got over that and began to improve rapidly So day
after day she and my darling and my little maid Charley and a milliner out
of the town and I sat hard at work as pleasantly as possible
Over and above this Caddy was very anxious »to learn housekeeping« as she
said Now Mercy upon us the idea of her learning housekeeping of a person of
my vast experience was such a joke that I laughed and coloured up and fell
into a comical confusion when she proposed it However I said »Caddy I am
sure you are very welcome to learn anything that you can learn of me my dear«
and I showed her all my books and methods and all my fidgety ways You would
have supposed that I was showing her some wonderful inventions by her study of
them and if you had seen her whenever I jingled my housekeeping keys get up
and attend me certainly you might have thought that there never was a greater
impostor than I with a blinder follower than Caddy Jellyby
So what with working and housekeeping and lessons to Charley and
backgammon in the evening with my guardian and duets with Ada the three weeks
slipped fast away Then I went home with Caddy to see what could be done there
and Ada and Charley remained behind to take care of my guardian
When I say I went home with Caddy I mean to the furnished lodging in Hatton
Garden We went to Newman Street two or three times where preparations were in
progress too a good many I observed for enhancing the comforts of old Mr
Turveydrop and a few for putting the newly married couple away cheaply at the
top of the house but our great point was to make the furnished lodging decent
for the weddingbreakfast and to imbue Mrs Jellyby beforehand with some faint
sense of the occasion
The latter was the more difficult thing of the two because Mrs Jellyby and
an unwholesome boy occupied the front sittingroom the back one was a mere
closet and it was littered down with waste paper and Borrioboolan documents
as an untidy stable might be littered with straw Mrs Jellyby sat there all
day drinking strong coffee dictating and holding Borrioboolan interviews by
appointment The unwholesome boy who seemed to me to be going into a decline
took his meals out of the house When Mr Jellyby came home he usually groaned
and went down into the kitchen There he got something to eat if the servant
would give him anything and then feeling that he was in the way went out and
walked about Hatton Garden in the wet The poor children scrambled up and
tumbled down the house as they had always been accustomed to do
The production of these devoted little sacrifices in any presentable
condition being quite out of the question at a weeks notice I proposed to
Caddy that we should make them as happy as we could on her marriage morning in
the attic where they all slept and should confine our greatest efforts to her
mama and her mamas room and a clean breakfast In truth Mrs Jellyby required
a good deal of attention the latticework up her back having widened
considerably since I first knew her and her hair looking like the mane of a
dustmans horse
Thinking that the display of Caddys wardrobe would be the best means of
approaching the subject I invited Mrs Jellyby to come and look at it spread
out on Caddys bed in the evening after the unwholesome boy was gone
»My dear Miss Summerson« said she rising from her desk with her usual
sweetness of temper »these are really ridiculous preparations though your
assisting them is a proof of your kindness There is something so inexpressibly
absurd to me in the idea of Caddy being married O Caddy you silly silly
silly puss«
She came upstairs with us notwithstanding and looked at the clothes in her
customary faroff manner They suggested one distinct idea to her for she said
with her placid smile and shaking her head »My good Miss Summerson at half
the cost this weak child might have been equipped for Africa«
On our going downstairs again Mrs Jellyby asked me whether this
troublesome business was really to take place next Wednesday And on my replying
yes she said »Will my room be required my dear Miss Summerson For its quite
impossible that I can put my papers away«
I took the liberty of saying that the room would certainly be wanted and
that I thought we must put the papers away somewhere »Well my dear Miss
Summerson« said Mrs Jellyby »you know best I dare say But by obliging me to
employ a boy Caddy has embarrassed me to that extent overwhelmed as I am with
public business that I dont know which way to turn We have a Ramification
meeting too on Wednesday afternoon and the inconvenience is very serious«
»It is not likely to occur again« said I smiling »Caddy will be married
but once probably«
»Thats true« Mrs Jellyby replied »thats true my dear I suppose we
must make the best of it«
The next question was how Mrs Jellyby should be dressed on the occasion I
thought it very curious to see her looking on serenely from her writingtable
while Caddy and I discussed it occasionally shaking her head at us with a
halfreproachful smile like a superior spirit who could just bear with our
trifling
The state in which her dresses were and the extraordinary confusion in
which she kept them added not a little to our difficulty but at length we
devised something not very unlike what a commonplace mother might wear on such
an occasion The abstracted manner in which Mrs Jellyby would deliver herself
up to having this attire tried on by the dressmaker and the sweetness with
which she would then observe to me how sorry she was that I had not turned my
thoughts to Africa were consistent with the rest of her behaviour
The lodging was rather confined as to space but I fancied that if Mrs
Jellybys household had been the only lodgers in Saint Pauls or Saint Peters
the sole advantage they would have found in the size of the building would have
been its affording a great deal of room to be dirty in I believe that nothing
belonging to the family which it had been possible to break was unbroken at
the time of those preparations for Caddys marriage that nothing which it had
been possible to spoil in any way was unspoilt and that no domestic object
which was capable of collecting dirt from a dear childs knee to the
doorplate was without as much dirt as could well accumulate upon it
Poor Mr Jellyby who very seldom spoke and almost always sat when he was
at home with his head against the wall became interested when he saw that Caddy
and I were attempting to establish some order among all this waste and ruin and
took off his coat to help But such wonderful things came tumbling out of the
closets when they were opened bits of mouldy pie sour bottles Mrs Jellybys
caps letters tea forks odd boots and shoes of children firewood wafers
saucepanlids damp sugar in odds and ends of paper bags footstools blacklead
brushes bread Mrs Jellybys bonnets books with butter sticking to the
binding guttered candleends put out by being turned upside down in broken
candlesticks nutshells heads and tails of shrimps dinnermats gloves
coffeegrounds umbrellas that he looked frightened and left off again But
he came regularly every evening and sat without his coat with his head against
the wall as though he would have helped us if he had known how
»Poor Pa« said Caddy to me on the night before the great day when we
really had got things a little to rights »It seems unkind to leave him Esther
But what could I do if I stayed Since I first knew you I have tidied and
tidied over and over again but its useless Ma and Africa together upset the
whole house directly We never have a servant who dont drink Mas ruinous to
everything«
Mr Jellyby could not hear what she said but he seemed very low indeed and
shed tears I thought
»My heart aches for him that it does« sobbed Caddy »I cant help
thinking tonight Esther how dearly I hope to be happy with Prince and how
dearly Pa hoped I dare say to be happy with Ma What a disappointed life«
»My dear Caddy« said Mr Jellyby looking slowly round from the wall It
was the first time I think I ever heard him say three words together
»Yes Pa« cried Caddy going to him and embracing him affectionately
»My dear Caddy« said Mr Jellyby »Never have «
»Not Prince Pa« faltered Caddy »Not have Prince«
»Yes my dear« said Mr Jellyby »Have him certainly But never have «
I mentioned in my account of our first visit in Thavies Inn that Richard
described Mr Jellyby as frequently opening his mouth after dinner without
saying anything It was a habit of his He opened his mouth now a great many
times and shook his head in a melancholy manner
»What do you wish me not to have Dont have what dear Pa« asked Caddy
coaxing him with her arms round his neck
»Never have a Mission my dear child«
Mr Jellyby groaned and laid his head against the wall again and this was
the only time I ever heard him make an approach to expressing his sentiments on
the Borrioboolan question I suppose he had been more talkative and lively
once but he seemed to have been completely exhausted long before I knew him
I thought Mrs Jellyby never would have left off serenely looking over her
papers and drinking coffee that night It was twelve oclock before we could
obtain possession of the room and the clearance it required then was so
discouraging that Caddy who was almost tired out sat down in the middle of
the dust and cried But she soon cheered up and we did wonders with it before
we went to bed
In the morning it looked by the aid of a few flowers and a quantity of soap
and water and a little arrangement quite gay The plain breakfast made a
cheerful show and Caddy was perfectly charming But when my darling came I
thought and I think now that I never had seen such a dear face as my
beautiful pets
We made a little feast for the children upstairs and we put Peepy at the
head of the table and we showed them Caddy in her bridal dress and they
clapped their hands and hurrahed and Caddy cried to think that she was going
away from them and hugged them over and over again until we brought Prince up
to fetch her away when I am sorry to say Peepy bit him Then there was old
Mr Turveydrop downstairs in a state of Deportment not to be expressed
benignly blessing Caddy and giving my guardian to understand that his sons
happiness was his own parental work and that he sacrificed personal
considerations to ensure it »My dear sir« said Mr Turveydrop »these young
people will live with me my house is large enough for their accommodation and
they shall not want the shelter of my roof I could have wished you will
understand the illusion Mr Jarndyce for you remember my illustrious patron
the Prince Regent I could have wished that my son had married into a family
where there was more Deportment but the will of Heaven be done«
Mr and Mrs Pardiggle were of the party Mr Pardiggle an
obstinatelooking man with a large waistcoat and stubbly hair who was always
talking in a loud bass voice about his mite or Mrs Pardiggles mite or their
five boys mites Mr Quale with his hair brushed back as usual and his knobs
of temples shining very much was also there not in the character of a
disappointed lover but as the Accepted of a young at least an unmarried
lady a Miss Wisk who was also there Miss Wisks mission my guardian said
was to show the world that womans mission was mans mission and that the only
genuine mission of both man and woman was to be always moving declaratory
resolutions about things in general at public meetings The guests were few but
were as one might expect at Mrs Jellybys all devoted to public objects only
Besides those I have mentioned there was an extremely dirty lady with her
bonnet all awry and the ticketed price of her dress still sticking on it whose
neglected home Caddy told me was like a filthy wilderness but whose church
was like a fancy fair A very contentious gentleman who said it was his mission
to be everybodys brother but who appeared to be on terms of coolness with the
whole of his large family completed the party
A party having less in common with such an occasion could hardly have been
got together by any ingenuity Such a mean mission as the domestic mission was
the very last thing to be endured among them indeed Miss Wisk informed us
with great indignation before we sat down to breakfast that the idea of
womans mission lying chiefly in the narrow sphere of Home was an outrageous
slander on the part of her Tyrant Man One other singularity was that nobody
with a mission except Mr Quale whose mission as I think I have formerly
said was to be in ecstasies with everybodys mission cared at all for
anybodys mission Mrs Pardiggle being as clear that the only one infallible
course was her course of pouncing upon the poor and applying benevolence to
them like a straitwaistcoat as Miss Wisk was that the only practical thing for
the world was the emancipation of Woman from the thraldom of her Tyrant Man
Mrs Jellyby all the while sat smiling at the limited vision that could see
anything but BorrioboolaGha
But I am anticipating now the purport of our conversation on the ride home
instead of first marrying Caddy We all went to church and Mr Jellyby gave her
away Of the air with which old Mr Turveydrop with his hat under his left arm
the inside presented at the clergyman like a cannon and his eyes creasing
themselves up into his wig stood stiff and highshouldered behind us
bridesmaids during the ceremony and afterwards saluted us I could never say
enough to do it justice Miss Wisk whom I cannot report as prepossessing in
appearance and whose manner was grim listened to the proceedings as part of
Womans wrongs with a disdainful face Mrs Jellyby with her calm smile and
her bright eyes looked the least concerned of all the company
We duly came back to breakfast and Mrs Jellyby sat at the head of the
table and Mr Jellyby at the foot Caddy had previously stolen upstairs to
hug the children again and tell them that her name was Turveydrop But this
piece of information instead of being an agreeable surprise to Peepy threw him
on his back in such transports of kicking grief that I could do nothing on
being sent for but accede to the proposal that he should be admitted to the
breakfast table So he came down and sat in my lap and Mrs Jellyby after
saying in reference to the state of his pinafore »O you naughty Peepy what a
shocking little pig you are« was not at all discomposed He was very good
except that he brought down Noah with him out of an ark I had given him before
we went to church and would dip him head first into the wineglasses and then
put him in his mouth
My guardian with his sweet temper and his quick perception and his amiable
face made something agreeable even out of the ungenial company None of them
seemed able to talk about anything but his or her own one subject and none of
them seemed able to talk about even that as part of a world in which there was
anything else but my guardian turned it all to the merry encouragement of
Caddy and the honour of the occasion and brought us through the breakfast
nobly What we should have done without him I am afraid to think for all the
company despising the bride and bridegroom and old Mr Turveydrop and old Mr
Turveydrop in virtue of his Deportment considering himself vastly superior to
all the company it was a very unpromising case
At last the time came when poor Caddy was to go and when all her property
was packed on the hired coach and pair that was to take her and her husband to
Gravesend It affected us to see Caddy clinging then to her deplorable home
and hanging on her mothers neck with the greatest tenderness
»I am very sorry I couldnt go on writing from dictation Ma« sobbed Caddy
»I hope you forgive me now«
»O Caddy Caddy« said Mrs Jellyby »I have told you over and over again
that I have engaged a boy and theres an end of it«
»You are sure you are not the least angry with me Ma Say you are sure
before I go away Ma«
»You foolish Caddy« returned Mrs Jellyby »do I look angry or have I
inclination to be angry or time to be angry How can you«
»Take a little care of Pa while I am gone mama«
Mrs Jellyby positively laughed at the fancy »You romantic child« said
she lightly patting Caddys back »Go along I am excellent friends with you
Now goodbye Caddy and be very happy«
Then Caddy hung upon her father and nursed his cheek against hers as if he
were some poor dull child in pain All this took place in the hall Her father
released her took out his pockethandkerchief and sat down on the stairs with
his head against the wall I hope he found some consolation in walls I almost
think he did
And then Prince took her arm in his and turned with great emotion and
respect to his father whose Deportment at that moment was overwhelming
»Thank you over and over again father« said Prince kissing his hand »I
am very grateful for all your kindness and consideration regarding our marriage
and so I can assure you is Caddy«
»Very« sobbed Caddy »Very«
»My dear son« said Mr Turveydrop »and dear daughter I have done my duty
If the spirit of a sainted Wooman hovers above us and looks down on the
occasion that and your constant affection will be my recompense You will not
fail in your duty my son and daughter I believe«
»Dear father never« cried Prince
»Never never dear Mr Turveydrop« said Caddy
»This« returned Mr Turveydrop »is as it should be My children my home
is yours my heart is yours my all is yours I will never leave you nothing
but Death shall part us My dear son you contemplate an absence of a week I
think«
»A week dear father We shall return home this day week«
»My dear child« said Mr Turveydrop »let me even under the present
exceptional circumstances recommend strict punctuality It is highly important
to keep the connexion together and schools if at all neglected are apt to
take offence«
»This day week father we shall be sure to be home to dinner«
»Good« said Mr Turveydrop »You will find fires my dear Caroline in your
own room and dinner prepared in my apartment Yes yes Prince« anticipating
some selfdenying objection on his sons part with a great air »You and our
Caroline will be strange in the upper part of the premises and will therefore
dine that day in my apartment Now bless ye«
They drove away and whether I wondered most at Mrs Jellyby or at Mr
Turveydrop I did not know Ada and my guardian were in the same condition when
we came to talk it over But before we drove away too I received a most
unexpected and eloquent compliment from Mr Jellyby He came up to me in the
hall took both my hands pressed them earnestly and opened his mouth twice I
was so sure of his meaning that I said quite flurried »You are very welcome
sir Pray dont mention it«
»I hope this marriage is for the best Guardian« said I when we three were
on our road home
»I hope it is little woman Patience We shall see«
»Is the wind in the East today« I ventured to ask him
He laughed heartily and answered »No«
»But it must have been this morning I think« said I
He answered »No« again and this time my dear girl confidently answered
»No« too and shook the lovely head which with its blooming flowers against
the golden hair was like the very Spring »Much you know of East winds my ugly
darling« said I kissing her in my admiration I couldnt help it
Well It was only their love for me I know very well and it is a long time
ago I must write it even if I rub it out again because it gives me so much
pleasure They said there could be no East wind where Somebody was they said
that wherever Dame Durden went there was sunshine and summer air
Chapter XXXI
Nurse and Patient
I had not been at home again many days when one evening I went upstairs into
my own room to take a peep over Charleys shoulder and see how she was getting
on with her copybook Writing was a trying business to Charley who seemed to
have no natural power over a pen but in whose hand every pen appeared to become
perversely animated and to go wrong and crooked and to stop and splash and
sidle into corners like a saddledonkey It was very odd to see what old
letters Charleys young hand had made they so wrinkled and shrivelled and
tottering it so plump and round Yet Charley was uncommonly expert at other
things and had as nimble little fingers as I ever watched
»Well Charley« said I looking over a copy of the letter O in which it was
represented as square triangular pearshaped and collapsed in all kinds of
ways »we are improving If we only get to make it round we shall be perfect
Charley«
Then I made one and Charley made one and the pen wouldnt join Charleys
neatly but twisted it up into a knot
»Never mind Charley We shall do it in time«
Charley laid down her pen the copy being finished opened and shut her
cramped little hand looked gravely at the page half in pride and half in
doubt and got up and dropped me a curtsey
»Thank you miss If you please miss did you know a poor person of the
name of Jenny«
»A brickmakers wife Charley Yes«
»She came and spoke to me when I was out a little while ago and said you
knew her miss She asked me if I wasnt the young ladys little maid meaning
you for the young lady miss and I said yes miss«
»I thought she had left this neighbourhood altogether Charley«
»So she had miss but shes come back again to where she used to live she
and Liz Did you know another poor person of the name of Liz miss«
»I think I do Charley though not by name«
»Thats what she said« returned Charley »They have both come back miss
and have been tramping high and low«
»Tramping high and low have they Charley«
»Yes miss« If Charley could only have made the letters in her copy as
round as the eyes with which she looked into my face they would have been
excellent »And this poor person came about the house three or four days hoping
to get a glimpse of you miss all she wanted she said but you were away
That was when she saw me She saw me agoing about miss« said Charley with a
short laugh of the greatest delight and pride »and she thought I looked like
your maid«
»Did she though really Charley«
»Yes miss« said Charley »really and truly« And Charley with another
short laugh of the purest glee made her eyes very round again and looked as
serious as became my maid I was never tired of seeing Charley in the full
enjoyment of that great dignity standing before me with her youthful face and
figure and her steady manner and her childish exultation breaking through it
now and then in the pleasantest way
»And where did you see her Charley« said I
My little maids countenance fell as she replied »By the doctors shop
miss« For Charley wore her black frock yet
I asked if the brickmakers wife were ill but Charley said No It was some
one else Some one in her cottage who had tramped down to Saint Albans and was
tramping he didnt know where A poor boy Charley said No father no mother
no any one »Like as Tom might have been miss if Emma and me had died after
father« said Charley her round eyes filling with tears
»And she was getting medicine for him Charley«
»She said miss« returned Charley »how that he had once done as much for
her«
My little maids face was so eager and her quiet hands were folded so
closely in one another as she stood looking at me that I had no great
difficulty in reading her thoughts »Well Charley« said I »it appears to me
that you and I can do no better than go round to Jennys and see whats the
matter«
The alacrity with which Charley brought my bonnet and veil and having
dressed me quaintly pinned herself into her warm shawl and made herself look
like a little old woman sufficiently expressed her readiness So Charley and I
without saying anything to any one went out
It was a cold wild night and the trees shuddered in the wind The rain had
been thick and heavy all day and with little intermission for many days None
was falling just then however The sky had partly cleared but was very gloomy
even above us where a few stars were shining In the north and northwest
where the sun had set three hours before there was a pale dead light both
beautiful and awful and into it long sullen lines of cloud waved up like a sea
stricken immovable as it was heaving Towards London a lurid glare overhung the
whole dark waste and the contrast between these two lights and the fancy which
the redder light engendered of an unearthly fire gleaming on all the unseen
buildings of the city and on all the faces of its many thousands of wondering
inhabitants was as solemn as might be
I had no thought that night none I am quite sure of what was soon to
happen to me But I have always remembered since that when we had stopped at
the gardengate to look up at the sky and when we went upon our way I had for
a moment an undefinable impression of myself as being something different from
what I then was I know it was then and there that I had it I have ever since
connected the feeling with that spot and time and with everything associated
with that spot and time to the distant voices in the town the barking of a
dog and the sound of wheels coming down the miry hill
It was Saturday night and most of the people belonging to the place where
we were going were drinking elsewhere We found it quieter than I had
previously seen it though quite as miserable The kilns were burning and a
stifling vapour set towards us with a pale blue glare
We came to the cottage where there was a feeble candle in the patched
window We tapped at the door and went in The mother of the little child who
had died was sitting in a chair on one side of the poor fire by the bed and
opposite to her a wretched boy supported by the chimneypiece was cowering on
the floor He held under his arm like a little bundle a fragment of a fur cap
and as he tried to warm himself he shook until the crazy door and window shook
The place was closer than before and had an unhealthy and a very peculiar
smell
I had not lifted my veil when I first spoke to the woman which was at the
moment of our going in The boy staggered up instantly and stared at me with a
remarkable expression of surprise and terror
His action was so quick and my being the cause of it was so evident that I
stood still instead of advancing nearer
»I wont go no more to the berryin ground« muttered the boy »I aint
agoing there so I tell you«
I lifted my veil and spoke to the woman She said to me in a low voice
»Dont mind him maam Hell soon come back to his head« and said to him »Jo
Jo whats the matter«
»I know wot shes come for« cried the boy
»Who«
»The lady there Shes come to get me to go along with her to the berryin
ground I wont go to the berryin ground I dont like the name on it She might
go aberryin me« His shivering came on again and as he leaned against the
wall he shook the hovel
»He has been talking off and on about such like all day maam« said
Jenny softly »Why how you stare This is my lady Jo«
»Is it« returned the boy doubtfully and surveying me with his arm held
out above his burning eyes »She looks to me the tother one It aint the
bonnet nor yet it aint the gownd but she looks to me the tother one«
My little Charley with her premature experience of illness and trouble had
pulled off her bonnet and shawl and now went quietly up to him with a chair
and sat him down in it like an old sick nurse Except that no such attendant
could have shown him Charleys youthful face which seemed to engage his
confidence
»I say« said the boy »You tell me Aint the lady the tother lady«
Charley shook her head as she methodically drew his rags about him and made
him as warm as she could
»O« the boy muttered »Then I spose she aint«
»I came to see if I could do you any good« said I »What is the matter with
you«
»Im abeing froze« returned the boy hoarsely with his haggard gaze
wandering about me »and then burnt up and then froze and then burnt up ever
so many times in a hour And my heads all sleepy and all agoing madlike
and Im so dry and my bones isnt half so much bones as pain«
»When did he come here« I asked the woman
»This morning maam I found him at the corner of the town I had known him
up in London yonder Hadnt I Jo«
»TomallAlones« the boy replied
Whenever he fixed his attention or his eyes it was only for a very little
while He soon began to droop his head again and roll it heavily and speak as
if he were half awake
»When did he come from London« I asked
»I come from London yesday« said the boy himself now flushed and hot
»Im agoing somewheres«
»Where is he going« I asked
»Somewheres« repeated the boy in a louder tone »I have been moved on and
moved on more nor ever I was afore since the tother one giv me the sovring
Mrs Snagsby shes always awatching and adriving of me what have I done to
her and theyre all awatching and adriving of me Every one of ems doing
of it from the time when I dont get up to the time when I dont go to bed
And Im agoing somewheres Thats where Im agoing She told me down in
TomallAlones as she came from Stolbuns and so I took the Stolbuns Road
Its as good as another«
He always concluded by addressing Charley
»What is to be done with him« said I taking the woman aside »He could not
travel in this state even if he had a purpose and knew where he was going«
»I know no more maam than the dead« she replied glancing
compassionately at him »Perhaps the dead know better if they could only tell
us Ive kept him here all day for pitys sake and Ive given him broth and
physic and Liz has gone to try if any one will take him in heres my pretty in
the bed her child but I call it mine but I cant keep him long for if my
husband was to come home and find him here hed be rough in putting him out
and might do him a hurt Hark Here comes Liz back«
The other woman came hurriedly in as she spoke and the boy got up with a
halfobscured sense that he was expected to be going When the little child
awoke and when and how Charley got at it took it out of bed and began to walk
about hushing it I dont know There she was doing all this in a quiet
motherly manner as if she were living in Mrs Blinders attic with Tom and Emma
again
The friend had been here and there and had been played about from hand to
hand and had come back as she went At first it was too early for the boy to be
received into the proper refuge and at last it was too late One official sent
her to another and the other sent her back again to the first and so backward
and forward until it appeared to me as if both must have been appointed for
their skill in evading their duties instead of performing them And now after
all she said breathing quickly for she had been running and was frightened
too »Jenny your masters on the road home and mines not far behind and the
Lord help the boy for we can do no more for him« They put a few halfpence
together and hurried them into his hand and so in an oblivious
halfthankful halfinsensible way he shuffled out of the house
»Give me the child my dear« said its mother to Charley »and thank you
kindly too Jenny woman dear good night Young lady if my master dont fall
out with me Ill look down by the kiln byandby where the boy will be most
like and again in the morning« She hurried off and presently we passed her
hushing and singing to her child at her own door and looking anxiously along
the road for her drunken husband
I was afraid of staying then to speak to either woman lest I should bring
her into trouble But I said to Charley that we must not leave the boy to die
Charley who knew what to do much better than I did and whose quickness
equalled her presence of mind glided on before me and presently we came up
with Jo just short of the brickkiln
I think he must have begun his journey with some small bundle under his arm
and must have had it stolen or lost it For he still carried his wretched
fragment of fur cap like a bundle though he went bareheaded through the rain
which now fell fast He stopped when we called to him and again showed a dread
of me when I came up standing with his lustrous eyes fixed upon me and even
arrested in his shivering fit
I asked him to come with us and we would take care that he had some shelter
for the night
»I dont want no shelter« he said »I can lay amongst the warm bricks«
»But dont you know that people die there« replied Charley
»They dies everywheres« said the boy »They dies in their lodgings she
knows where I showed her and they dies down in TomallAlones in heaps They
dies more than they lives according to what I see« Then he hoarsely whispered
Charley »If she aint the tother one she aint the forrenner Is there three
of em then«
Charley looked at me a little frightened I felt half frightened at myself
when the boy glared on me so
But he turned and followed when I beckoned to him and finding that he
acknowledged that influence in me I led the way straight home It was not far
only at the summit of the hill We passed but one man I doubted if we should
have got home without assistance the boys steps were so uncertain and
tremulous He made no complaint however and was strangely unconcerned about
himself if I may say so strange a thing
Leaving him in the hall for a moment shrunk into the corner of the
windowseat and staring with an indifference that scarcely could be called
wonder at the comfort and brightness about him I went into the drawingroom to
speak to my guardian There I found Mr Skimpole who had come down by the
coach as he frequently did without notice and never bringing any clothes with
him but always borrowing everything he wanted
They came out with me directly to look at the boy The servants had
gathered in the hall too and he shivered in the windowseat with Charley
standing by him like some wounded animal that had been found in a ditch
»This is a sorrowful case« said my guardian after asking him a question or
two and touching him and examining his eyes »What do you say Harold«
»You had better turn him out« said Mr Skimpole
»What do you mean« inquired my guardian almost sternly
»My dear Jarndyce« said Mr Skimpole »you know what I am I am a child Be
cross to me if I deserve it But I have a constitutional objection to this sort
of thing I always had when I was a medical man Hes not safe you know
Theres a very bad sort of fever about him«
Mr Skimpole had retreated from the hall to the drawingroom again and said
this in his airy way seated on the musicstool as we stood by
»Youll say its childish« observed Mr Skimpole looking gaily at us
»Well I dare say it may be but I am a child and I never pretend to be
anything else If you put him out in the road you only put him where he was
before He will be no worse off than he was you know Even make him better off
if you like Give him sixpence or five shillings or five pound ten you are
arithmeticians and I am not and get rid of him«
»And what is he to do then« asked my guardian
»Upon my life« said Mr Skimpole shrugging his shoulders with his engaging
smile »I have not the least idea what he is to do then But I have no doubt
hell do it«
»Now is it not a horrible reflection« said my guardian to whom I had
hastily explained the unavailing efforts of the two women »is it not a horrible
reflection« walking up and down and rumpling his hair »that if this wretched
creature were a convicted prisoner his hospital would be wide open to him and
he would be as well taken care of as any sick boy in the kingdom«
»My dear Jarndyce« returned Mr Skimpole »youll pardon the simplicity of
the question coming as it does from a creature who is perfectly simple in
worldly matters but why isnt he a prisoner then«
My guardian stopped and looked at him with a whimsical mixture of amusement
and indignation in his face
»Our young friend is not to be suspected of any delicacy I should imagine«
said Mr Skimpole unabashed and candid »It seems to me that it would be wiser
as well as in a certain kind of way more respectable if he showed some
misdirected energy that got him into prison There would be more of an
adventurous spirit in it and consequently more of a certain sort of poetry«
»I believe« returned my guardian resuming his uneasy walk »that there is
not such another child on earth as yourself«
»Do you really« said Mr Skimpole »I dare say But I confess I dont see
why our young friend in his degree should not seek to invest himself with such
poetry as is open to him He is no doubt born with an appetite probably when
he is in a safer state of health he has an excellent appetite Very well At
our young friends natural dinner hour most likely about noon our young friend
says in effect to society I am hungry will you have the goodness to produce
your spoon and feed me Society which has taken upon itself the general
arrangement of the whole system of spoons and professes to have a spoon for our
young friend does not produce that spoon and our young friend therefore
says You really must excuse me if I seize it Now this appears to me a case of
misdirected energy which has a certain amount of reason in it and a certain
amount of romance and I dont know but what I should be more interested in our
young friend as an illustration of such a case than merely as a poor vagabond
which any one can be«
»In the meantime« I ventured to observe »he is getting worse«
»In the meantime« said Mr Skimpole cheerfully »as Miss Summerson with
her practical good sense observes he is getting worse Therefore I recommend
your turning him out before he gets still worse«
The amiable face with which he said it I think I shall never forget
»Of course little woman« observed my guardian turning to me »I can
ensure his admission into the proper place by merely going there to enforce it
though its a bad state of things when in his condition that is necessary But
its growing late and is a very bad night and the boy is worn out already
There is a bed in the wholesome loftroom by the stable we had better keep him
there till morning when he can be wrapped up and removed Well do that«
»O« said Mr Skimpole with his hands upon the keys of the piano as we
moved away »Are you going back to our young friend«
»Yes« said my guardian
»How I envy you your constitution Jarndyce« returned Mr Skimpole with
playful admiration »You dont mind these things neither does Miss Summerson
You are ready at all times to go anywhere and do anything Such is Will I have
no Will at all and no Wont simply Cant«
»You cant recommend anything for the boy I suppose« said my guardian
looking back over his shoulder half angrily only half angrily for he never
seemed to consider Mr Skimpole an accountable being
»My dear Jarndyce I observed a bottle of cooling medicine in his pocket
and its impossible for him to do better than take it You can tell them to
sprinkle a little vinegar about the place where he sleeps and to keep it
moderately cool and him moderately warm But it is mere impertinence in me to
offer any recommendation Miss Summerson has such a knowledge of detail and
such a capacity for the administration of detail that she knows all about it«
We went back into the hall and explained to Jo what we proposed to do
which Charley explained to him again and which he received with the languid
unconcern I had already noticed wearily looking on at what was done as if it
were for somebody else The servants compassionating his miserable state and
being very anxious to help we soon got the loftroom ready and some of the men
about the house carried him across the wet yard well wrapped up It was
pleasant to observe how kind they were to him and how there appeared to be a
general impression among them that frequently calling him Old Chap was likely to
revive his spirits Charley directed the operations, and went to and fro between
the loftroom and the house with such little stimulants and comforts as we
thought it safe to give him My guardian himself saw him before he was left for
the night and reported to me when he returned to the Growlery to write a
letter on the boys behalf which a messenger was charged to deliver at daylight
in the morning that he seemed easier and inclined to sleep They had fastened
his door on the outside he said in case of his being delirious but had so
arranged that he could not make any noise without being heard
Ada being in our room with a cold Mr Skimpole was left alone all this
time and entertained himself by playing snatches of pathetic airs and
sometimes singing to them as we heard at a distance with great expression and
feeling When we rejoined him in the drawingroom he said he would give us a
little ballad which had come into his head apropos of our young friend and he
sang one about a Peasant boy
»Thrown on the wide world doomd to wander and roam
Bereft of his parents bereft of a home«
quite exquisitely It was a song that always made him cry he told us
He was extremely gay all the rest of the evening »for he absolutely
chirped« those were his delighted words »when he thought by what a happy
talent for business he was surrounded« He gave us in his glass of negus
»Better health to our young friend« and supposed and gaily pursued the case
of his being reserved like Whittington to become Lord Mayor of London In that
event no doubt he would establish the Jarndyce Institution and the Summerson
Almshouses and a little annual Corporation Pilgrimage to St Albans He had no
doubt he said that our young friend was an excellent boy in his way but his
way was not the Harold Skimpole way what Harold Skimpole was Harold Skimpole
had found himself to his considerable surprise when he first made his own
acquaintance he had accepted himself with all his failings and had thought it
sound philosophy to make the best of the bargain and he hoped we would do the
same
Charleys last report was that the boy was quiet I could see from my
window the lantern they had left him burning quietly and I went to bed very
happy to think that he was sheltered
There was more movement and more talking than usual a little before
daybreak and it awoke me As I was dressing I looked out of my window and
asked one of our men who had been among the active sympathisers last night
whether there was anything wrong about the house The lantern was still burning
in the loftwindow
»Its the boy miss« said he
»Is he worse« I inquired
»Gone miss«
»Dead«
»Dead miss No Gone clean off«
At what time of the night he had gone or how or why it seemed hopeless
ever to divine The door remaining as it had been left and the lantern standing
in the window it could only be supposed that he had got out by a trap in the
floor which communicated with an empty carthouse below But he had shut it down
again if that were so and it looked as if it had not been raised Nothing of
any kind was missing On this fact being clearly ascertained we all yielded to
the painful belief that delirium had come upon him in the night and that
allured by some imaginary object or pursued by some imaginary horror he had
strayed away in that worse than helpless state all of us that is to say but
Mr Skimpole who repeatedly suggested in his usual easy light style that it
had occurred to our young friend that he was not a safe inmate having a bad
kind of fever upon him and that he had with great natural politeness taken
himself off
Every possible inquiry was made and every place was searched The
brickkilns were examined the cottages were visited the two women were
particularly questioned but they knew nothing of him and nobody could doubt
that their wonder was genuine The weather had for some time been too wet and
the night itself had been too wet to admit of any tracing by footsteps Hedge
and ditch and wall and rick and stack were examined by our men for a long
distance round lest the boy should be lying in such a place insensible or dead
but nothing was seen to indicate that he had ever been near From the time when
he was left in the loftroom he vanished
The search continued for five days I do not mean that it ceased even then
but that my attention was then diverted into a current very memorable to me
As Charley was at her writing again in my room in the evening and as I sat
opposite to her at work I felt the table tremble Looking up I saw my little
maid shivering from head to foot
»Charley« said I »are you so cold«
»I think I am miss« she replied »I dont know what it is I cant hold
myself still I felt so yesterday at about this same time miss Dont be
uneasy I think Im ill«
I heard Adas voice outside and I hurried to the door of communication
between my room and our pretty sittingroom and locked it Just in time for
she tapped at it while my hand was yet upon the key
Ada called to me to let her in but I said »Not now my dearest Go away
Theres nothing the matter I will come to you presently« Ah it was a long
long time before my darling girl and I were companions again
Charley fell ill In twelve hours she was very ill I moved her to my room
and laid her in my bed and sat down quietly to nurse her I told my guardian
all about it and why I felt it was necessary that I should seclude myself and
my reason for not seeing my darling above all At first she came very often to
the door and called to me and even reproached me with sobs and tears but I
wrote her a long letter saying that she made me anxious and unhappy and
imploring her as she loved me and wished my mind to be at peace to come no
nearer than the garden After that she came beneath the window even oftener
than she had come to the door and if I had learnt to love her dear sweet voice
before when we were hardly ever apart how did I learn to love it then when I
stood behind the windowcurtain listening and replying but not so much as
looking out How did I learn to love it afterwards when the harder time came
They put a bed for me in our sittingroom and by keeping the door wide
open I turned the two rooms into one now that Ada had vacated that part of the
house and kept them always fresh and airy There was not a servant in or about
the house but was so good that they would all most gladly have come to me at
any hour of the day or night without the least fear or unwillingness but I
thought it best to choose one worthy woman who was never to see Ada and whom I
could trust to come and go with all precaution Through her means I got out to
take the air with my guardian when there was no fear of meeting Ada and wanted
for nothing in the way of attendance any more than in any other respect
And thus poor Charley sickened and grew worse and fell into heavy danger of
death and lay severely ill for many a long round of day and night So patient
she was so uncomplaining and inspired by such a gentle fortitude that very
often as I sat by Charley holding her head in my arms repose would come to
her so when it would come to her in no other attitude I silently prayed to
our Father in heaven that I might not forget the lesson which this little sister
taught me
I was very sorrowful to think that Charleys pretty looks would change and
be disfigured even if she recovered she was such a child with her dimpled
face but that thought was for the greater part lost in her greater peril
When she was at the worst and her mind rambled again to the cares of her
fathers sick bed and the little children she still knew me so far as that she
would be quiet in my arms when she could lie quiet nowhere else and murmur out
the wanderings of her mind less restlessly At those times I used to think how
should I ever tell the two remaining babies that the baby who had learned of her
faithful heart to be a mother to them in their need was dead
There were other times when Charley knew me well and talked to me telling
me that she sent her love to Tom and Emma and that she was sure Tom would grow
up to be a good man At those times Charley would speak to me of what she had
read to her father as well as she could to comfort him of that young man
carried out to be buried who was the only son of his mother and she was a
widow of the rulers daughter raised up by the gracious hand upon her bed of
death And Charley told me that when her father died she had kneeled down and
prayed in her first sorrow that he likewise might be raised up and given back
to his poor children and that if she should never get better and should die
too she thought it likely that it might come into Toms mind to offer the same
prayer for her Then would I show Tom how these people of old days had been
brought back to life on earth only that we might know our hope to be restored
to Heaven
But of all the various times there were in Charleys illness there was not
one when she lost the gentle qualities I have spoken of And there were many
many when I thought in the night of the last high belief in the watching Angel
and the last higher trust in God on the part of her poor despised father
And Charley did not die She flutteringly and slowly turned the dangerous
point after long lingering there and then began to mend The hope that never
had been given from the first of Charley being in outward appearance Charley
any more soon began to be encouraged and even that prospered and I saw her
growing into her old childish likeness again
It was a great morning when I could tell Ada all this as she stood out in
the garden and it was a great evening when Charley and I at last took tea
together in the next room But on that same evening I felt that I was stricken
old
Happily for both of us it was not until Charley was safe in bed again and
placidly asleep that I began to think the contagion of her illness was upon me
I had been able easily to hide what I felt at teatime but I was past that
already now and I knew that I was rapidly following in Charleys steps
I was well enough however to be up early in the morning and to return my
darlings cheerful blessing from the garden and to talk with her as long as
usual But I was not free from an impression that I had been walking about the
two rooms in the night a little beside myself though knowing where I was and
I felt confused at times with a curious sense of fulness as if I were
becoming too large altogether
In the evening I was so much worse that I resolved to prepare Charley with
which view I said »Youre getting quite strong Charley are you not«
»O quite« said Charley
»Strong enough to be told a secret I think Charley«
»Quite strong enough for that miss« cried Charley But Charleys face fell
in the height of her delight for she saw the secret in my face and she came
out of the great chair and fell upon my bosom and said »O miss its my
doing Its my doing« and a great deal more out of the fulness of her grateful
heart
»Now Charley« said I after letting her go on for a little while »if I am
to be ill my great trust humanly speaking is in you And unless you are as
quiet and composed for me as you always were for yourself you can never fulfil
it Charley«
»If youll let me cry a little longer miss« said Charley »O my dear my
dear if youll only let me cry a little longer O my dear« how
affectionately and devotedly she poured this out as she clung to my neck I
never can remember without tears »Ill be good«
So I let Charley cry a little longer and it did us both good
»Trust in me now if you please miss« said Charley quietly »I am
listening to everything you say«
»Its very little at present Charley I shall tell your doctor tonight
that I dont think I am well and that you are going to nurse me«
For that the poor child thanked me with her whole heart
»And in the morning when you hear Miss Ada in the garden if I should not
be quite able to go to the windowcurtain as usual do you go Charley and say
I am asleep that I have rather tired myself and am asleep At all times keep
the room as I have kept it Charley and let no one come«
Charley promised and I lay down for I was very heavy I saw the doctor
that night and asked the favour of him that I wished to ask relative to his
saying nothing of my illness in the house as yet I have a very indistinct
remembrance of that night melting into day and of day melting into night again
but I was just able on the first morning to get to the window and speak to my
darling
On the second morning I heard her dear voice O how dear now outside
and I asked Charley with some difficulty speech being painful to me to go
and say I was asleep I heard her answer softly »Dont disturb her Charley
for the world«
»How does my own Pride look Charley« I inquired
»Disappointed miss« said Charley peeping through the curtain
»But I know she is very beautiful this morning«
»She is indeed miss« answered Charley peeping »Still looking up at the
window«
With her blue clear eyes God bless them always loveliest when raised like
that
I called Charley to me and gave her her last charge
»Now Charley when she knows I am ill she will try to make her way into
the room Keep her out Charley if you love me truly to the last Charley if
you let her in but once only to look upon me for one moment as I lie here I
shall die«
»I never will I never will« she promised me
»I believe it my dear Charley And now come and sit beside me for a little
while and touch me with your hand For I cannot see you Charley I am blind«
Chapter XXXII
The Appointed Time
It is night in Lincolns Inn perplexed and troublous valley of the shadow of
the law where suitors generally find but little day and fat candles are
snuffed out in offices and clerks have rattled down the crazy wooden stairs
and dispersed The bell that rings at nine oclock has ceased its doleful
clangour about nothing the gates are shut and the nightporter a solemn
warder with a mighty power of sleep keeps guard in his lodge From tiers of
staircase windows clogged lamps like the eyes of Equity bleared Argus with a
fathomless pocket for every eye and an eye upon it dimly blink at the stars In
dirty upper casements here and there hazy little patches of candlelight reveal
where some wise draughtsman and conveyancer yet toils for the entanglement of
real estate in meshes of sheepskin in the average ratio of about a dozen of
sheep to an acre of land Over which beelike industry these benefactors of
their species linger yet though officehours be past that they may give for
every day some good account at last
In the neighbouring court where the Lord Chancellor of the Rag and Bottle
shop dwells there is a general tendency towards beer and supper Mrs Piper and
Mrs Perkins whose respective sons engaged with a circle of acquaintance in
the game of hide and seek have been lying in ambush about the byways of
Chancery Lane for some hours and scouring the plain of the same thoroughfare to
the confusion of passengers Mrs Piper and Mrs Perkins have but now exchanged
congratulations on the children being abed and they still linger on a doorstep
over a few parting words Mr Krook and his lodger and the fact of Mr Krooks
being continually in liquor and the testamentary prospects of the young man
are as usual the staple of their conversation But they have something to say
likewise of the Harmonic Meeting at the Sols Arms where the sound of the
piano through the partlyopened windows jingles out into the court and where
Little Swills after keeping the lovers of harmony in a roar like a very Yorick
may now be heard taking the gruff line in a concerted piece and sentimentally
adjuring his friends and patrons to Listen listen listen Tew the waterFall
Mrs Perkins and Mrs Piper compare opinions on the subject of the young lady of
professional celebrity who assists at the Harmonic Meetings and who has a space
to herself in the manuscript announcement in the window Mrs Perkins possessing
information that she has been married a year and a half though announced as
Miss M Melvilleson the noted syren and that her baby is clandestinely
conveyed to the Sols Arms every night to receive its natural nourishment during
the entertainments »Sooner than which myself« says Mrs Perkins »I would get
my living by selling lucifers« Mrs Piper as in duty bound is of the same
opinion holding that a private station is better than public applause and
thanking Heaven for her own and by implication Mrs Perkinss
respectability By this time the potboy of the Sols Arms appearing with her
supperpint well frothed Mrs Piper accepts that tankard and retires indoors
first giving a fair good night to Mrs Perkins who has had her own pint in her
hand ever since it was fetched from the same hostelry by young Perkins before he
was sent to bed Now there is a sound of putting up shopshutters in the court
and a smell as of the smoking of pipes and shooting stars are seen in upper
windows further indicating retirement to rest Now too the policeman begins
to push at doors to try fastenings to be suspicious of bundles and to
administer his beat on the hypothesis that every one is either robbing or being
robbed
It is a close night though the damp cold is searching too and there is a
laggard mist a little way up in the air It is a fine steaming night to turn the
slaughterhouses the unwholesome trades the sewerage bad water and
burialgrounds to account and give the Registrar of Deaths some extra business
It may be something in the air there is plenty in it or it may be something
in himself that is in fault but Mr Weevle otherwise Jobling is very ill at
ease He comes and goes between his own room and the open street door twenty
times an hour He has been doing so ever since it fell dark Since the
Chancellor shut up his shop which he did very early tonight Mr Weevle has
been down and up and down and up with a cheap tight velvet skullcap on his
head making his whiskers look out of all proportion oftener than before
It is no phenomenon that Mr Snagsby should be ill at ease too for he
always is so more or less under the oppressive influence of the secret that is
upon him Impelled by the mystery of which he is a partaker and yet in which
he is not a sharer Mr Snagsby haunts what seems to be its fountainhead the
rag and bottle shop in the court It has an irresistible attraction for him
Even now coming round by the Sols Arms with the intention of passing down the
court and out at the Chancery Lane end and so terminating his unpremeditated
aftersupper stroll of ten minutes long from his own door and back again Mr
Snagsby approaches
»What Mr Weevle« says the stationer stopping to speak »Are you there«
»Ay« says Weevle »Here I am Mr Snagsby«
»Airing yourself as I am doing before you go to bed« the stationer
inquires
»Why theres not much air to be got here and what there is is not very
freshening« Weevle answers glancing up and down the court
»Very true sir Dont you observe« says Mr Snagsby pausing to sniff and
taste the air a little »dont you observe Mr Weevle that youre not to put
too fine a point upon it that youre rather greasy here sir«
»Why I have noticed myself that there is a queer kind of flavour in the
place tonight« Mr Weevle rejoins »I suppose its chops at the Sols Arms«
»Chops do you think Oh Chops eh« Mr Snagsby sniffs and tastes again
»Well sir I suppose it is But I should say their cook at the Sol wanted a
little looking after She has been burning em sir And I dont think« Mr
Snagsby sniffs and tastes again and then spits and wipes his mouth »I dont
think not to put too fine a point upon it that they were quite fresh when
they were shown the gridiron«
»Thats very likely Its a tainting sort of weather«
»It is a tainting sort of weather« says Mr Snagsby »and I find it sinking
to the spirits«
»By George I find it gives me the horrors« returns Mr Weevle
»Then you see you live in a lonesome way and in a lonesome room with a
black circumstance hanging over it« says Mr Snagsby looking in past the
others shoulder along the dark passage and then falling back a step to look up
at the house »I couldnt live in that room alone as you do sir I should get
so fidgety and worried of an evening sometimes that I should be driven to come
to the door and stand here sooner than sit there But then its very true that
you didnt see in your room what I saw there That makes a difference«
»I know quite enough about it« returns Tony
»Its not agreeable is it« pursues Mr Snagsby coughing his cough of mild
persuasion behind his hand »Mr Krook ought to consider it in the rent I hope
he does I am sure«
»I hope he does« says Tony »But I doubt it«
»You find the rent too high do you sir« returns the stationer »Rents are
high about here I dont know how it is exactly but the law seems to put things
up in price Not« adds Mr Snagsby with his apologetic cough »that I mean to
say a word against the profession I get my living by«
Mr Weevle again glances up and down the court and then looks at the
stationer Mr Snagsby blankly catching his eye looks upward for a star or so
and coughs a cough expressive of not exactly seeing his way out of this
conversation
»Its a curious fact sir« he observes slowly rubbing his hands »that he
should have been «
»Whos he« interrupts Mr Weevle
»The deceased you know« says Mr Snagsby twitching his head and right
eyebrow towards the staircase and tapping his acquaintance on the button
»Ah to be sure« returns the other as if he were not overfond of the
subject »I thought we had done with him«
»I was only going to say its a curious fact sir that he should have come
and lived here and been one of my writers and then that you should come and
live here and be one of my writers too Which there is nothing derogatory but
far from it in the appellation« says Mr Snagsby breaking off with a mistrust
that he may have unpolitely asserted a kind of proprietorship in Mr Weevle
»because I have known writers that have gone into Brewers houses and done
really very respectable indeed Eminently respectable sir« adds Mr Snagsby
with a misgiving that he has not improved the matter
»Its a curious coincidence as you say« answers Weevle once more glancing
up and down the court
»Seems a Fate in it dont there« suggests the stationer
»There does«
»Just so« observes the stationer with his confirmatory cough »Quite a
Fate in it Quite a Fate Well Mr Weevle I am afraid I must bid you good
night« Mr Snagsby speaks as if it made him desolate to go though he has been
casting about for any means of escape ever since he stopped to speak »my little
woman will be looking for me else Good night sir«
If Mr Snagsby hastens home to save his little woman the trouble of looking
for him he might set his mind at rest on that score His little woman has had
her eye upon him round the Sols Arms all this time and now glides after him
with a pocket handkerchief wrapped over her head honouring Mr Weevle and his
doorway with a searching glance as she goes past
»Youll know me again maam at all events« says Mr Weevle to himself
»and I cant compliment you on your appearance whoever you are with your head
tied up in a bundle Is this fellow never coming«
This fellow approaches as he speaks Mr Weevle softly holds up his finger
and draws him into the passage and closes the street door Then they go
upstairs Mr Weevle heavily and Mr Guppy for it is he very lightly indeed
When they are shut into the back room they speak low
»I thought you had gone to Jericho at least instead of coming here« says
Tony
»Why I said about ten«
»You said about ten« Tony repeats »Yes so you did say about ten But
according to my count its ten times ten its a hundred oclock I never had
such a night in my life«
»What has been the matter«
»Thats it« says Tony »Nothing has been the matter But here have I been
stewing and fuming in this jolly old crib till I have had the horrors falling
on me as thick as hail Theres a blessedlooking candle« says Tony pointing
to the heavily burning taper on his table with a great cabbage head and a long
windingsheet
»Thats easily improved« Mr Guppy observes as he takes the snuffers in
hand
»Is it« returns his friend »Not so easily as you think It has been
smouldering like that ever since it was lighted«
»Why whats the matter with you Tony« inquires Mr Guppy looking at him
snuffers in hand as he sits down with his elbow on the table
»William Guppy« replies the other »I am in the Downs Its this unbearably
dull suicidal room and old Boguey downstairs I suppose« Mr Weevle moodily
pushes the snufferstray from him with his elbow leans his head on his hand
puts his feet on the fender and looks at the fire Mr Guppy observing him
slightly tosses his head and sits down on the other side of the table in an
easy attitude
»Wasnt that Snagsby talking to you Tony«
»Yes and he yes it was Snagsby« says Mr Weevle altering the
construction of his sentence
»On business«
»No No business He was only sauntering by and stopped to prose«
»I thought it was Snagsby« says Mr Guppy »and thought it as well that he
shouldnt see me so I waited till he was gone«
»There we go again William G« cries Tony looking up for an instant »So
mysterious and secret By George if we were going to commit a murder we
couldnt have more mystery about it«
Mr Guppy affects to smile and with the view of changing the conversation
looks with an admiration real or pretended round the room at the Galaxy
Gallery of British Beauty terminating his survey with the portrait of Lady
Dedlock over the mantelshelf in which she is represented on a terrace with a
pedestal upon the terrace and a vase upon the pedestal and her shawl upon the
vase and a prodigious piece of fur upon the shawl and her arm on the
prodigious piece of fur and a bracelet on her arm
»Thats very like Lady Dedlock« says Mr Guppy »Its a speaking likeness«
»I wish it was« growls Tony without changing his position »I should have
some fashionable conversation here then«
Finding by this time that his friend is not to be wheedled into a more
sociable humour Mr Guppy puts about upon the illused tack and remonstrates
with him
»Tony« says he »I can make allowances for lowness of spirits for no man
knows what it is when it does come upon a man better than I do and no man
perhaps has a better right to know it than a man who has an unrequited image
imprinted on his art But there are bounds to these things when an unoffending
party is in question and I will acknowledge to you Tony that I dont think
your manner on the present occasion is hospitable or quite gentlemanly«
»This is strong language William Guppy« returns Mr Weevle
»Sir it may be« retorts Mr William Guppy »but I feel strongly when I use
it«
Mr Weevle admits that he has been wrong and begs Mr William Guppy to
think no more about it Mr William Guppy however having got the advantage
cannot quite release it without a little more injured remonstrance
»No Dash it Tony« says that gentleman »you really ought to be careful
how you wound the feelings of a man who has an unrequited image imprinted on
his art and who is not altogether happy in those chords which vibrate to the
tenderest emotions You Tony possess in yourself all that is calculated to
charm the eye and allure the taste It is not happily for you perhaps and I
may wish that I could say the same it is not your character to hover around
one flower The ole garden is open to you and your airy pinions carry you
through it Still Tony far be it from me I am sure to wound even your
feelings without a cause«
Tony again entreats that the subject may be no longer pursued saying
emphatically »William Guppy drop it« Mr Guppy acquiesces with the reply »I
never should have taken it up Tony of my own accord«
»And now« says Tony stirring the fire »touching this same bundle of
letters Isnt it an extraordinary thing of Krook to have appointed twelve
oclock tonight to hand em over to me«
»Very What did he do it for«
»What does he do anything for He dont know Said today was his birthday
and hed hand em over tonight at twelve oclock Hell have drunk himself
blind by that time He has been at it all day«
»He hasnt forgotten the appointment I hope«
»Forgotten Trust him for that He never forgets anything I saw him
tonight about eight helped him to shut up his shop and he had got the
letters then in his hairy cap He pulled it off and showed em me When the
shop was closed he took them out of his cap hung his cap on the chairback
and stood turning them over before the fire I heard him a little while
afterwards through the floor here humming like the wind the only song he
knows about Bibo and old Charon and Bibo being drunk when he died or
something or other He has been as quiet since as an old rat asleep in his
hole«
»And you are to go down at twelve«
»At twelve And as I tell you when you came it seemed to me a hundred«
»Tony« says Mr Guppy after considering a little with his legs crossed
»he cant read yet can he«
»Read Hell never read He can make all the letters separately and he
knows most of them separately when he sees them he has got on that much under
me but he cant put them together Hes too old to acquire the knack of it now
and too drunk«
»Tony« says Mr Guppy uncrossing and recrossing his legs »how do you
suppose he spelt out that name of Hawdon«
»He never spelt it out You know what a curious power of eye he has and how
he has been used to employ himself in copying things by eye alone He imitated
it evidently from the direction of a letter and asked me what it meant«
»Tony« says Mr Guppy uncrossing and recrossing his legs again »should
you say that the original was a mans writing or a womans«
»A womans Fifty to one a ladys slopes a good deal and the end of the
letter n long and hasty«
Mr Guppy has been biting his thumbnail during this dialogue generally
changing the thumb when he has changed the cross leg As he is going to do so
again he happens to look at his coatsleeve It takes his attention He stares
at it aghast
»Why Tony what on earth is going on in this house tonight Is there a
chimney on fire«
»Chimney on fire«
»Ah« returns Mr Guppy »See how the soots falling See here on my arm
See again on the table here Confound the stuff it wont blow off smears
like black fat«
They look at one another, and Tony goes listening to the door and a little
way upstairs and a little way downstairs Comes back and says its all
right and all quiet and quotes the remark he lately made to Mr Snagsby about
their cooking chops at the Sols Arms
»And it was then« resumes Mr Guppy still glancing with remarkable
aversion at the coatsleeve as they pursue their conversation before the fire
leaning on opposite sides of the table with their heads very near together
»that he told you of his having taken the bundle of letters from his lodgers
portmanteau«
»That was the time sir« answers Tony faintly adjusting his whiskers
»Whereupon I wrote a line to my dear boy the Honourable William Guppy
informing him of the appointment for tonight and advising him not to call
before Boguey being a Slyboots«
The light vivacious tone of fashionable life which is usually assumed by Mr
Weevle sits so ill upon him tonight that he abandons that and his whiskers
together and after looking over his shoulder appears to yield himself up a
prey to the horrors again
»You are to bring the letters to your room to read and compare and to get
yourself into a position to tell him all about them Thats the arrangement
isnt it Tony« asks Mr Guppy anxiously biting his thumbnail
»You cant speak too low Yes Thats what he and I agreed«
»I tell you what Tony «
»You cant speak too low« says Tony once more Mr Guppy nods his sagacious
head advances it yet closer and drops into a whisper
»I tell you what The first thing to be done is to make another packet
like the real one so that if he should ask to see the real one while its in
my possession you can show him the dummy«
»And suppose he detects the dummy as soon as he sees it which with his
biting screw of an eye is about five hundred times more likely than not«
suggests Tony
»Then well face it out They dont belong to him and they never did You
found that and you placed them in my hands a legal friend of yours for
security If he forces us to it theyll be producible wont they«
»Yees« is Mr Weevles reluctant admission
»Why Tony« remonstrates his friend »how you look You dont doubt William
Guppy You dont suspect any harm«
»I dont suspect anything more than I know William« returns the other
gravely
»And what do you know« urges Mr Guppy raising his voice a little but on
his friends once more warning him »I tell you you cant speak too low« he
repeats his question without any sound at all forming with his lips only the
words »What do you know«
»I know three things First I know that here we are whispering in secrecy
a pair of conspirators«
»Well« says Mr Guppy »and we had better be that than a pair of noodles
which we should be if we were doing anything else for its the only way of
doing what we want to do Secondly«
»Secondly its not made out to me how its likely to be profitable after
all«
Mr Guppy casts up his eyes at the portrait of Lady Dedlock over the
mantelshelf and replies »Tony you are asked to leave that to the honour of
your friend Besides its being calculated to serve that friend in those chords
of the human mind which which need not be called into agonising vibration on
the present occasion your friend is no fool Whats that«
»Its eleven oclock striking by the bell of Saint Pauls Listen and
youll hear all the bells in the city jangling«
Both sit silent listening to the metal voices near and distant resounding
from towers of various heights in tones more various than their situations
When these at length cease all seems more mysterious and quiet than before One
disagreeable result of whispering is that it seems to evoke an atmosphere of
silence haunted by the ghosts of sound strange cracks and tickings the
rustling of garments that have no substance in them and the tread of dreadful
feet that would leave no mark on the seasand or the winter snow So sensitive
the two friends happen to be that the air is full of these phantoms and the
two look over their shoulders by one consent to see that the door is shut
»Yes Tony« says Mr Guppy drawing nearer to the fire and biting his
unsteady thumbnail »You were going to say thirdly«
»Its far from a pleasant thing to be plotting about a dead man in the room
where he died especially when you happen to live in it«
»But we are plotting nothing against him Tony«
»May be not still I dont like it Live here by yourself and see how you
like it«
»As to dead men Tony« proceeds Mr Guppy evading this proposal »there
have been dead men in most rooms«
»I know there have but in most rooms you let them alone and and they let
you alone« Tony answers
The two look at each other again Mr Guppy makes a hurried remark to the
effect that they may be doing the deceased a service that he hopes so There is
an oppressive blank until Mr Weevle by stirring the fire suddenly makes Mr
Guppy start as if his heart had been stirred instead
»Fah Heres more of this hateful soot hanging about« says he »Let us open
the window a bit and get a mouthful of air Its too close«
He raises the sash and they both rest on the windowsill half in and half
out of the room The neighbouring houses are too near to admit of their seeing
any sky without craning their necks and looking up but lights in frowsy windows
here and there and the rolling of distant carriages and the new expression
that there is of the stir of men they find to be comfortable Mr Guppy
noiselessly tapping on the windowsill resumes his whispering in quite a
lightcomedy tone
»Bythebye Tony dont forget old Smallweed« meaning the Younger of that
name »I have not let him into this you know That grandfather of his is too
keen by half It runs in the family«
»I remember« says Tony »I am up to all that«
»And as to Krook« resumes Mr Guppy »Now do you suppose he really has got
hold of any other papers of importance as he has boasted to you since you have
been such allies«
Tony shakes his head »I dont know Cant imagine If we get through this
business without rousing his suspicions I shall be better informed no doubt
How can I know without seeing them when he dont know himself He is always
spelling out words from them and chalking them over the table and the
shopwall and asking what this is and what that is but his whole stock from
beginning to end may easily be the waste paper he bought it as for anything I
can say Its a monomania with him to think he is possessed of documents He
has been going to learn to read them this last quarter of a century I should
judge from what he tells me«
»How did he first come by that idea though thats the question« Mr Guppy
suggests with one eye shut after a little forensic meditation »He may have
found papers in something he bought where papers were not supposed to be and
may have got it into his shrewd head from the manner and place of their
concealment that they are worth something«
»Or he may have been taken in in some pretended bargain Or he may have
been muddled altogether by long staring at whatever he has got and by drink
and by hanging about the Lord Chancellors Court and hearing of documents for
ever« returns Mr Weevle
Mr Guppy sitting on the windowsill nodding his head and balancing all
these possibilities in his mind continues thoughtfully to tap it and clasp it
and measure it with his hand until he hastily draws his hand away
»What in the Devils name« he says »is this Look at my fingers«
A thick yellow liquor defiles them which is offensive to the touch and
sight and more offensive to the smell A stagnant sickening oil with some
natural repulsion in it that makes them both shudder
»What have you been doing here What have you been pouring out of window«
»I pouring out of window Nothing I swear Never since I have been here«
cries the lodger
And yet look here and look here When he brings the candle here from the
corner of the windowsill it slowly drips and creeps away down the bricks
here lies in a little thick nauseous pool
»This is a horrible house« says Mr Guppy shutting down the window »Give
me some water or I shall cut my hand off«
He so washes and rubs and scrubs and smells and washes that he has not
long restored himself with a glass of brandy and stood silently before the
fire when Saint Pauls bell strikes twelve and all those other bells strike
twelve from their towers of various heights in the dark air and in their many
tones When all is quiet again the lodger says
»Its the appointed time at last Shall I go«
Mr Guppy nods and gives him a lucky touch on the back but not with the
washed hand though it is his right hand
He goes downstairs and Mr Guppy tries to compose himself before the
fire for waiting a long time But in no more than a minute or two the stairs
creak and Tony comes swiftly back
»Have you got them«
»Got them No The old mans not there«
He has been so horribly frightened in the short interval that his terror
seizes the other who makes a rush at him and asks loudly »Whats the matter«
»I couldnt make him hear and I softly opened the door and looked in And
the burning smell is there and the soot is there and the oil is there and
he is not there« Tony ends this with a groan
Mr Guppy takes the light They go down more dead than alive and holding
one another, push open the door of the back shop The cat has retreated close to
it and stands snarling not at them at something on the ground before the
fire There is a very little fire left in the grate but there is a smouldering
suffocating vapour in the room and a dark greasy coating on the walls and
ceiling The chairs and table and the bottle so rarely absent from the table
all stand as usual On one chairback hang the old mans hairy cap and coat
»Look« whispers the lodger pointing his friends attention to these
objects with a trembling finger »I told you so When I saw him last he took
his cap off took out the little bundle of old letters hung his cap on the back
of the chair his coat was there already for he had pulled that off before he
went to put the shutters up and I left him turning the letters over in his
hand standing just where that crumbled black thing is upon the floor«
Is he hanging somewhere They look up No
»See« whispers Tony »At the foot of the same chair there lies a dirty bit
of thin red cord that they tie up pens with That went round the letters He
undid it slowly leering and laughing at me before he began to turn them over
and threw it there I saw it fall«
»Whats the matter with the cat« says Mr Guppy »Look at her«
»Mad I think And no wonder in this evil place«
They advance slowly looking at all these things The cat remains where they
found her still snarling at the something on the ground before the fire and
between the two chairs What is it Hold up the light
Here is a small burnt patch of flooring here is the tinder from a little
bundle of burnt paper but not so light as usual seeming to be steeped in
something and here is is it the cinder of a small charred and broken log of
wood sprinkled with white ashes or is it coal O Horror he IS here and this
from which we run away striking out the light and overturning one another into
the street is all that represents him
Help help help come into this house for Heavens sake
Plenty will come in but none can help The Lord Chancellor of that Court
true to his title in his last act has died the death of all Lord Chancellors in
all Courts and of all authorities in all places under all names soever where
false pretences are made and where injustice is done Call the death by any
name Your Highness will attribute it to whom you will or say it might have
been prevented how you will it is the same death eternally inborn inbred
engendered in the corrupted humours of the vicious body itself, and that only
Spontaneous Combustion and none other of all the deaths that can be died
Chapter XXXIII
Interlopers
Now do those two gentlemen not very neat about the cuffs and buttons who
attended the last Coroners Inquest at the Sols Arms reappear in the precincts
with surprising swiftness being in fact breathlessly fetched by the active
and intelligent beadle and institute perquisitions through the court and dive
into the Sols parlour and write with ravenous little pens on tissuepaper Now
do they note down in the watches of the night how the neighbourhood of
Chancery Lane was yesterday at about midnight thrown into a state of the most
intense agitation and excitement by the following alarming and horrible
discovery Now do they set forth how it will doubtless be remembered that some
time back a painful sensation was created in the public mind by a case of
mysterious death from opium occurring in the first floor of the house occupied
as a rag bottle and general marine store shop by an eccentric individual of
intemperate habits far advanced in life named Krook and how by a remarkable
coincidence Krook was examined at the Inquest which it may be recollected was
held on that occasion at the Sols Arms a wellconducted tavern immediately
adjoining the premises in question on the west side and licensed to a highly
respectable landlord Mr James George Bogsby Now do they show in as many
words as possible how during some hours of yesterday evening a very peculiar
smell was observed by the inhabitants of the court in which the tragical
occurrence which forms the subject of that present account transpired and which
odour was at one time so powerful that Mr Swills a comic vocalist
professionally engaged by Mr JG Bogsby has himself stated to our reporter
that he mentioned to Miss M Melvilleson a lady of some pretensions to musical
ability likewise engaged by Mr JG Bogsby to sing at a series of concerts
called Harmonic Assemblies or Meetings which it would appear are held at the
Sols Arms under Mr Bogsbys direction pursuant to the Act of George the
Second that he Mr Swills found his voice seriously affected by the impure
state of the atmosphere his jocose expression at the time being that he was
like an empty postoffice for he hadnt a single note in him How this account
of Mr Swills is entirely corroborated by two intelligent married females
residing in the same court and known respectively by the names of Mrs Piper
and Mrs Perkins both of whom observed the foetid effluvia and regarded them
as being emitted from the premises in the occupation of Krook the unfortunate
deceased All this and a great deal more the two gentlemen who have formed an
amicable partnership in the melancholy catastrophe write down on the spot and
the boy population of the court out of bed in a moment swarm up the shutters
of the Sols Arms parlour to behold the tops of their heads while they are
about it
The whole court adult as well as boy is sleepless for that night and can
do nothing but wrap up its many heads and talk of the illfated house and look
at it Miss Flite has been bravely rescued from her chamber as if it were in
flames and accommodated with a bed at the Sols Arms The Sol neither turns off
its gas nor shuts its door all night for any kind of public excitement makes
good for the Sol and causes the court to stand in need of comfort The house
has not done so much in the stomachic article of cloves or in brandyandwater
warm since the Inquest The moment the potboy heard what had happened be
rolled up his shirtsleeves tight to his shoulders and said »Therell be a run
upon us« In the first outcry Young Piper dashed off for the fireengines and
returned in triumph at a jolting gallop perched up aloft on the Phoenix and
holding on to that fabulous creature with all his might in the midst of helmets
and torches One helmet remains behind after careful investigation of all
chinks and crannies and slowly paces up and down before the house in company
with one of the two policemen who have likewise been left in charge thereof To
this trio everybody in the court possessed of sixpence has an insatiate
desire to exhibit hospitality in a liquid form
Mr Weevle and his friend Mr Guppy are within the bar at the Sol and are
worth anything to the Sol that the bar contains if they will only stay there
»This is not a time« says Mr Bogsby »to haggle about money« though he looks
something sharply after it over the counter »give your orders you two
gentlemen and youre welcome to whatever you put a name to«
Thus entreated the two gentlemen Mr Weevle especially put names to so
many things that in course of time they find it difficult to put a name to
anything quite distinctly though they still relate to all new comers some
version of the night they have had of it and of what they said and what they
thought and what they saw Meanwhile one or other of the policemen often flits
about the door and pushing it open a little way at the full length of his arm
looks in from outer gloom Not that he has any suspicions but that he may as
well know what they are up to in there
Thus night pursues its leaden course finding the court still out of bed
through the unwonted hours still treating and being treated still conducting
itself similarly to a court that has had a little money left it unexpectedly
Thus night at length with slowretreating steps departs and the lamplighter
going his rounds like an executioner to a despotic king strikes off the little
heads of fire that have aspired to lessen the darkness Thus the day cometh
whether or no
And the day may discern even with its dim London eye that the court has
been up all night Over and above the faces that have fallen drowsily on tables
and the heels that lie prone on hard floors instead of beds the brick and
mortar physiognomy of the very court itself looks worn and jaded And now the
neighbourhood waking up and beginning to hear of what has happened comes
streaming in halfdressed to ask questions and the two policemen and the
helmet who are far less impressible externally than the court have enough to
do to keep the door
»Good gracious gentlemen« says Mr Snagsby coming up »Whats this I
hear«
»Why its true« returns one of the policemen »Thats what it is Now move
on here come«
»Why good gracious gentlemen« says Mr Snagsby somewhat promptly backed
away »I was at this door last night betwixt ten and eleven oclock in
conversation with the young man who lodges here«
»Indeed« returns the policeman »You will find the young man next door
then Now move on here some of you«
»Not hurt I hope« says Mr Snagsby
»Hurt No Whats to hurt him«
Mr Snagsby wholly unable to answer this or any question in his troubled
mind repairs to the Sols Arms and finds Mr Weevle languishing over tea and
toast with a considerable expression on him of exhausted excitement and
exhausted tobaccosmoke
»And Mr Guppy likewise« quoth Mr Snagsby »Dear dear dear What a fate
there seems in all this And my lit«
Mr Snagsbys power of speech deserts him in the formation of the words my
little woman For to see that injured female walk into the Sols Arms at that
hour of the morning and stand before the beerengine with her eyes fixed upon
him like an accusing spirit strikes him dumb
»My dear« says Mr Snagsby when his tongue is loosened »will you take
anything A little not to put too fine a point upon it drop of shrub«
»No« says Mrs Snagsby
»My love you know these two gentlemen«
»Yes« says Mrs Snagsby and in a rigid manner acknowledges their presence
still fixing Mr Snagsby with her eye
The devoted Mr Snagsby cannot bear this treatment He takes Mrs Snagsby by
the hand and leads her aside to an adjacent cask
»My little woman why do you look at me in that way Pray dont do it«
»I cant help my looks« says Mrs Snagsby »and if I could I wouldnt«
Mr Snagsby with his cough of meekness rejoins »Wouldnt you really my
dear« and meditates Then coughs his cough of trouble and says »This is a
dreadful mystery my love« still fearfully disconcerted by Mrs Snagsbys eye
»It is« returns Mrs Snagsby shaking her head »a dreadful mystery«
»My little woman« urges Mr Snagsby in a piteous manner »dont for
goodness sake speak to me with that bitter expression and look at me in that
searching way I beg and entreat of you not to do it Good Lord you dont
suppose that I would go spontaneously combusting any person my dear«
»I cant say« returns Mrs Snagsby
On a hasty review of his unfortunate position Mr Snagsby »cant say«
either He is not prepared positively to deny that he may have had something to
do with it He has had something he dont know what to do with so much in
this connexion that is mysterious that it is possible he may even be
implicated without knowing it in the present transaction He faintly wipes his
forehead with his handkerchief and gasps
»My life« says the unhappy stationer »would you have any objections to
mention why being in general so delicately circumspect in your conduct you
come into a Wine Vaults before breakfast«
»Why do you come here« inquires Mrs Snagsby
»My dear merely to know the rights of the fatal accident which has happened
to the venerable party who has been combusted« Mr Snagsby has made a pause
to suppress a groan »I should then have related them to you my love over your
French roll«
»I dare say you would You relate everything to me Mr Snagsby«
»Every my lit«
»I should be glad« says Mrs Snagsby after contemplating his increased
confusion with a severe and sinister smile »if you would come home with me I
think you may be safer there Mr Snagsby than anywhere else«
»My love I dont know but what I may be I am sure I am ready to go«
Mr Snagsby casts his eye forlornly round the bar gives Messrs Weevle and
Guppy good morning assures them of the satisfaction with which he sees them
uninjured and accompanies Mrs Snagsby from the Sols Arms Before night his
doubt whether he may not be responsible for some inconceivable part in the
catastrophe which is the talk of the whole neighbourhood is almost resolved
into certainty by Mrs Snagsbys pertinacity in that fixed gaze His mental
sufferings are so great that he entertains wandering ideas of delivering
himself up to justice and requiring to be cleared if innocent and punished
with the utmost rigour of the law if guilty
Mr Weevle and Mr Guppy having taken their breakfast step into Lincolns
Inn to take a little walk about the square and clear as many of the dark
cobwebs out of their brains as a little walk may
»There can be no more favourable time than the present Tony« says Mr
Guppy after they have broodingly made out the four sides of the square »for a
word or two between us upon a point on which we must with very little delay
come to an understanding«
»Now I tell you what William G« returns the other eyeing his companion
with a bloodshot eye »If its a point of conspiracy you neednt take the
trouble to mention it I have had enough of that and I aint going to have any
more We shall have you taking fire next or blowing up with a bang«
This supposititious phenomenon is so very disagreeable to Mr Guppy that his
voice quakes as he says in a moral way »Tony I should have thought that what
we went through last night would have been a lesson to you never to be personal
any more as long as you lived« To which Mr Weevle returns »William I should
have thought it would have been a lesson to you never to conspire any more as
long as you lived« To which Mr Guppy says »Whos conspiring« To which Mr
Jobling replies »Why you are« To which Mr Guppy retorts »No I am not« To
which Mr Jobling retorts again »Yes you are« To which Mr Guppy retorts
»Who says so« To which Mr Jobling retorts »I say so« To which Mr Guppy
retorts »Oh indeed« To which Mr Jobling retorts »Yes indeed« And both
being now in a heated state they walk on silently for a while to cool down
again
»Tony« says Mr Guppy then »if you heard your friend out instead of
flying at him you wouldnt fall into mistakes But your temper is hasty and
you are not considerate Possessing in yourself Tony all that is calculated to
charm the eye «
»Oh Blow the eye« cries Mr Weevle cutting him short »Say what you have
got to say«
Finding his friend in this morose and material condition Mr Guppy only
expresses the finer feelings of his soul through the tone of injury in which he
recommences
»Tony when I say there is a point on which we must come to an understanding
pretty soon I say so quite apart from any kind of conspiring however innocent
You know it is professionally arranged beforehand in all cases that are tried
what facts the witnesses are to prove Is it or is it not desirable that we
should know what facts we are to prove on the inquiry into the death of this
unfortunate old Mo gentleman« Mr Guppy was going to say Mogul but thinks
gentleman better suited to the circumstances
»What facts The facts«
»The facts bearing on that inquiry Those are « Mr Guppy tells them off on
his fingers »what we knew of his habits when you saw him last what his
condition was then the discovery that we made and how we made it«
»Yes« says Mr Weevle »Those are about the facts«
»We made the discovery in consequence of his having in his eccentric way
an appointment with you at twelve oclock at night when you were to explain
some writing to him as you had often done before on account of his not being
able to read I spending the evening with you was called down and so forth
The inquiry being only into the circumstances touching the death of the
deceased its not necessary to go beyond these facts I suppose youll agree«
»No« returns Mr Weevle »I suppose not«
»And this is not a conspiracy perhaps« says the injured Guppy
»No« returns his friend »if its nothing worse than this I withdraw the
observation«
»Now Tony« says Mr Guppy taking his arm again and walking him slowly
on »I should like to know in a friendly way whether you have yet thought over
the many advantages of your continuing to live at that place«
»What do you mean« says Tony stopping
»Whether you have yet thought over the many advantages of your continuing to
live at that place« repeats Mr Guppy walking him on again
»At what place That place« pointing in the direction of the rag and bottle
shop
Mr Guppy nods
»Why I wouldnt pass another night there for any consideration that you
could offer me« says Mr Weevle haggardly staring
»Do you mean it though Tony«
»Mean it Do I look as if I mean it I feel as if I do I know that« says
Mr Weevle with a very genuine shudder
»Then the possibility or probability for such it must be considered of
your never being disturbed in possession of those effects lately belonging to a
lone old man who seemed to have no relation in the world and the certainty of
your being able to find out what he really had got stored up there dont weigh
with you at all against last night Tony if I understand you« says Mr Guppy
biting his thumb with the appetite of vexation
»Certainly not Talk in that cool way of a fellows living there« cries Mr
Weevle indignantly »Go and live there yourself«
»O I Tony« says Mr Guppy soothing him »I have never lived there and
couldnt get a lodging there now whereas you have got one«
»You are welcome to it« rejoins his friend »and ugh you may make
yourself at home in it«
»Then you really and truly at this point« says Mr Guppy »give up the
whole thing if I understand you Tony«
»You never« returns Tony with a most convincing steadfastness »said a
truer word in all your life I do«
While they are so conversing a hackneycoach drives into the square on the
box of which vehicle a very tall hat makes itself manifest to the public Inside
the coach and consequently not so manifest to the multitude though
sufficiently so to the two friends for the coach stops almost at their feet
are the venerable Mr Smallweed and Mrs Smallweed accompanied by their
granddaughter Judy
An air of haste and excitement pervades the party and as the tall hat
surmounting Mr Smallweed the younger alights Mr Smallweed the elder pokes
his head out of window and bawls to Mr Guppy »How de do sir How de do«
»What do Chick and his family want here at this time of the morning I
wonder« says Mr Guppy nodding to his familiar
»My dear sir« cries Grandfather Smallweed »would you do me a favour Would
you and your friend be so very obleeging as to carry me into the publichouse in
the court while Bart and his sister bring their grandmother along Would you do
an old man that good turn sir«
Mr Guppy looks at his friend repeating inquiringly »the publichouse in
the court« And they prepare to bear the venerable burden to the Sols Arms
»Theres your fare« says the Patriarch to the coachman with a fierce grin
and shaking his incapable fist at him »Ask me for a penny more and Ill have
my lawful revenge upon you My dear young men be easy with me if you please
Allow me to catch you round the neck I wont squeeze you tighter than I can
help O Lord O dear me O my bones«
It is well that the Sol is not far off for Mr Weevle presents an
apoplectic appearance before half the distance is accomplished With no worse
aggravation of his symptoms however than the utterance of divers croaking
sounds expressive of obstructed respiration he fulfils his share of the
porterage and the benevolent old gentleman is deposited by his own desire in
the parlour of the Sols Arms
»O Lord« gasps Mr Smallweed looking about him breathless from an
armchair »O dear me O my bones and back O my aches and pains Sit down you
dancing prancing shambling scrambling pollparrot Sit down«
This little apostrophe to Mrs Smallweed is occasioned by a propensity on
the part of that unlucky old lady whenever she finds herself on her feet to
amble about and set to inanimate objects accompanying herself with a
chattering noise as in a witch dance A nervous affection has probably as much
to do with these demonstrations as any imbecile intention in the poor old
woman but on the present occasion they are so particularly lively in connexion
with the Windsor armchair fellow to that in which Mr Smallweed is seated
that she only quite desists when her grandchildren have held her down in it her
lord in the meanwhile bestowing upon her with great volubility the endearing
epithet of a pigheaded Jackdaw repeated a surprising number of times
»My dear sir« Grandfather Smallweed then proceeds addressing Mr Guppy
»there has been a calamity here Have you heard of it either of you«
»Heard of it sir Why we discovered it«
»You discovered it You two discovered it Bart they discovered it«
The two discoverers stare at the Smallweeds who return the compliment
»My dear friends« whines Grandfather Smallweed putting out both his hands
»I owe you a thousand thanks for discharging the melancholy office of
discovering the ashes of Mrs Smallweeds brother«
»Eh« says Mr Guppy
»Mrs Smallweeds brother my dear friend her only relation We were not
on terms which is to be deplored now but he never would be on terms He was
not fond of us He was eccentric he was very eccentric Unless he has left a
will which is not at all likely I shall take out letters of administration I
have come down to look after the property it must be sealed up it must be
protected I have come down« repeats Grandfather Smallweed hooking the air
towards him with all his ten fingers at once »to look after the property«
»I think Small« says the disconsolate Mr Guppy »you might have mentioned
that the old man was your uncle«
»You two were so close about him that I thought you would like me to be the
same« returns that old bird with a secretly glistening eye »Besides I wasnt
proud of him«
»Besides which it was nothing to you you know whether he was or not«
says Judy Also with a secretly glistening eye
»He never saw me in his life to know me« observed Small »I dont know why
I should introduce him I am sure«
»No he never communicated with us which is to be deplored« the old
gentleman strikes in »but I have come to look after the property to look over
the papers and to look after the property We shall make good our title It is
in the hands of my solicitor Mr Tulkinghorn of Lincolns Inn Fields over the
way there is so good as to act as my solicitor and grass dont grow under his
feet I can tell ye Krook was Mrs Smallweeds only brother she had no
relation but Krook and Krook had no relation but Mrs Smallweed I am speaking
of your brother you brimstone blackbeetle that was seventysix years of age«
Mrs Smallweed instantly begins to shake her head and pipe up »Seventysix
pound seven and sevenpence Seventysix thousand bags of money Seventysix
hundred thousand million of parcels of banknotes«
»Will somebody give me a quart pot« exclaims her exasperated husband
looking helplessly about him and finding no missile within his reach »Will
somebody obleege me with a spittoon Will somebody hand me anything hard and
bruising to pelt at her You hag you cat you dog you brimstone barker« Here
Mr Smallweed wrought up to the highest pitch by his own eloquence actually
throws Judy at her grandmother in default of anything else by butting that
young virgin at the old lady with such force as he can muster and then dropping
into his chair in a heap
»Shake me up somebody if youll be so good« says the voice from within
the faintly struggling bundle into which he has collapsed »I have come to look
after the property Shake me up and call in the police on duty at the next
house to be explained to about the property My solicitor will be here
presently to protect the property Transportation or the gallows for anybody who
shall touch the property« As his dutiful grandchildren set him up panting and
putting him through the usual restorative process of shaking and punching he
still repeats like an echo »the the property The property property«
Mr Weevle and Mr Guppy look at each other the former as having
relinquished the whole affair the latter with a discomfited countenance as
having entertained some lingering expectations yet But there is nothing to be
done in opposition to the Smallweed interest Mr Tulkinghorns clerk comes down
from his official pew in the chambers to mention to the police that Mr
Tulkinghorn is answerable for its being all correct about the next of kin and
that the papers and effects will be formally taken possession of in due time and
course Mr Smallweed is at once permitted so far to assert his supremacy as to
be carried on a visit of sentiment into the next house and upstairs into Miss
Flites deserted room where he looks like a hideous bird of prey newly added to
her aviary
The arrival of this unexpected heir soon taking wind in the court still
makes good for the Sol and keeps the court upon its mettle Mrs Piper and Mrs
Perkins think it hard upon the young man if there really is no will and
consider that a handsome present ought to be made him out of the estate Young
Piper and Young Perkins as members of that restless juvenile circle which is
the terror of the footpassengers in Chancery Lane crumble into ashes behind
the pump and under the archway all day long where wild yells and hootings take
place over their remains Little Swills and Miss M Melvilleson enter into
affable conversation with their patrons feeling that these unusual occurrences
level the barriers between professionals and nonprofessionals Mr Bogsby puts
up »The popular song of KING DEATH with chorus by the whole strength of the
company« as the great Harmonic feature of the week and announces in the bill
that »JGB. is induced to do so at a considerable extra expense in consequence
of a wish which has been very generally expressed at the bar by a large body of
respectable individuals and in homage to a late melancholy event which has
aroused so much sensation« There is one point connected with the deceased upon
which the court is particularly anxious namely that the fiction of a
fullsized coffin should be preserved though there is so little to put in it
Upon the undertakers stating in the Sols bar in the course of the day that he
has received orders to construct a sixfooter the general solicitude is much
relieved and it is considered that Mr Smallweeds conduct does him great
honour
Out of the court and a long way out of it there is considerable excitement
too for men of science and philosophy come to look and carriages set down
doctors at the corner who arrive with the same intent and there is more learned
talk about inflammable gases and phosphuretted hydrogen than the court has ever
imagined Some of these authorities of course the wisest hold with indignation
that the deceased had no business to die in the alleged manner and being
reminded by other authorities of a certain inquiry into the evidence for such
deaths reprinted in the sixth volume of the Philosophical Transactions and
also of a book not quite unknown on English Medical Jurisprudence and likewise
of the Italian case of the Countess Cornelia Baudi as set forth in detail by one
Bianchini prebendary of Verona who wrote a scholarly work or so and was
occasionally heard of in his time as having gleams of reason in him and also of
the testimony of Messrs Foderé and Mere two pestilent Frenchmen who would
investigate the subject and further of the corroborative testimony of Monsieur
Le Cat a rather celebrated French surgeon once upon a time who had the
unpoliteness to live in a house where such a case occurred and even to write an
account of it still they regard the late Mr Krooks obstinacy in going out
of the world by any such byway as wholly unjustifiable and personally
offensive The less the court understands of all this the more the court likes
it and the greater enjoyment it has in the stock in trade of the Sols Arms
Then there comes the artist of a picture newspaper with a foreground and
figures ready drawn for anything from a wreck on the Cornish coast to a review
in Hyde Park or a meeting in Manchester and in Mrs Perkinss own room
memorable evermore he then and there throws in upon the block Mr Krooks
house as large as life in fact considerably larger making a very Temple of
it Similarly being permitted to look in at the door of the fatal chamber he
depicts that apartment as threequarters of a mile long by fifty yards high at
which the court is particularly charmed All this time the two gentlemen before
mentioned pop in and out of every house and assist at the philosophical
disputations go everywhere and listen to everybody and yet are always
diving into the Sols parlour and writing with the ravenous little pens on the
tissuepaper
At last come the Coroner and his inquiry like as before except that the
Coroner cherishes this case as being out of the common way and tells the
gentlemen of the Jury in his private capacity that »that would seem to be an
unlucky house next door gentlemen a destined house but so we sometimes find
it and these are mysteries we cant account for« After which the sixfooter
comes into action and is much admired
In all these proceedings Mr Guppy has so slight a part expect when he
gives his evidence that he is moved on like a private individual and can only
haunt the secret house on the outside where he has the mortification of seeing
Mr Smallweed padlocking the door and of bitterly knowing himself to be shut
out But before these proceedings draw to a close that is to say on the night
next after the catastrophe Mr Guppy has a thing to say that must be said to
Lady Dedlock
For which reason with a sinking heart and with that hangdog sense of guilt
upon him which dread and watching enfolded in the Sols Arms have produced
the young man of the name of Guppy presents himself at the town mansion at about
seven oclock in the evening and requests to see her ladyship Mercury replies
that she is going but to dinner dont he see the carriage at the door Yes he
does see the carriage at the door but he wants to see my Lady too
Mercury is disposed as he will presently declare to a fellowgentleman in
waiting to pitch into the young man but his instructions are positive
Therefore he sulkily supposes that the young man must come up into the library
There he leaves the young man in a large room not overlight while he makes
report of him
Mr Guppy looks into the shade in all directions discovering everywhere a
certain charred and whitened little heap of coal or wood Presently he hears a
rustling Is it No its no ghost but fair flesh and blood most brilliantly
dressed
»I have to beg your ladyships pardon« Mr Guppy stammers very downcast
»This is an inconvenient time «
»I told you you could come at any time« She takes a chair looking
straight at him as on the last occasion
»Thank your ladyship Your ladyship is very affable«
»You can sit down« There is not much affability in her tone
»I dont know your ladyship that its worth while my sitting down and
detaining you for I I have not got the letters that I mentioned when I had
the honour of waiting on your ladyship«
»Have you come merely to say so«
»Merely to say so your ladyship« Mr Guppy besides being depressed
disappointed and uneasy is put at a further disadvantage by the splendour and
beauty of her appearance She knows its influence perfectly has studied it too
well to miss a grain of its effect on any one As she looks at him so steadily
and coldly he not only feels conscious that he has no guide in the least
perception of what is really the complexion of her thoughts but also that he is
being every moment as it were removed further and further from her
She will not speak it is plain So he must
»In short your ladyship« says Mr Guppy like a meanly penitent thief
»the person I was to have had the letters of has come to a sudden end and «
He stops Lady Dedlock calmly finishes the sentence
»And the letters are destroyed with the person«
Mr Guppy would say no if he could as he is unable to hide
»I believe so your ladyship«
If he could see the least sparkle of relief in her face now No he could
see no such thing even if that brave outside did not utterly put him away and
he were not looking beyond it and about it
He falters an awkward excuse or two for his failure
»Is this all you have to say« inquires Lady Dedlock having heard him out
or as nearly out as he can stumble
Mr Guppy thinks thats all
»You had better be sure that you wish to say nothing more to me this being
the last time you will have the opportunity«
Mr Guppy is quite sure And indeed he has no such wish at present by any
means
»That is enough I will dispense with excuses Good evening to you« and she
rings for Mercury to show the young man of the name of Guppy out
But in that house in that same moment there happens to be an old man of
the name of Tulkinghorn And that old man coming with his quiet footstep to the
library has his hand at that moment on the handle of the door comes in and
comes face to face with the young man as he is leaving the room
One glance between the old man and the lady and for an instant the blind
that is always down flies up Suspicion eager and sharp looks out Another
instant close again
»I beg your pardon Lady Dedlock I beg your pardon a thousand times It is
so very unusual to find you here at this hour I supposed the room was empty I
beg your pardon«
»Stay« She negligently calls him back »Remain here I beg I am going out
to dinner I have nothing more to say to this young man«
The disconcerted young man bows as he goes out and cringingly hopes that
Mr Tulkinghorn of the Fields is well
»Aye aye« says the lawyer looking at him from under his bent brows
though he has no need to look again not he »From Kenge and Carboys surely«
»Kenge and Carboys Mr Tulkinghorn Name of Guppy sir«
»To be sure Why thank you Mr Guppy I am very well«
»Happy to hear it sir You cant be too well sir for the credit of the
profession«
»Thank you Mr Guppy«
Mr Guppy sneaks away Mr Tulkinghorn such a foil in his oldfashioned
rusty black to Lady Dedlocks brightness hands her down the staircase to her
carriage He returns rubbing his chin and rubs it a good deal in the course of
the evening
Chapter XXXIV
A Turn of the Screw
»Now what« says Mr George »may this be Is it blank cartridge or ball A
flash in the pan or a shot«
An open letter is the subject of the troopers speculations and it seems to
perplex him mightily He looks at it at arms length brings it close to him
holds it in his right hand holds it in his left hand reads it with his head on
this side with his head on that side contracts his eyebrows elevates them
still cannot satisfy himself He smooths it out upon the table with his heavy
palm and thoughtfully walking up and down the gallery makes a halt before it
every now and then to come upon it with a fresh eye Even that wont do »Is
it« Mr George still muses »blank cartridge or ball«
Phil Squod with the aid of a brush and paintpot is employed in the
distance whitening the targets softly whistling in quickmarchtime and in
drumandfife manner that he must and will go back again to the girl he left
behind him
»Phil« The trooper beckons as he calls him
Phil approaches in his usual way sidling off at first as if he were going
anywhere else and then bearing down upon his commander like a bayonetcharge
Certain splashes of white show in high relief upon his dirty face and he
scrapes his one eyebrow with the handle of the brush
»Attention Phil Listen to this«
»Steady commander steady«
»Sir Allow me to remind you though there is no legal necessity for my
doing so as you are aware that the bill at two months date drawn on yourself
by Mr Matthew Bagnet and by you accepted for the sum of ninetyseven pounds
four shillings and ninepence will become due tomorrow when you will please
be prepared to take up the same on presentation Yours JOSHUA SMALLWEED What
do you make of that Phil«
»Mischief guvner«
»Why«
»I think« replies Phil after pensively tracing out a crosswrinkle in his
forehead with the brushhandle »that mischeevious consequences is always meant
when moneys asked for«
»Lookye Phil« says the trooper sitting on the table »First and last I
have paid I may say half as much again as this principal in interest and one
thing and another«
Phil intimates by sidling back a pace or two with a very unaccountable
wrench of his wry face that he does not regard the transaction as being made
more promising by this incident
»And lookye further Phil« says the trooper staying his premature
conclusions with a wave of his hand »There has always been an understanding
that this bill was to be what they call Renewed And it has been renewed no end
of times What do you say now«
»I say that I think the times is come to a end at last«
»You do Humph I am much of the same mind myself«
»Joshua Smallweed is him that was brought here in a chair«
»The same«
»Guvner« says Phil with exceeding gravity »hes a leech in his
dispositions hes a screw and a wice in his actions a snake in his twistings
and a lobster in his claws«
Having thus expressively uttered his sentiments Mr Squod after waiting a
little to ascertain if any further remark be expected of him gets back by his
usual series of movements to the target he has in hand and vigorously
signifies through his former musical medium that he must and he will return to
that ideal young lady George having folded the letter walks in that direction
»There is a way commander« says Phil looking cunningly at him »of
settling this«
»Paying the money I suppose I wish I could«
Phil shakes his head »No guvner no not so bad as that There is a way«
says Phil with a highly artistic turn of his brush »what Im adoing at
present«
»Whitewashing«
Phil nods
»A pretty way that would be Do you know what would become of the Bagnets in
that case Do you know they would be ruined to pay off my old scores Youre a
moral character« says the trooper eyeing him in his large way with no small
indignation »upon my life you are Phil«
Phil on one knee at the target is in course of protesting earnestly
though not without many allegorical scoops of his brush and smoothings of the
white surface round the rim with his thumb that he had forgotten the Bagnet
responsibility and would not so much as injure a hair of the head of any member
of that worthy family when steps are audible in the long passage without and a
cheerful voice is heard to wonder whether George is at home Phil with a look
at his master hobbles up saying »Heres the guvner Mrs Bagnet Here he
is« and the old girl herself accompanied by Mr Bagnet appears
The old girl never appears in walking trim in any season of the year
without a grey cloth cloak coarse and much worn but very clean which is
undoubtedly the identical garment rendered so interesting to Mr Bagnet by
having made its way home to Europe from another quarter of the globe in company
with Mrs Bagnet and an umbrella The latter faithful appendage is also
invariably a part of the old girls presence out of doors It is of no colour
known in this life and has a corrugated wooden crook for a handle with a
metallic object let into its prow or beak resembling a little model of a
fanlight over a street door or one of the oval glasses out of a pair of
spectacles which ornamental object has not that tenacious capacity of sticking
to its post that might be desired in an article long associated with the British
army The old girls umbrella is of a flabby habit of waist and seems to be in
need of stays an appearance that is possibly referable to its having served
through a series of years at home as a cupboard and on journeys as a carpet
bag She never puts it up having the greatest reliance on her wellproved cloak
with its capacious hood but generally uses the instrument as a wand with which
to point out joints of meat or bunches of greens in marketing or to arrest the
attention of tradesmen by a friendly poke Without her market which is a sort
of wicker well with two flapping lids she never stirs abroad Attended by these
her trusty companions therefore her honest sunburnt face looking cheerily out
of a rough straw bonnet Mrs Bagnet now arrives freshcoloured and bright in
Georges Shooting Gallery
»Well George old fellow« says she »and how do you do this sunshiny
morning«
Giving him a friendly shake of the hand Mrs Bagnet draws a long breath
after her walk and sits down to enjoy a rest Having a faculty matured on the
tops of baggagewaggons and in other such positions of resting easily
anywhere she perches on a rough bench unties her bonnetstrings pushes back
her bonnet crosses her arms and looks perfectly comfortable
Mr Bagnet in the meantime has shaken hands with his old comrade and with
Phil on whom Mrs Bagnet likewise bestows a goodhumoured nod and smile
»Now George« said Mrs Bagnet briskly »here we are Lignum and myself«
she often speaks of her husband by this appellation on account as it is
supposed of Lignum Vitæ having been his old regimental nickname when they first
became acquainted in compliment to the extreme hardness and toughness of his
physiognomy »just looked in we have to make it all correct as usual about
that security Give him the new bill to sign George and hell sign it like a
man«
»I was coming to you this morning« observes the trooper reluctantly
»Yes we thought youd come to us this morning but we turned out early and
left Woolwich the best of boys to mind his sisters and came to you instead
as you see For Lignum hes tied so close now and gets so little exercise
that a walk does him good But whats the matter George« asks Mrs Bagnet
stopping in her cheerful talk »You dont look yourself«
»I am not quite myself« returns the trooper »I have been a little put out
Mrs Bagnet«
Her bright quick eye catches the truth directly »George« holding up her
forefinger »Dont tell me theres anything wrong about that security of
Lignums Dont do it George on account of the children«
The trooper looks at her with a troubled visage
»George« says Mrs Bagnet using both her arms for emphasis and
occasionally bringing down her open hands upon her knees »If you have allowed
anything wrong to come to that security of Lignums and if you have let him in
for it and if you have put us in danger of being sold up and I see sold up in
your face George as plain as print you have done a shameful action and have
deceived us cruelly I tell you cruelly George There«
Mr Bagnet otherwise as immovable as a pump or a lamppost puts his large
right hand on the top of his bald head as if to defend it from a showerbath
and looks with great uneasiness at Mrs Bagnet
»George« says that old girl »I wonder at you George I am ashamed of you
George I couldnt have believed you would have done it I always knew you to be
a rolling stone that gathered no moss but I never thought you would have taken
away what little moss there was for Bagnet and the children to lie upon You
know what a hardworking steadygoing chap he is You know what Quebec and
Malta and Woolwich are and I never did think you would or could have had the
heart to serve us so O George« Mrs Bagnet gathers up her cloak to wipe her
eyes on in a very genuine manner »How could you do it«
Mrs Bagnet ceasing Mr Bagnet removes his hand from his head as if the
showerbath were over and looks disconsolately at Mr George who has turned
quite white and looks distressfully at the grey cloak and straw bonnet
»Mat« says the trooper in a subdued voice addressing him but still
looking at his wife »I am sorry you take it so much to heart because I do hope
its not so bad as that comes to I certainly have this morning received this
letter« which he reads aloud »but I hope it may be set right yet As to a
rolling stone why what you say is true I am a rolling stone and I never
rolled in anybodys way I fully believe that I rolled the least good to But
its impossible for an old vagabond comrade to like your wife and family better
than I like em Mat and I trust youll look upon me as forgivingly as you can
Dont think Ive kept anything from you I havent had the letter more than a
quarter of an hour«
»Old girl« murmurs Mr Bagnet after a short silence »will you tell him my
opinion«
»Oh Why didnt he marry« Mrs Bagnet answers half laughing and half
crying »Joe Pouchs widder in North America Then he wouldnt have got himself
into these troubles«
»The old girl« says Mr Bagnet »puts it correct why didnt you«
»Well she has a better husband by this time I hope« returns the trooper
»Anyhow here I stand this present day not married to Joe Pouchs widder What
shall I do You see all I have got about me Its not mine its yours Give the
word and Ill sell off every morsel If I could have hoped it would have
brought in nearly the sum wanted Id have sold all long ago Dont believe that
Ill leave you or yours in the lurch Mat Id sell myself first I only wish«
says the trooper giving himself a disparaging blow in the chest »that I knew
of any one whod buy such a secondhand piece of old stores«
»Old girl« murmurs Mr Bagnet »give him another bit of my mind«
»George« says the old girl »you are not so much to be blamed on full
consideration except for ever taking this business without the means«
»And that was like me« observes the penitent trooper shaking his head
»Like me I know«
»Silence The old girl« says Mr Bagnet »is correct in her way of giving
my opinions hear me out«
»That was when you never ought to have asked for the security George and
when you never ought to have got it all things considered But whats done
cant be undone You are always an honourable and straightforward fellow as far
as lays in your power though a little flighty On the other hand you cant
admit but what its natural in us to be anxious with such a thing hanging over
our heads So forget and forgive all round George Come Forget and forgive all
round«
Mrs Bagnet giving him one of her honest hands and giving her husband the
other Mr George gives each of them one of his and holds them while he speaks
»I do assure you both theres nothing I wouldnt do to discharge this
obligation But whatever I have been able to scrape together has gone every two
months in keeping it up We have lived plainly enough here Phil and I But the
Gallery dont quite do what was expected of it and its not in short its
not the Mint It was wrong in me to take it Well so it was But I was in a
manner drawn into that step and I thought it might steady me and set me up
and youll try to overlook my having such expectations and upon my soul I am
very much obliged to you and very much ashamed of myself« With these
concluding words Mr George gives a shake to each of the hands he holds and
relinquishing them backs a pace or two in a broadchested upright attitude as
if he had made a final confession and were immediately going to be shot with
all military honours
»George hear me out« says Mr Bagnet glancing at his wife »Old girl go
on«
Mr Bagnet being in this singular manner heard out has merely to observe
that the letter must be attended to without any delay that it is advisable that
George and he should immediately wait on Mr Smallweed in person and that the
primary object is to save and hold harmless Mr Bagnet who had none of the
money Mr George entirely assenting puts on his hat and prepares to march
with Mr Bagnet to the enemys camp
»Dont you mind a womans hasty word George« says Mrs Bagnet patting him
on the shoulder »I trust my old Lignum to you and I am sure youll bring him
through it«
The trooper returns that this is kindly said and that he will bring Lignum
through it somehow Upon which Mrs Bagnet with her cloak basket and
umbrella goes home brighteyed again to the rest of her family and the
comrades sally forth on the hopeful errand of mollifying Mr Smallweed
Whether there are two people in England less likely to come satisfactorily
out of any negotiation with Mr Smallweed than Mr George and Mr Matthew
Bagnet may be very reasonably questioned Also notwithstanding their martial
appearance broad square shoulders and heavy tread whether there are within
the same limits two more simple and unaccustomed children in all the
Smallweedy affairs of life As they proceed with great gravity through the
streets towards the region of Mount Pleasant Mr Bagnet observing his
companion to be thoughtful considers it a friendly part to refer to Mrs
Bagnets late sally
»George you know the old girl shes as sweet and as mild as milk But
touch her on the children or myself and shes off like gunpowder«
»It does her credit Mat«
»George« says Mr Bagnet looking straight before him »the old girl
cant do anything that dont do her credit More or less I never say so
Discipline must be maintained«
»Shes worth her weight in gold« says the trooper
»In gold« says Mr Bagnet »Ill tell you what The old girls weight is
twelve stone six Would I take that weight in any metal for the old girl
No Why not Because the old girls metal is far more precious than the
preciousest metal And shes all metal«
»You are right Mat«
»When she took me and accepted of the ring she listed under me and the
children heart and head for life Shes that earnest« says Mr Bagnet »and
true to her colours that touch us with a finger and she turns out and
stands to her arms If the old girl fires wide once in a way at the call of
duty look over it George For shes loyal«
»Why bless her Mat« returns the trooper »I think the higher of her for
it«
»You are right« says Mr Bagnet with the warmest enthusiasm though without
relaxing the rigidity of a single muscle »Think as high of the old girl as
the rock of Gibraltar and still youll be thinking low of such merits But I
never own to it before her Discipline must be maintained«
These encomiums bring them to Mount Pleasant and to Grandfather Smallweeds
house The door is opened by the perennial Judy who having surveyed them from
top to toe with no particular favour but indeed with a malignant sneer leaves
them standing there while she consults the oracle as to their admission The
oracle may be inferred to give consent from the circumstance of her returning
with the words on her honey lips that they can come in if they want to it Thus
privileged they come in and find Mr Smallweed with his feet in the drawer of
his chair as if it were a paper footbath and Mrs Smallweed obscured with the
cushion like a bird that is not to sing
»My dear friend« says Grandfather Smallweed with those two lean
affectionate arms of his stretched forth »How de do How de do Who is our
friend my dear friend«
»Why this« returns George not able to be very conciliatory at first »is
Matthew Bagnet who has obliged me in that matter of ours you know«
»Oh Mr Bagnet Surely« The old man looks at him under his hand
»Hope youre well Mr Bagnet Fine man Mr George Military air sir«
No chairs being offered Mr George brings one forward for Bagnet and one
for himself They sit down Mr Bagnet as if he had no power of bending himself
except at the hips for that purpose
»Judy« says Mr Smallweed »bring the pipe«
»Why I dont know« Mr George interposes »that the young woman need give
herself that trouble for to tell you the truth I am not inclined to smoke it
today«
»Aint you« returns the old man »Judy bring the pipe«
»The fact is Mr Smallweed« proceeds George »that I find myself in rather
an unpleasant state of mind It appears to me sir that your friend in the city
has been playing tricks«
»O dear no« says Grandfather Smallweed »He never does that«
»Dont he Well I am glad to hear it because I thought it might be his
doing This you know I am speaking of This letter«
Grandfather Smallweed smiles in a very ugly way in recognition of the
letter
»What does it mean« asks Mr George
»Judy« says the old man »Have you got the pipe Give it to me Did you say
what does it mean my good friend«
»Aye Now come come you know Mr Smallweed« urges the trooper
constraining himself to speak as smoothly and confidentially as he can holding
the open letter in one hand and resting the broad knuckles of the other on his
thigh »a good lot of money has passed between us and we are face to face at
the present moment and are both well aware of the understanding there has
always been I am prepared to do the usual thing which I have done regularly
and to keep this matter going I never got a letter like this from you before
and I have been a little put about by it this morning because heres my friend
Matthew Bagnet who you know had none of the money «
»I dont know it you know« says the old man quietly
»Why confound you it I mean I tell you so dont I«
»Oh yes you tell me so« returns Grandfather Smallweed »But I dont know
it«
»Well« says the trooper swallowing his fire »I know it«
Mr Smallweed replies with excellent temper »Ah thats quite another
thing« And adds »but it dont matter Mr Bagnets situation is all one
whether or no«
The unfortunate George makes a great effort to arrange the affair
comfortably and to propitiate Mr Smallweed by taking him upon his own terms
»Thats just what I mean As you say Mr Smallweed heres Matthew Bagnet
liable to be fixed whether or no Now you see that makes his good lady very
uneasy in her mind and me too for whereas Im a harumscarum sort of a
goodfornought that more kicks than halfpence come natural to why hes a
steady family man dont you see Now Mr Smallweed« says the trooper gaining
confidence as he proceeds in his soldierly mode of doing business »although you
and I are good friends enough in a certain sort of a way I am well aware that I
cant ask you to let my friend Bagnet off entirely«
»O dear you are too modest You can ask me anything Mr George« There is
an Ogreish kind of jocularity in Grandfather Smallweed today
»And you can refuse you mean eh Or not you so much perhaps as your
friend in the city Ha ha ha«
»Ha ha ha« echoes Grandfather Smallweed In such a very hard manner and
with eyes so particularly green that Mr Bagnets natural gravity is much
deepened by the contemplation of that venerable man
»Come« says the sanguine George »I am glad to find we can be pleasant
because I want to arrange this pleasantly Heres my friend Bagnet and here am
I Well settle the matter on the spot if you please Mr Smallweed in the
usual way And youll ease my friend Bagnets mind and his familys mind a
good deal if youll just mention to him what our understanding is«
Here some shrill spectre cries out in a mocking manner »O good gracious
O« unless indeed it be the sportive Judy who is found to be silent when
the startled visitors look round but whose chin has received a recent toss
expressive of derision and contempt Mr Bagnets gravity becomes yet more
profound
»But I think you asked me Mr George« old Smallweed who all this time has
had the pipe in his hand is the speaker now »I think you asked me what did
the letter mean«
»Why yes I did« returns the trooper in his offhand way »but I dont
care to know particularly if its all correct and pleasant«
Mr Smallweed purposely balking himself in an aim at the troopers head
throws the pipe on the ground and breaks it to pieces
»Thats what it means my dear friend Ill smash you Ill crumble you
Ill powder you Go to the devil«
The two friends rise and look at one another. Mr Bagnets gravity has now
attained its profoundest point
»Go to the devil« repeats the old man »Ill have no more of your
pipesmokings and swaggerings What Youre an independent dragoon too Go to
my lawyer you remember where you have been there before and show your
independence now will you Come my dear friend theres a chance for you Open
the street door Judy put these blusterers out Call in help if they dont go
Put em out«
He vociferates this so loudly that Mr Bagnet laying his hands on the
shoulders of his comrade before the latter can recover from his amazement gets
him on the outside of the street door which is instantly slammed by the
triumphant Judy Utterly confounded Mr George awhile stands looking at the
knocker Mr Bagnet in a perfect abyss of gravity walks up and down before the
little parlour window like a sentry and looks in every time he passes
apparently revolving something in his mind
»Come Mat« says Mr George when he has recovered himself »we must try
the lawyer Now what do you think of this rascal«
Mr Bagnet stopping to take a farewell look into the parlour replies with
one shake of his head directed at the interior »If my old girl had been here
Id have told him« Having so discharged himself of the subject of his
cogitations he falls into step and marches off with the trooper shoulder to
shoulder
When they present themselves in Lincolns Inn Fields Mr Tulkinghorn is
engaged and not to be seen He is not at all willing to see them for when they
have waited a full hour and the clerk on his bell being rung takes the
opportunity of mentioning as much he brings forth no more encouraging message
than that Mr Tulkinghorn has nothing to say to them and they had better not
wait They do wait however with the perseverance of military tactics and at
last the bell rings again and the client in possession comes out of Mr
Tulkinghorns room
The client is a handsome old lady no other than Mrs Rouncewell
housekeeper at Chesney Wold She comes out of the sanctuary with a fair
oldfashioned curtsey and softly shuts the door She is treated with some
distinction there for the clerk steps out of his pew to show her through the
outer office and to let her out The old lady is thanking him for his
attention when she observes the comrades in waiting
»I beg your pardon sir but I think those gentlemen are military«
The clerk referring the question to them with his eye and Mr George not
turning round from the almanack over the fireplace Mr Bagnet takes upon
himself to reply »Yes maam Formerly«
»I thought so I was sure of it My heart warms gentlemen at the sight of
you It always does at the sight of such God bless you gentlemen Youll
excuse an old woman but I had a son once who went for a soldier A fine
handsome youth he was and good in his bold way though some people did
disparage him to his poor mother I ask your pardon for troubling you sir God
bless you gentlemen«
»Same to you maam« returns Mr Bagnet with right good will
There is something very touching in the earnestness of the old ladys voice
and in the tremble that goes through her quaint old figure But Mr George is so
occupied with the almanack over the fireplace calculating the coming months by
it perhaps that he does not look round until she has gone away and the door
is closed upon her
»George« Mr Bagnet gruffly whispers when he does turn from the almanack
at last »Dont be cast down Why soldiers why should we be melancholy
boys Cheer up my hearty«
The clerk having now again gone in to say that they are still there and Mr
Tulkinghorn being heard to return with some irascibility »Let em come in
then« they pass into the great room with the painted ceiling and find him
standing before the fire
»Now you men what do you want Serjeant I told you the last time I saw
you that I dont desire your company here«
Serjeant replies dashed within the last few minutes as to his usual manner
of speech and even as to his usual carriage that he has received this letter
has been to Mr Smallweed about it and has been referred there
»I have nothing to say to you« rejoins Mr Tulkinghorn »If you get into
debt you must pay your debts or take the consequences You have no occasion to
come here to learn that I suppose«
Serjeant is sorry to say that he is not prepared with the money
»Very well Then the other man this man if this is he must pay it for
you«
Serjeant is sorry to add that the other man is not prepared with the money
either
»Very well Then you must pay it between you or you must both be sued for
it and both suffer You have had the money and must refund it You are not to
pocket other peoples pounds shillings and pence and escape scot free«
The lawyer sits down in his easychair and stirs the fire Mr George hopes
he will have the goodness to
»I tell you Serjeant I have nothing to say to you I dont like your
associates and dont want you here This matter is not at all in my course of
practice and is not in my office Mr Smallweed is good enough to offer these
affairs to me but they are not in my way You must go to Melchisedechs in
Cliffords Inn«
»I must make an apology to you sir« says Mr George »for pressing myself
upon you with so little encouragement which is almost as unpleasant to me as
it can be to you but would you let me say a private word to you«
Mr Tulkinghorn rises with his hands in his pockets and walks into one of
the window recesses Now I have no time to waste In the midst of his perfect
assumption of indifference he directs a sharp look at the trooper taking care
to stand with his own back to the light and to have the other with his face
towards it
»Well sir« says Mr George »this man with me is the other party
implicated in this unfortunate affair nominally only nominally and my sole
object is to prevent his getting into trouble on my account He is a most
respectable man with a wife and family formerly in the Royal Artillery «
»My friend I dont care a pinch of snuff for the whole Royal Artillery
establishment officers men tumbrils waggons horses guns and ammunition«
»Tis likely sir But I care a good deal for Bagnet and his wife and family
being injured on my account And if I could bring them through this matter I
should have no help for it but to give up without any other consideration what
you wanted of me the other day«
»Have you got it here«
»I have got it here sir«
»Serjeant« the lawyer proceeds in his dry passionless manner far more
hopeless in the dealing with than any amount of vehemence »make up your mind
while I speak to you for this is final After I have finished speaking I have
closed the subject and I wont reopen it Understand that You can leave here
for a few days what you say you have brought here if you choose you can take
it away at once if you choose In case you choose to leave it here I can do
this for you I can replace this matter on its old footing and I can go so far
besides as to give you a written undertaking that this man Bagnet shall never be
troubled in any way until you have been proceeded against to the utmost that
your means shall be exhausted before the creditor looks to his This is in fact
all but freeing him Have you decided«
The trooper puts his hand into his breast and answers with a long breath
»I must do it sir«
So Mr Tulkinghorn putting on his spectacles sits down and writes the
undertaking which he slowly reads and explains to Bagnet who has all this time
been staring at the ceiling and who puts his hand on his bald head again under
this new verbal showerbath and seems exceedingly in need of the old girl
through whom to express his sentiments The trooper then takes from his
breastpocket a folded paper which he lays with an unwilling hand at the
lawyers elbow »Tis only a letter of instructions sir The last I ever had
from him«
Look at a millstone Mr George for some change in its expression and you
will find it quite as soon as in the face of Mr Tulkinghorn when he opens and
reads the letter He refolds it and lays it in his desk with a countenance as
imperturbable as Death
Nor has he anything more to say or do but to nod once in the same frigid
and discourteous manner and to say briefly »You can go Show these men out
there« Being shown out they repair to Mr Bagnets residence to dine
Boiled beef and greens constitute the days variety on the former repast of
boiled pork and greens and Mrs Bagnet serves out the meal in the same way and
seasons it with the best of temper being that rare sort of old girl that she
receives Good to her arms without a hint that it might be Better and catches
light from any little spot of darkness near her The spot on this occasion is
the darkened brow of Mr George he is unusually thoughtful and depressed At
first Mrs Bagnet trusts to the combined endearments of Quebec and Malta to
restore him but finding those young ladies sensible that their existing Bluffy
is not the Bluffy of their usual frolicsome acquaintance she winks off the
light infantry and leaves him to deploy at leisure on the open ground of the
domestic hearth
But he does not He remains in close order clouded and depressed During
the lengthy cleaning up and pattening process when he and Mr Bagnet are
supplied with their pipes he is no better than he was at dinner He forgets to
smoke looks at the fire and ponders lets his pipe out fills the breast of Mr
Bagnet with perturbation and dismay by showing that he has no enjoyment of
tobacco
Therefore when Mrs Bagnet at last appears rosy from the invigorating pail
and sits down to her work Mr Bagnet growls »Old girl« and winks monitions to
her to find out whats the matter
»Why George« says Mrs Bagnet quietly threading her needle »How low you
are«
»Am I Not good company Well I am afraid I am not«
»He aint at all like Bluffy mother« cries little Malta
»Because he aint well I think mother« adds Quebec
»Sure thats a bad sign not to be like Bluffy too« returns the trooper
kissing the young damsels »But its true« with a sigh »true I am afraid
These little ones are always right«
»George« says Mrs Bagnet working busily »if I thought you cross enough
to think of anything that a shrill old soldiers wife who could have bitten
her tongue off afterwards and ought to have done it almost said this
morning I dont know what I shouldnt say to you now«
»My kind soul of a darling« returns the trooper »Not a morsel of it«
»Because really and truly George what I said and meant to say was that I
trusted Lignum to you and was sure youd bring him through it And you have
brought him through it noble«
»Thankee my dear« says George »I am glad of your good opinion«
In giving Mrs Bagnets hand with her work in it a friendly shake for
she took her seat beside him the troopers attention is attracted to her face
After looking at it for a little while as she plies her needle he looks to
young Woolwich sitting on his stool in the corner and beckons that fifer to
him
»See there my boy« says George very gently smoothing the mothers hair
with his hand »theres a good loving forehead for you All bright with love of
you my boy A little touched by the sun and the weather through following your
father about and taking care of you but as fresh and wholesome as a ripe apple
on a tree«
Mr Bagnets face expresses so far as in its wooden material lies the
highest approbation and acquiescence
»The time will come my boy« pursues the trooper »when this hair of your
mothers will be grey and this forehead all crossed and recrossed with
wrinkles and a fine old lady shell be then Take care while you are young
that you can think in those days I never whitened a hair of her dear head I
never marked a sorrowful line in her face For of all the many things that you
can think of when you are a man you had better have that by you Woolwich«
Mr George concludes by rising from his chair seating the boy beside his
mother in it and saying with something of a hurry about him that hell smoke
his pipe in the street a bit
Chapter XXXV
Esthers Narrative
I lay ill through several weeks and the usual tenor of my life became like an
old remembrance But this was not the effect of time so much as of the change
in all my habits made by the helplessness and inaction of a sick room Before I
had been confined to it many days everything else seemed to have retired into a
remote distance where there was little or no separation between the various
stages of my life which had been really divided by years In falling ill I
seemed to have crossed a dark lake and to have left all my experiences mingled
together by the great distance on the healthy shore
My housekeeping duties though at first it caused me great anxiety to think
that they were unperformed were soon as far off as the oldest of the old duties
at Greenleaf or the summer afternoons when I went home from school with my
portfolio under my arm and my childish shadow at my side to my godmothers
house I had never known before how short life really was and into how small a
space the mind could put it
While I was very ill the way in which these divisions of time became
confused with one another, distressed my mind exceedingly At once a child an
elder girl and the little woman I had been so happy as I was not only
oppressed by cares and difficulties adapted to each station but by the great
perplexity of endlessly trying to reconcile them I suppose that few who have
not been in such a condition can quite understand what I mean or what painful
unrest arose from this source
For the same reason I am almost afraid to hint at that time in my disorder
it seemed one long night but I believe there were both nights and days in it
when I laboured up colossal staircases ever striving to reach the top and ever
turned as I have seen a worm in a garden path by some obstruction and
labouring again I knew perfectly at intervals and I think vaguely at most
times that I was in my bed and I talked with Charley and felt her touch and
knew her very well yet I would find myself complaining »O more of these
neverending stairs Charley more and more piled up to the sky I think«
and labouring on again
Dare I hint at that worse time when strung together somewhere in great
black space there was a flaming necklace or ring or starry circle of some
kind of which I was one of the beads And when my only prayer was to be taken
off from the rest and when it was such inexplicable agony and misery to be a
part of the dreadful thing
Perhaps the less I say of these sick experiences the less tedious and the
more intelligible I shall be I do not recall them to make others unhappy or
because I am now the least unhappy in remembering them It may be that if we
knew more of such strange afflictions we might be the better able to alleviate
their intensity
The repose that succeeded the long delicious sleep the blissful rest when
in my weakness I was too calm to have any care for myself and could have heard
or so I think now that I was dying with no other emotion than with a pitying
love for those I left behind this state can be perhaps more widely understood
I was in this state when I first shrunk from the light as it twinkled on me once
more and knew with a boundless joy for which no words are rapturous enough
that I should see again
I had heard my Ada crying at the door day and night I had heard her
calling to me that I was cruel and did not love her I had heard her praying and
imploring to be let in to nurse and comfort me and to leave my bedside no more
but I had only said when I could speak »Never my sweet girl never« and I
had over and over again reminded Charley that she was to keep my darling from
the room whether I lived or died Charley had been true to me in that time of
need and with her little hand and her great heart had kept the door fast
But now my sight strengthening and the glorious light coming every day
more fully and brightly on me I could read the letters that my dear wrote to me
every morning and evening and could put them to my lips and lay my cheek upon
them with no fear of hurting her I could see my little maid so tender and so
careful going about the two rooms setting everything in order and speaking
cheerfully to Ada from the open window again I could understand the stillness
in the house and the thoughtfulness it expressed on the part of all those who
had always been so good to me I could weep in the exquisite felicity of my
heart and be as happy in my weakness as ever I had been in my strength
Byandby my strength began to be restored Instead of lying with so
strange a calmness watching what was done for me as if it were done for some
one else whom I was quietly sorry for I helped it a little and so on to a
little more and much more until I became useful to myself and interested and
attached to life again
How well I remember the pleasant afternoon when I was raised in bed with
pillows for the first time to enjoy a great teadrinking with Charley The
little creature sent into the world surely to minister to the weak and sick
was so happy and so busy and stopped so often in her preparations to lay her
head upon my bosom and fondle me and cry with joyful tears she was so glad
she was so glad that I was obliged to say »Charley if you go on in this way
I must lie down again my darling for I am weaker than I thought I was« So
Charley became as quiet as a mouse and took her bright face here and there
across and across the two rooms out of the shade into the divine sunshine and
out of the sunshine into the shade while I watched her peacefully When all her
preparations were concluded and the pretty teatable with its little delicacies
to tempt me and its white cloth and its flowers and everything so lovingly
and beautifully arranged for me by Ada downstairs was ready at the bedside I
felt sure I was steady enough to say something to Charley that was not new to my
thoughts
First I complimented Charley on the room and indeed it was so fresh and
airy so spotless and neat that I could scarce believe I had been lying there
so long This delighted Charley and her face was brighter than before
»Yet Charley« said I looking round »I miss something surely that I am
accustomed to«
Poor little Charley looked round too and pretended to shake her head as if
there were nothing absent
»Are the pictures all as they used to be« I asked her
»Every one of them miss« said Charley
»And the furniture Charley«
»Except where I have moved it about to make more room miss«
»And yet« said I »I miss some familiar object Ah I know what it is
Charley Its the lookingglass«
Charley got up from the table making as if she had forgotten something and
went into the next room and I heard her sob there
I had thought of this very often I was now certain of it I could thank God
that it was not a shock to me now I called Charley back and when she came at
first pretending to smile but as she drew nearer to me looking grieved I
took her in my arms and said »It matters very little Charley I hope I can do
without my old face very well«
I was presently so far advanced as to be able to sit up in a great chair
and even giddily to walk into the adjoining room leaning on Charley The mirror
was gone from its usual place in that room too but what I had to bear was none
the harder to bear for that
My guardian had throughout been earnest to visit me and there was now no
good reason why I should deny myself that happiness He came one morning and
when he first came in could only hold me in his embrace and say »My dear
dear girl« I had long known who could know better what a deep fountain of
affection and generosity his heart was and was it not worth my trivial
suffering and change to fill such a place in it »O yes« I thought »He has
seen me and he loves me better than he did he has seen me and is even fonder
of me than he was before and what have I to mourn for«
He sat down by me on the sofa supporting me with his arm For a little
while he sat with his hand over his face but when he removed it fell into his
usual manner There never can have been there never can be a pleasanter
manner
»My little woman« said he »what a sad time this has been Such an
inflexible little woman too through all«
»Only for the best Guardian« said I
»For the best« he repeated tenderly »Of course for the best But here
have Ada and I been perfectly forlorn and miserable here has your friend Caddy
been coming and going late and early here has every one about the house been
utterly lost and dejected here has even poor Rick been writing to me too
in his anxiety for you«
I had read of Caddy in Adas letters but not of Richard I told him so
»Why no my dear« he replied »I have thought it better not to mention it
to her«
»And you speak of his writing to you« said I repeating his emphasis »As
if it were not natural for him to do so Guardian as if he could write to a
better friend«
»He thinks he could my love« returned my guardian »and to many a better
The truth is he wrote to me under a sort of protest while unable to write to
you with any hope of an answer wrote coldly haughtily distantly
resentfully Well dearest little woman we must look forbearingly on it He is
not to blame Jarndyce and Jarndyce has warped him out of himself and perverted
me in his eyes I have known it do as bad deeds and worse many a time If two
angels could be concerned in it I believe it would change their nature«
»It has not changed yours Guardian«
»Oh yes it has my dear« he said laughingly »It has made the south wind
easterly I dont know how often Rick mistrusts and suspects me goes to
lawyers and is taught to mistrust and suspect me Hears I have conflicting
interests claims clashing against his and what not Whereas Heaven knows that
if I could get out of the mountains of Wiglomeration on which my unfortunate
name has been so long bestowed which I cant or could level them by the
extinction of my own original right which I cant either and no human power
ever can anyhow I believe to such a pass have we got I would do it this
hour I would rather restore to poor Rick his proper nature than be endowed
with all the money that dead suitors broken heart and soul upon the wheel of
Chancery have left unclaimed with the AccountantGeneral and thats money
enough my dear to be cast into a pyramid in memory of Chancerys transcendent
wickedness«
»Is it possible Guardian« I asked amazed »that Richard can be suspicious
of you«
»Ah my love my love« he said »it is in the subtle poison of such abuses
to breed such diseases His blood is infected and objects lose their natural
aspects in his sight It is not his fault«
»But it is a terrible misfortune Guardian«
»It is a terrible misfortune little woman to be ever drawn within the
influences of Jarndyce and Jarndyce I know none greater By little and little
he has been induced to trust in that rotten reed and it communicates some
portion of its rottenness to everything around him But again I say with all
my soul we must be patient with poor Rick and not blame him What a troop of
fine fresh hearts like his have I seen in my time turned by the same means«
I could not help expressing something of my wonder and regret that his
benevolent disinterested intentions had prospered so little
»We must not say so Dame Durden« he cheerfully replied »Ada is the
happier I hope and that is much I did think that I and both these young
creatures might be friends instead of distrustful foes and that we might so
far counteract the suit and prove too strong for it But it was too much to
expect Jarndyce and Jarndyce was the curtain of Ricks cradle«
»But Guardian may we not hope that a little experience will teach him what
a false and wretched thing it is«
»We will hope so my Esther« said Mr Jarndyce »and that it may not teach
him so too late In any case we must not be hard on him There are not many
grown and matured men living while we speak good men too who if they were
thrown into this same court as suitors would not be vitally changed and
depreciated within three years within two within one How can we stand
amazed at poor Rick A young man so unfortunate« here he fell into a lower
tone as if he were thinking aloud »cannot at first believe who could that
Chancery is what it is He looks to it flushed and fitfully to do something
with his interests and bring them to some settlement It procrastinates
disappoints tries tortures him wears out his sanguine hopes and patience
thread by thread but he still looks to it and hankers after it and finds his
whole world treacherous and hollow Well well well Enough of this my dear«
He had supported me as at first all this time and his tenderness was so
precious to me that I leaned my head upon his shoulder and loved him as if he
had been my father I resolved in my own mind in this little pause by some
means to see Richard when I grew strong and try to set him right
»There are better subjects than these« said my guardian »for such a joyful
time as the time of our dear girls recovery And I had a commission to broach
one of them as soon as I should begin to talk When shall Ada come to see you
my love«
I had been thinking of that too A little in connexion with the absent
mirrors but not much for I knew my loving girl would be changed by no change
in my looks
»Dear Guardian« said I »as I have shut her out so long though indeed
indeed she is like the light to me «
»I know it well Dame Durden well«
He was so good his touch expressed such endearing compassion and affection
and the tone of his voice carried such comfort into my heart that I stopped for
a little while quite unable to go on »Yes yes you are tired« said he »Rest
a little«
»As I have kept Ada out so long« I began afresh after a short while »I
think I should like to have my own way a little longer Guardian It would be
best to be away from here before I see her If Charley and I were to go to some
country lodging as soon as I can move and if I had a week there in which to
grow stronger and to be revived by the sweet air and to look forward to the
happiness of having Ada with me again I think it would be better for us«
I hope it was not a poor thing in me to wish to be a little more used to my
altered self before I met the eyes of the dear girl I longed so ardently to
see but it is the truth I did He understood me I was sure but I was not
afraid of that If it were a poor thing I knew he would pass it over
»Our spoilt little woman« said my guardian »shall have her own way even in
her inflexibility though at the price I know of tears downstairs And see
here Here is Boythorn heart of chivalry breathing such ferocious vows as
never were breathed on paper before that if you dont go and occupy his whole
house he having already turned out of it expressly for that purpose by Heaven
and by earth hell pull it down and not leave one brick standing on another«
And my guardian put a letter in my hand without any ordinary beginning
such as »My dear Jarndyce« but rushing at once into the words »I swear if Miss
Summerson do not come down and take possession of my house which I vacate for
her this day at one oclock pm« and then with the utmost seriousness and in
the most emphatic terms going on to make the extraordinary declaration he had
quoted We did not appreciate the writer the less for laughing heartily over it
and we settled that I should send him a letter of thanks on the morrow and
accept his offer It was a most agreeable one to me for all the places I could
have thought of I should have liked to go to none so well as Chesney Wold
»Now little housewife« said my guardian looking at his watch »I was
strictly timed before I came upstairs for you must not be tired too soon and
my time has waned away to the last minute I have one other petition Little
Miss Flite hearing a rumour that you were ill made nothing of walking down
here twenty miles poor soul in a pair of dancing shoes to inquire It was
Heavens mercy we were at home or she would have walked back again«
The old conspiracy to make me happy Everybody seemed to be in it
»Now pet« said my guardian »if it would not be irksome to you to admit
the harmless little creature one afternoon before you save Boythorns otherwise
devoted house from demolition I believe you would make her prouder and better
pleased with herself than I though my eminent name is Jarndyce could do in
a lifetime«
I have no doubt he knew there would be something in the simple image of the
poor afflicted creature that would fall like a gentle lesson on my mind at that
time I felt it as he spoke to me I could not tell him heartily enough how
ready I was to receive her I had always pitied her never so much as now I had
always been glad of my little power to soothe her under her calamity but never
never half so glad before
We arranged a time for Miss Elite to come out by the coach and share my
early dinner When my guardian left me I turned my face away upon my couch and
prayed to be forgiven if I surrounded by such blessings had magnified to
myself the little trial that I had to undergo The childish prayer of that old
birthday when I had aspired to be industrious contented and truehearted and
to do good to some one and win some love to myself if I could came back into
my mind with a reproachful sense of all the happiness I had since enjoyed and
all the affectionate hearts that had been turned towards me If I were weak now
what had I profited by those mercies I repeated the old childish prayer in its
old childish words and found that its old peace had not departed from it
My guardian now came every day In a week or so more I could walk about our
rooms and hold long talks with Ada from behind the windowcurtain Yet I never
saw her for I had not as yet the courage to look at the dear face though I
could have done so easily without her seeing me
On the appointed day Miss Flite arrived The poor little creature ran into
my room quite forgetful of her usual dignity and crying from her very heart of
hearts »My dear FitzJarndyce« fell upon my neck and kissed me twenty times
»Dear me« said she putting her hand into her reticule »I have nothing
here but documents my dear FitzJarndyce I must borrow a pockethandkerchief«
Charley gave her one and the good creature certainly made use of it for
she held it to her eyes with both hands and sat so shedding tears for the next
ten minutes
»With pleasure my dear FitzJarndyce« she was careful to explain »Not the
least pain Pleasure to see you well again Pleasure at having the honour of
being admitted to see you I am so much fonder of you my love than of the
Chancellor Though I do attend Court regularly Bythebye my dear mentioning
pockethandkerchiefs «
Miss Flite here looked at Charley who had been to meet her at the place
where the coach stopped Charley glanced at me and looked unwilling to pursue
the suggestion
»Very right« said Miss Flite »very correct Truly Highly indiscreet of
me to mention it but my dear Miss FitzJarndyce I am afraid I am at times
between ourselves you wouldnt think it a little rambling you know« said
Miss Flite touching her forehead »Nothing more«
»What were you going to tell me« said I smiling for I saw she wanted to
go on »You have roused my curiosity and now you must gratify it«
Miss Flite looked at Charley for advice in this important crisis who said
»If you please maam you had better tell then« and therein gratified Miss
Flite beyond measure
»So sagacious our young friend« said she to me in her mysterious way
»Diminutive But very sagacious Well my dear its a pretty anecdote Nothing
more Still I think it charming Who should follow us down the road from the
coach my dear but a poor person in a very ungenteel bonnet «
»Jenny if you please miss« said Charley
»Just so« Miss Flite acquiesced with the greatest suavity »Jenny Yees
And what does she tell our young friend but that there has been a lady with a
veil inquiring at her cottage after my dear FitzJarndyces health and taking a
handkerchief away with her as a little keepsake merely because it was my
amiable FitzJarndyces Now you know so very prepossessing in the lady with
the veil«
»If you please miss« said Charley to whom I looked in some astonishment
»Jenny says that when her baby died you left a handkerchief there and that she
put it away and kept it with the babys little things I think if you please
partly because it was yours miss and partly because it had covered the baby«
»Diminutive« whispered Miss Flite making a variety of motions about her
own forehead to express intellect in Charley »But exceedingly sagacious And
so clear My love shes clearer than any Counsel I ever heard«
»Yes Charley« I returned »I remember it Well«
»Well miss« said Charley »and thats the handkerchief the lady took And
Jenny wants you to know that she wouldnt have made away with it herself for a
heap of money but that the lady took it and left some money instead Jenny
dont know her at all if you please miss«
»Why who can she be« said I
»My love« Miss Flite suggested advancing her lips to my ear with her most
mysterious look »in my opinion dont mention this to our diminutive friend
shes the Lord Chancellors wife Hes married you know And I understand she
leads him a terrible life Throws his lordships papers into the fire my dear
if he wont pay the jeweller«
I did not think very much about this lady then for I had an impression that
it might be Caddy Besides my attention was diverted by my visitor who was
cold after her ride and looked hungry and who our dinner being brought in
required some little assistance in arraying herself with great satisfaction in a
pitiable old scarf and a muchworn and oftenmended pair of gloves which she
had brought down in a paper parcel I had to preside too over the
entertainment consisting of a dish of fish a roast fowl a sweetbread
vegetables pudding and Madeira and it was so pleasant to see how she enjoyed
it and with what state and ceremony she did honour to it that I was soon
thinking of nothing else
When we had finished and had our little dessert before us embellished by
the hands of my dear who would yield the superintendence of everything prepared
for me to no one Miss Flite was so very chatty and happy that I thought I
would lead her to her own history as she was always pleased to talk about
herself I began by saying »You have attended on the Lord Chancellor many
years Miss Flite«
»O many many many years my dear But I expect a Judgment Shortly«
There was an anxiety even in her hopefulness that made me doubtful if I had
done right in approaching the subject I thought I would say no more about it
»My father expected a Judgment« said Miss Flite »My brother My sister
They all expected a Judgment The same that I expect«
»They are all «
»Yees Dead of course my dear« said she
As I saw she would go on I thought it best to try to be serviceable to her
by meeting the theme rather than avoiding it
»Would it not be wiser« said I »to expect this Judgment no more«
»Why my dear« she answered promptly »of course it would«
»And to attend the Court no more«
»Equally of course« said she »Very wearing to be always in expectation of
what never comes my dear FitzJarndyce Wearing I assure you to the bone«
She slightly showed me her arm and it was fearfully thin indeed
»But my dear« she went on in her mysterious way »theres a dreadful
attraction in the place Hush Dont mention it to our diminutive friend when
she comes in Or it may frighten her With good reason Theres a cruel
attraction in the place You cant leave it And you must expect«
I tried to assure her that this was not so She heard me patiently and
smilingly but was ready with her own answer
»Aye aye aye You think so because I am a little rambling Very absurd
to be a little rambling is it not Very confusing too To the head I find it
so But my dear I have been there many years and I have noticed Its the
Mace and Seal upon the table«
What could they do did she think I mildly asked her
»Draw« returned Miss Flite »Draw people on my dear Draw peace out of
them Sense out of them Good looks out of them Good qualities out of them I
have felt them even drawing my rest away in the night Cold and glittering
devils«
She tapped me several times upon the arm and nodded goodhumouredly as if
she were anxious I should understand that I had no cause to fear her though she
spoke so gloomily and confided these awful secrets to me
»Let me see« said she »Ill tell you my own case Before they ever drew me
before I had ever seen them what was it I used to do Tambourine playing
No Tambour work I and my sister worked at tambour work Our father and our
brother had a builders business We all lived together Very respectably my
dear First our father was drawn slowly Home was drawn with him In a few
years he was a fierce sour angry bankrupt without a kind word or a kind look
for any one He had been so different FitzJarndyce He was drawn to a debtors
prison There he died Then our brother was drawn swiftly to drunkenness
And rags And death Then my sister was drawn Hush Never ask to what Then I
was ill and in misery and heard as I had often heard before that this was
all the work of Chancery When I got better I went to look at the Monster And
then I found out how it was and I was drawn to stay there«
Having got over her own short narrative in the delivery of which she had
spoken in a low strained voice as if the shock were fresh upon her she
gradually resumed her usual air of amiable importance
»You dont quite credit me my dear Well well You will some day I am a
little rambling But I have noticed I have seen many new faces come
unsuspicious within the influence of the Mace and Seal in these many years As
my fathers came there As my brothers As my sisters As my own I hear
Conversation Kenge and the rest of them say to the new faces Heres little
Miss Flite O you are new here and you must come and be presented to little
Miss Flite Very good Proud I am sure to have the honour And we all laugh
But FitzJarndyce I know what will happen I know far better than they do
when the attraction has begun I know the signs my dear I saw them begin in
Gridley And I saw them end FitzJarndyce my love« speaking low again »I saw
them beginning in our friend the Ward in Jarndyce Let some one hold him back
Or hell be drawn to ruin«
She looked at me in silence for some moments with her face gradually
softening into a smile Seeming to fear that she had been too gloomy and
seeming also to lose the connexion in her mind she said politely as she
sipped her glass of wine »Yes my dear as I was saying I expect a Judgment
Shortly Then I shall release my birds you know and confer estates«
I was much impressed by her allusion to Richard and by the sad meaning so
sadly illustrated in her poor pinched form that made its way through all her
incoherence But happily for her she was quite complacent again now and beamed
with nods and smiles
»But my dear« she said gaily reaching another hand to put it upon mine
»You have not congratulated me on my physician Positively not once yet«
I was obliged to confess that I did not quite know what she meant
»My physician Mr Woodcourt my dear who was so exceedingly attentive to
me Though his services were rendered quite gratuitously Until the Day of
Judgment I mean the judgment that will dissolve the spell upon me of the Mace
and Seal«
»Mr Woodcourt is so far away now« said I »that I thought the time for
such congratulation was past Miss Flite«
»But my child« she returned »is it possible that you dont know what has
happened«
»No« said I
»Not what everybody has been talking of my beloved FitzJarndyce«
»No« said I »You forget how long I have been here«
»True My dear for the moment true I blame myself But my memory has
been drawn out of me with everything else by what I mentioned Very strong
influence is it not Well my dear there has been a terrible shipwreck over in
those EastIndian seas«
»Mr Woodcourt shipwrecked«
»Dont be agitated my dear He is safe An awful scene Death in all
shapes Hundreds of dead and dying Fire storm and darkness Numbers of the
drowning thrown upon a rock There and through it all my dear physician was a
hero Calm and brave through everything Saved many lives never complained in
hunger and thirst wrapped naked people in his spare clothes took the lead
showed them what to do governed them tended the sick buried the dead and
brought the poor survivors safely off at last My dear the poor emaciated
creatures all but worshipped him They fell down at his feet when they got to
the land and blessed him The whole country rings with it Stay Wheres my bag
of documents I have got it there and you shall read it you shall read it«
And I did read all the noble history though very slowly and imperfectly
then for my eyes were so dimmed that I could not see the words and I cried so
much that I was many times obliged to lay down the long account she had cut out
of the newspaper I felt so triumphant ever to have known the man who had done
such generous and gallant deeds I felt such glowing exultation in his renown I
so admired and loved what he had done that I envied the stormworn people who
had fallen at his feet and blessed him as their preserver I could myself have
kneeled down then so far away and blessed him in my rapture that he should be
so truly good and brave I felt that no one mother sister wife could
honour him more than I I did indeed
My poor little visitor made me a present of the account and when as the
evening began to close in she rose to take her leave lest she should miss the
coach by which she was to return she was still full of the shipwreck which I
had not yet sufficiently composed myself to understand in all its details
»My dear« said she as she carefully folded up her scarf and gloves »my
brave physician ought to have a Title bestowed upon him And no doubt he will
You are of that opinion«
That he well deserved one yes That he would ever have one no
»Why not FitzJarndyce« she asked rather sharply
I said it was not the custom in England to confer titles on men
distinguished by peaceful services however good and great unless occasionally
when they consisted of the accumulation of some very large amount of money
»Why good gracious« said Miss Flite »how can you say that Surely you
know my dear that all the greatest ornaments of England in knowledge
imagination active humanity and improvement of every sort are added to its
nobility Look round you my dear and consider You must be rambling a little
now I think if you dont know that this is the great reason why titles will
always last in the land«
I am afraid she believed what she said for there were moments when she was
very mad indeed
And now I must part with the little secret I have thus far tried to keep I had
thought sometimes that Mr Woodcourt loved me and that if he had been richer
he would perhaps have told me that he loved me before he went away I had
thought sometimes that if he had done so I should have been glad of it But
how much better it was now that this had never happened What should I have
suffered if I had had to write to him and tell him that the poor face he had
known as mine was quite gone from me and that I freely released him from his
bondage to one whom he had never seen
O it was so much better as it was With a great pang mercifully spared me
I could take back to my heart my childish prayer to be all he had so brightly
shown himself and there was nothing to be undone no chain for me to break or
for him to drag and I could go please God my lowly way along the path of
duty and he could go his nobler way upon its broader road and though we were
apart upon the journey I might aspire to meet him unselfishly innocently
better far than he had thought me when I found some favour in his eyes at the
journeys end
Chapter XXXVI
Chesney Wold
Charley and I did not set off alone upon our expedition into Lincolnshire My
guardian had made up his mind not to lose sight of me until I was safe in Mr
Boythorns house so he accompanied us and we were two days upon the road I
found every breath of air and every scent and every flower and leaf and blade
of grass and every passing cloud and everything in nature, more beautiful and
wonderful to me than I had ever found it yet This was my first gain from my
illness How little I had lost when the wide world was so full of delight for
me
My guardian intending to go back immediately we appointed on our way down
a day when my dear girl should come I wrote her a letter of which he took
charge and he left us within half an hour of our arrival at our destination on
a delightful evening in the early summer time
If a good fairy had built the house for me with a wave of her wand and I
had been a princess and her favoured godchild I could not have been more
considered in it So many preparations were made for me and such an endearing
remembrance was shown of all my little tastes and likings that I could have sat
down overcome a dozen times before I had revisited half the rooms I did
better than that however by showing them all to Charley instead Charleys
delight calmed mine and after we had had a walk in the garden and Charley had
exhausted her whole vocabulary of admiring expressions I was as tranquilly
happy as I ought to have been It was a great comfort to be able to say to
myself after tea »Esther my dear I think you are quite sensible enough to sit
down now and write a note of thanks to your host« He had left a note of
welcome for me as sunny as his own face and had confided his bird to my care
which I knew to be his highest mark of confidence Accordingly I wrote a little
note to him in London telling him how all his favourite plants and trees were
looking and how the most astonishing of birds had chirped the honours of the
house to me in the most hospitable manner and how after singing on my
shoulder to the inconceivable rapture of my little maid he was then at roost
in the usual corner of his cage but whether dreaming or no I could not report
My note finished and sent off to the post I made myself very busy in unpacking
and arranging and I sent Charley to bed in good time and told her I should
want her no more that night
For I had not yet looked in the glass and had never asked to have my own
restored to me I knew this to be a weakness which must be overcome but I had
always said to myself that I would begin afresh when I got to where I now was
Therefore I had wanted to be alone and therefore I said now alone in my own
room »Esther if yon are to be happy if you are to have any right to pray to
be truehearted you must keep your word my dear« I was quite resolved to keep
it but I sat down for a little while first to reflect upon all my blessings
And then I said my prayers and thought a little more
My hair had not been cut off though it had been in danger more than once
It was long and thick I let it down and shook it out and went up to the glass
upon the dressingtable There was a little muslin curtain drawn across it I
drew it back and stood for a moment looking through such a veil of my own hair
that I could see nothing else Then I put my hair aside and looked at the
reflection in the mirror encouraged by seeing how placidly it looked at me I
was very much changed O very very much At first my face was so strange to
me that I think I should have put my hands before it and started back but for
the encouragement I have mentioned Very soon it became more familiar and then
I knew the extent of the alteration in it better than I had done at first It
was not like what I had expected but I had expected nothing definite and I
dare say anything definite would have surprised me
I had never been a beauty and had never thought myself one but I had been
very different from this It was all gone now Heaven was so good to me that I
could let it go with a few not bitter tears and could stand there arranging my
hair for the night quite thankfully
One thing troubled me and I considered it for a long time before I went to
sleep I had kept Mr Woodcourts flowers When they were withered I had dried
them and put them in a book that I was fond of Nobody knew this not even Ada
I was doubtful whether I had a right to preserve what he had sent to one so
different whether it was generous towards him to do it I wished to be
generous to him even in the secret depths of my heart which he would never
know because I could have loved him could have been devoted to him At last I
came to the conclusion that I might keep them if I treasured them only as a
remembrance of what was irrevocably past and gone never to be looked back on
any more in any other light I hope this may not seem trivial I was very much
in earnest
I took care to be up early in the morning and to be before the glass when
Charley came in on tiptoe
»Dear dear miss« cried Charley starting »Is that you«
»Yes Charley« said I quietly putting up my hair »And I am very well
indeed and very happy«
I saw it was a weight off Charleys mind but it was a greater weight off
mine I knew the worst now and was composed to it I shall not conceal as I go
on the weaknesses I could not quite conquer but they always passed from me
soon and the happier frame of mind stayed by me faithfully
Wishing to be fully reestablished in my strength and my good spirits before
Ada came I now laid down a little series of plans with Charley for being in the
fresh air all day long We were to be out before breakfast and were to dine
early and were to be out again before and after dinner and were to walk in the
garden after tea and were to go to rest betimes and were to climb every hill
and explore every road lane and field in the neighbourhood As to restoratives
and strengthening delicacies Mr Boythorns good housekeeper was for ever
trotting about with something to eat or drink in her hand I could not even be
heard of as resting in the park but she would come trotting after me with a
basket her cheerful face shining with a lecture on the importance of frequent
nourishment Then there was a pony expressly for my riding a chubby pony with
a short neck and a mane all over his eyes who could canter when he would so
easily and quietly that he was a treasure In a very few days he would come to
me in the paddock when I called him and eat out of my hand and follow me
about We arrived at such a capital understanding that when he was jogging with
me lazily and rather obstinately down some shady lane if I patted his neck
and said »Stubbs I am surprised you dont canter when you know how much I like
it and I think you might oblige me for you are only getting stupid and going
to sleep« he would give his head a comical shake or two and set off directly
while Charley would stand still and laugh with such enjoyment that her laughter
was like music I dont know who had given Stubbs his name but it seemed to
belong to him as naturally as his rough coat Once we put him in a little
chaise and drove him triumphantly through the green lanes for five miles but
all at once as we were extolling him to the skies he seemed to take it ill
that he should have been accompanied so far by the circle of tantalising little
gnats that had been hovering round and round his ears the whole way without
appearing to advance an inch and stopped to think about it I suppose he came
to the decision that it was not to be borne for he steadily refused to move
until I gave the reins to Charley and got out and walked when he followed me
with a sturdy sort of good humour putting his head under my arm and rubbing
his ear against my sleeve It was in vain for me to say »Now Stubbs I feel
quite sure from what I know of you that you will go on if I ride a little
while« for the moment I left him he stood stock still again Consequently I
was obliged to lead the way as before and in this order we returned home to
the great delight of the village
Charley and I had reason to call it the most friendly of villages I am
sure for in a weeks time the people were so glad to see us go by though ever
so frequently in the course of a day that there were faces of greeting in every
cottage I had known many of the grown people before and almost all the
children but now the very steeple began to wear a familiar and affectionate
look Among my new friends was an old old woman who lived in such a little
thatched and whitewashed dwelling that when the outside shutter was turned up
on its hinges it shut up the whole housefront This old lady had a grandson
who was a sailor and I wrote a letter to him for her and drew at the top of it
the chimneycorner in which she had brought him up and where his old stool yet
occupied its old place This was considered by the whole village the most
wonderful achievement in the world but when an answer came back all the way
from Plymouth in which he mentioned that he was going to take the picture all
the way to America and from America would write again I got all the credit
that ought to have been given to the Postoffice and was invested with the
merit of the whole system
Thus what with being so much in the air playing with so many children
gossiping with so many people sitting on invitation in so many cottages going
on with Charleys education and writing long letters to Ada every day I had
scarcely any time to think about that little loss of mine and was almost always
cheerful If I did think of it at odd moments now and then I had only to be
busy and forget it I felt it more than I had hoped I should once when a child
said »Mother why is the lady not a pretty lady now like she used to be« But
when I found the child was not less fond of me and drew its soft hand over my
face with a kind of pitying protection in its touch that soon set me up again
There were many little occurrences which suggested to me with great
consolation how natural it is to gentle hearts to be considerate and delicate
towards any inferiority One of these particularly touched me I happened to
stroll into the little church when a marriage was just concluded and the young
couple had to sign the register
The bridegroom to whom the pen was handed first made a rude cross for his
mark the bride who came next did the same Now I had known the bride when I
was last there not only as the prettiest girl in the place but as having quite
distinguished herself in the school and I could not help looking at her with
some surprise She came aside and whispered to me while tears of honest love
and admiration stood in her bright eyes »Hes a dear good fellow miss but he
cant write yet hes going to learn of me and I wouldnt shame him for the
world« Why what had I to fear I thought when there was this nobility in the
soul of a labouring mans daughter
The air blew as freshly and revivingly upon me as it had ever blown and the
healthy colour came into my new face as it had come into my old one Charley was
wonderful to see she was so radiant and so rosy and we both enjoyed the whole
day and slept soundly the whole night
There was a favourite spot of mine in the parkwoods of Chesney Wold where
a seat had been erected commanding a lovely view The wood had been cleared and
opened to improve this point of sight and the bright sunny landscape beyond
was so beautiful that I rested there at least once every day A picturesque part
of the Hall called the Ghosts Walk was seen to advantage from this higher
ground and the startling name and the old legend in the Dedlock family which I
had heard from Mr Boythorn accounting for it mingled with the view and gave
it something of a mysterious interest in addition to its real charms There was
a bank here too which was a famous one for violets and as it was a daily
delight of Charleys to gather wild flowers she took as much to the spot as I
did
It would be idle to inquire now why I never went close to the house or
never went inside it The family were not there I had heard on my arrival and
were not expected I was far from being incurious or uninterested about the
building on the contrary I often sat in this place wondering how the rooms
ranged and whether any echo like a footstep really did resound at times as the
story said upon the lonely Ghosts Walk The indefinable feeling with which
Lady Dedlock had impressed me may have had some influence in keeping me from
the house even when she was absent I am not sure Her face and figure were
associated with it naturally but I cannot say that they repelled me from it
though something did For whatever reason or no reason I had never once gone
near it down to the day at which my story now arrives
I was resting at my favourite point after a long ramble and Charley was
gathering violets at a little distance from me I had been looking at the
Ghosts Walk lying in a deep shade of masonry afar off and picturing to myself
the female shape that was said to haunt it when I became aware of a figure
approaching through the wood The perspective was so long and so darkened by
leaves and the shadows of the branches on the ground made it so much more
intricate to the eye that at first I could not discern what figure it was By
little and little it revealed itself to be a womans a ladys Lady
Dedlocks She was alone and coming to where I sat with a much quicker step I
observed to my surprise than was usual with her
I was fluttered by her being unexpectedly so near she was almost within
speaking distance before I knew her and would have risen to continue my walk
But I could not I was rendered motionless Not so much by her hurried gesture
of entreaty not so much by her quick advance and outstretched hands not so
much by the great change in her manner and the absence of her haughty
selfrestraint as by a something in her face that I had pined for and dreamed
of when I was a little child something I had never seen in any face something
I had never seen in hers before
A dread and faintness fell upon me and I called to Charley Lady Dedlock
stopped upon the instant and changed back almost to what I had known her
»Miss Summerson I am afraid I have startled you« she said now advancing
slowly »You can scarcely be strong yet You have been very ill I know I have
been much concerned to hear it«
I could no more have removed my eyes from her pale face than I could have
stirred from the bench on which I sat She gave me her hand and its deadly
coldness so at variance with the enforced composure of her features deepened
the fascination that overpowered me I cannot say what was in my whirling
thoughts
»You are recovering again« she asked kindly
»I was quite well but a moment ago Lady Dedlock«
»Is this your young attendant«
»Yes«
»Will you send her on before and walk towards your house with me«
»Charley« said I »take your flowers home and I will follow you directly«
Charley with her best curtsey blushingly tied on her bonnet and went her
way When she was gone Lady Dedlock sat down on the seat beside me
I cannot tell in any words what the state of my mind was when I saw in her
hand my handkerchief with which I had covered the dead baby
I looked at her but I could not see her I could not hear her I could not
draw my breath The beating of my heart was so violent and wild that I felt as
if my life were breaking from me But when she caught me to her breast kissed
me wept over me compassionated me and called me back to myself when she fell
down on her knees and cried to me »O my child my child I am your wicked and
unhappy mother O try to forgive me« when I saw her at my feet on the bare
earth in her great agony of mind I felt through all my tumult of emotion a
burst of gratitude to the providence of God that I was so changed as that I
never could disgrace her by any trace of likeness as that nobody could ever now
look at me and look at her and remotely think of any near tie between us
I raised my mother up praying and beseeching her not to stoop before me in
such affliction and humiliation I did so in broken incoherent words for
besides the trouble I was in it frightened me to see her at my feet I told her
or I tried to tell her that if it were for me her child under any
circumstances to take upon me to forgive her I did it and had done it many
many years I told her that my heart overflowed with love for her that it was
natural love which nothing in the past had changed or could change That it
was not for me then resting for the first time on my mothers bosom to take
her to account for having given me life but that my duty was to bless her and
receive her though the whole world turned from her and that I only asked her
leave to do it I held my mother in my embrace and she held me in hers and
among the still woods in the silence of the summer day there seemed to be
nothing but our two troubled minds that was not at peace
»To bless and receive me« groaned my mother »it is far too late I must
travel my dark road alone and it will lead me where it will From day to day
sometimes from hour to hour I do not see the way before my guilty feet This is
the earthly punishment I have brought upon myself I bear it and I hide it«
Even in the thinking of her endurance she drew her habitual air of proud
indifference about her like a veil though she soon cast it off again
»I must keep this secret if by any means it can be kept not wholly for
myself I have a husband wretched and dishonouring creature that I am«
These words she uttered with a suppressed cry of despair more terrible in
its sound than any shriek Covering her face with her hands she shrunk down in
my embrace as if she were unwilling that I should touch her nor could I by my
utmost persuasions or by any endearments I could use prevail upon her to rise
She said No no no she could only speak to me so she must be proud and
disdainful everywhere else she would be humbled and ashamed there in the only
natural moments of her life
My unhappy mother told me that in my illness she had been nearly frantic
She had but then known that her child was living She could not have suspected
me to be that child before She had followed me down here to speak to me but
once in all her life We never could associate never could communicate never
probably from that time forth could interchange another word on earth She put
into my hands a letter she had written for my reading only and said when I had
read it and destroyed it but not so much for her sake since she asked
nothing as for her husbands and my own I must evermore consider her as dead
If I could believe that she loved me in this agony in which I saw her with a
mothers love she asked me to do that for then I might think of her with a
greater pity imagining what she suffered She had put herself beyond all hope
and beyond all help Whether she preserved her secret until death or it came to
be discovered and she brought dishonour and disgrace upon the name she had
taken it was her solitary struggle always and no affection could come near
her and no human creature could render her any aid
»But is the secret safe so far« I asked »Is it safe now dearest mother«
»No« replied my mother »It has been very near discovery It was saved by
an accident It may be lost by another accident tomorrow any day«
»Do you dread a particular person«
»Hush Do not tremble and cry so much for me I am not worthy of these
tears« said my mother kissing my hands »I dread one person very much«
»An enemy«
»Not a friend One who is too passionless to be either He is Sir Leicester
Dedlocks lawyer mechanically faithful without attachment and very jealous of
the profit privilege and reputation of being master of the mysteries of great
houses«
»Has he any suspicions«
»Many«
»Not of you« I said alarmed
»Yes He is always vigilant and always near me I may keep him at a
standstill but I can never shake him off«
»Has he so little pity or compunction«
»He has none and no anger He is indifferent to everything but his calling
His calling is the acquisition of secrets and the holding possession of such
power as they give him with no sharer or opponent in it«
»Could you trust in him«
»I shall never try The dark road I have trodden for so many years will end
where it will I follow it alone to the end whatever the end be It may be
near it may be distant while the road lasts nothing turns me«
»Dear mother are you so resolved«
»I am resolved I have long outbidden folly with folly pride with pride
scorn with scorn insolence with insolence and have outlived many vanities with
many more I will outlive this danger and outdie it if I can It has closed
around me almost as awfully as if these woods of Chesney Wold had closed around
the house but my course through it is the same I have but one I can have but
one«
»Mr Jarndyce « I was beginning when my mother hurriedly inquired
»Does he suspect«
»No« said I »No indeed Be assured that he does not« And I told her what
he had related to me as his knowledge of my story »But he is so good and
sensible« said I »that perhaps if he knew «
My mother who until this time had made no change in her position raised
her hand up to my lips and stopped me
»Confide fully in him« she said after a little while »You have my free
consent a small gift from such a mother to her injured child but do not
tell me of it Some pride is left in me even yet«
I explained as nearly as I could then or can recall now for my agitation
and distress throughout were so great that I scarcely understood myself though
every word that was uttered in the mothers voice so unfamiliar and so
melancholy to me which in my childhood I had never learned to love and
recognise had never been sung to sleep with had never heard a blessing from
had never had a hope inspired by made an enduring impression on my memory I
say I explained or tried to do it how I had only hoped that Mr Jarndyce who
had been the best of fathers to me might be able to afford some counsel and
support to her But my mother answered no it was impossible no one could help
her Through the desert that lay before her she must go alone
»My child my child« she said »For the last time These kisses for the
last time These arms upon my neck for the last time We shall meet no more To
hope to do what I seek to do I must be what I have been so long Such is my
reward and doom If you hear of Lady Dedlock brilliant prosperous and
flattered think of your wretched mother consciencestricken underneath that
mask Think that the reality is in her suffering in her useless remorse in her
murdering within her breast the only love and truth of which it is capable And
then forgive her if you can and cry to Heaven to forgive her which it never
can«
We held one another for a little space yet but she was so firm that she
took my hands away and put them back against my breast and with a last kiss
as she held them there released them and went from me into the wood I was
alone and calm and quiet below me in the sun and shade lay the old house
with its terraces and turrets on which there had seemed to me to be such
complete repose when I first saw it but which now looked like the obdurate and
unpitying watcher of my mothers misery
Stunned as I was as weak and helpless at first as I had ever been in my
sick chamber the necessity of guarding against the danger of discovery or even
of the remotest suspicion did me service I took such precautions as I could to
hide from Charley that I had been crying and I constrained myself to think of
every sacred obligation that there was upon me to be careful and collected It
was not a little while before I could succeed or could even restrain bursts of
grief but after an hour or so I was better and felt that I might return I
went home very slowly and told Charley whom I found at the gate looking for
me that I had been tempted to extend ray walk after Lady Dedlock had left me
and that I was overtired and would lie down Safe in my own room I read the
letter I clearly derived from it and that was much then that I had not been
abandoned by my mother Her elder and only sister the godmother of my
childhood discovering signs of life in me when I had been laid aside as dead
had in her stern sense of duty with no desire or willingness that I should
live reared me in rigid secrecy and had never again beheld my mothers face
from within a few hours of my birth So strangely did I hold my place in this
world that until within a short time back I had never to my own mothers
knowledge breathed had been buried had never been endowed with life had
never borne a name When she had first seen me in the church she had been
startled and had thought of what would have been like me if it had ever lived
and had lived on but that was all then
What more the letter told me needs not to be repeated here It has its own
times and places in my story
My first care was to burn what my mother had written and to consume even
its ashes I hope it may not appear very unnatural or bad in me that I then
became heavily sorrowful to think I had ever been reared That I felt as if I
knew it would have been better and happier for many people if indeed I had
never breathed That I had a terror of myself as the danger and the possible
disgrace of my own mother and of a proud family name That I was so confused
and shaken as to be possessed by a belief that it was right and had been
intended that I should die in my birth and that it was wrong and not
intended that I should be then alive
These are the real feelings that I had I fell asleep worn out and when I
awoke I cried afresh to think that I was back in the world with my load of
trouble for others I was more than ever frightened of myself thinking anew of
her against whom I was a witness of the owner of Chesney Wold of the new and
terrible meaning of the old words now moaning in my ear like a surge upon the
shore »Your mother Esther was your disgrace and you are hers The time will
come and soon enough when you will understand this better and will feel it
too as no one save a woman can« With them those other words returned »Pray
daily that the sins of others be not visited upon your head« I could not
disentangle all that was about me and I felt as if the blame and the shame were
all in me and the visitation had come down
The day waned into a gloomy evening overcast and sad and I still contended
with the same distress I went out alone and after walking a little in the
park watching the dark shades falling on the trees and the fitful flight of
the bats which sometimes almost touched me was attracted to the house for the
first time Perhaps I might not have gone near it if I had been in a stronger
frame of mind As it was I took the path that led close by it
I did not dare to linger or to look up but I passed before the terrace
garden with its fragrant odours and its broad walks and its wellkept beds and
smooth turf and I saw how beautiful and grave it was and how the old stone
balustrades and parapets and wide flights of shallow steps were seamed by time
and weather and how the trained moss and ivy grew about them and around the
old stone pedestal of the sundial and I heard the fountain falling Then the
way went by long lines of dark windows diversified by turreted towers and
porches of eccentric shapes where old stone lions and grotesque monsters
bristled outside dens of shadow and snarled at the evening gloom over the
escutcheons they held in their grip Thence the path wound underneath a gateway
and through a courtyard where the principal entrance was I hurried quickly
on and by the stables where none but deep voices seemed to be whether in the
murmuring of the wind through the strong mass of ivy holding to a high red wall
or in the low complaining of the weathercock or in the barking of the dogs or
in the slow striking of a clock So encountering presently a sweet smell of
limes whose rustling I could hear I turned with the turning of the path to
the south front and there above me were the balustrades of the Ghosts Walk
and one lighted window that might be my mothers
The way war paved here like the terrace overhead and my footsteps from
being noiseless made an echoing sound upon the flags Stopping to look at
nothing but seeing all I did see as I went I was passing quickly on and in a
few moments should have passed the lighted window when my echoing footsteps
brought it suddenly into my mind that there was a dreadful truth in the legend
of the Ghosts Walk that it was I who was to bring calamity upon the stately
house and that my warning feet were haunting it even then Seized with an
augmented terror of myself which turned me cold I ran from myself and
everything retraced the way by which I had come and never paused until I had
gained the lodgegate and the park lay sullen and black behind me
Not before I was alone in my own room for the night and had again been
dejected and unhappy there did I begin to know how wrong and thankless this
state was But from my darling who was coming on the morrow I found a joyful
letter full of such loving anticipation that I must have been of marble if it
had not moved me from my guardian too I found another letter asking me to
tell Dame Durden if I should see that little woman anywhere that they had
moped most pitiably without her that the housekeeping was going to rack and
ruin that nobody else could manage the keys and that everybody in and about
the house declared it was not the same house and was becoming rebellious for
her return Two such letters together made me think how far beyond my deserts I
was beloved and how happy I ought to be That made me think of all my past
life and that brought me as it ought to have done before into a better
condition
For I saw very well that I could not have been intended to die or I should
never have lived not to say should never have been reserved for such a happy
life I saw very well how many things had worked together for my welfare and
that if the sins of the fathers were sometimes visited upon the children the
phrase did not mean what I had in the morning feared it meant I knew I was as
innocent of my birth as a queen of hers and that before my Heavenly Father I
should not be punished for birth nor a queen rewarded for it I had had
experience in the shock of that very day that I could even thus soon find
comforting reconcilements to the change that had fallen on me I renewed my
resolutions and prayed to be strengthened in them pouring out my heart for
myself and for my unhappy mother and feeling that the darkness of the morning
was passing away It was not upon my sleep and when the next days light awoke
me it was gone
My dear girl was to arrive at five oclock in the afternoon How to help
myself through the intermediate time better than by taking a long walk along the
road by which she was to come I did not know so Charley and I and Stubbs
Stubbs saddled for we never drove him after the one great occasion made a
long expedition along that road and back On our return we held a great review
of the house and garden and saw that everything was in its prettiest condition
and had the bird out ready as an important part of the establishment
There were more than two full hours yet to elapse before she could come
and in that interval which seemed a long one I must confess I was nervously
anxious about my altered looks I loved my darling so well that I was more
concerned for their effect on her than on any one I was not in this slight
distress because I at all repined I am quite certain I did not that day
but I thought would she he wholly prepared When she first saw me might she
not be a little shocked and disappointed Might it not prove a little worse than
she expected Might she not look for her old Esther and not find her Might she
not have to grow used to me and to begin all over again
I knew the various expressions of my sweet girls face so well and it was
such an honest face in its loveliness that I was sure beforehand she could
not hide that first look from me And I considered whether if it should signify
any one of these meanings which was so very likely could I quite answer for
myself
Well I thought I could After last night I thought I could But to wait
and wait and expect and expect and think and think was such bad preparation
that I resolved to go along the road again and meet her
So I said to Charley »Charley I will go by myself and walk along the road
until she comes« Charley highly approving of anything that pleased me I went
and left her at home
But before I got to the second milestone I had been in so many palpitations
from seeing dust in the distance though I knew it was not and could not be
the coach yet that I resolved to turn back and go home again And when I had
turned I was in such fear of the coach coming up behind me though I still knew
that it neither would nor could do any such thing that I ran the greater
part of the way to avoid being overtaken
Then I considered when I had got safe back again this was a nice thing to
have done Now I was hot and had made the worst of it instead of the best
At last when I believed there was at least a quarter of an hour more yet
Charley all at once cried out to me as I was trembling in the garden »Here she
comes miss Here she is«
I did not mean to do it but I ran upstairs into my room and hid myself
behind the door There I stood trembling even when I heard my darling calling
as she came upstairs »Esther my dear my love where are you Little woman
dear Dame Durden«
She ran in and was running out again when she saw me Ah my angel girl
the old dear look all love all fondness all affection Nothing else in it
no nothing nothing
O how happy I was down upon the floor with my sweet beautiful girl down
upon the floor too holding my scarred face to her lovely cheek bathing it with
tears and kisses rocking me to and fro like a child calling me by every tender
name that she could think of and pressing me to her faithful heart
Chapter XXXVII
Jarndyce and Jarndyce
If the secret I had to keep had been mine I must have confided it to Ada before
we had been long together But it was not mine and I did not feel that I had a
right to tell it even to my guardian unless some great emergency arose It was
a weight to bear alone still my present duty appeared to be plain and blest
in the attachment of my dear I did not want an impulse and encouragement to do
it Though often when she was asleep and all was quiet the remembrance of my
mother kept me waking and made the night sorrowful I did not yield to it at
another time and Ada found me what I used to be except of course in that
particular of which I have said enough and which I have no intention of
mentioning any more just now if I can help it
The difficulty that I felt in being quite composed that first evening when
Ada asked me over our work if the family were at the house and when I was
obliged to answer yes I believed so for Lady Dedlock had spoken to me in the
woods the day before yesterday was great Greater still when Ada asked me what
she had said and when I replied that she had been kind and interested and when
Ada while admitting her beauty and elegance remarked upon her proud manner
and her imperious chilling air But Charley helped me through unconsciously by
telling us that Lady Dedlock had only stayed at the House two nights on her way
from London to visit at some other great house in the next county and that she
had left early on the morning after we had seen her at our view as we called
it Charley verified the adage about little pitchers I am sure for she heard
of more sayings and doings in a day than would have come to my ears in a
month
We were to stay a month at Mr Boythorns My pet had scarcely been there a
bright week as I recollect the time when one evening after we had finished
helping the gardener in watering his flowers and just as the candles were
lighted Charley appearing with a very important air behind Adas chair
beckoned me mysteriously out of the room
»Oh if you please miss« said Charley in a whisper with her eyes at their
roundest and largest »Youre wanted at the Dedlock Arms«
»Why Charley« said I »who can possibly want me at the publichouse«
»I dont know miss« returned Charley putting her head forward and
folding her hands tight upon the band of her little apron which she always did
in the enjoyment of anything mysterious or confidential »but its a gentleman
miss and his compliments and will you please to come without saying anything
about it«
»Whose compliments Charley«
»Hisn miss« returned Charley whose grammatical education was advancing
but not very rapidly
»And how do you come to be the messenger Charley«
»I am not the messenger if you please miss« returned my little maid »It
was W Grubble miss«
»And who is W Grubble Charley«
»Mister Grubble miss« returned Charley »Dont you know miss The Dedlock
Arms by W Grubble« which Charley delivered as if she were slowly spelling out
the sign
»Aye The landlord Charley«
»Yes miss If you please miss his wife is a beautiful woman but she
broke her ankle and it never joined And her brothers the sawyer that was put
in the cage miss and they expect hell drink himself to death entirely on
beer« said Charley
Not knowing what might be the matter and being easily apprehensive now I
thought it best to go to this place by myself I bade Charley be quick with my
bonnet and veil and my shawl and having put them on went away down the little
hilly street where I was as much at home as in Mr Boythorns garden
Mr Grubble was standing in his shirt sleeves at the door of his very clean
little tavern waiting for me He lifted off his hat with both hands when he saw
me coming and carrying it so as if it were an iron vessel it looked as
heavy preceded me along the sanded passage to his best parlour a neat
carpeted room with more plants in it than were quite convenient a coloured
print of Queen Caroline several shells a good many teatrays two stuffed and
dried fish in glass cases and either a curious egg or a curious pumpkin but I
dont know which and I doubt if many people did hanging from his ceiling I
knew Mr Grubble very well by sight from his often standing at his door A
pleasantlooking stoutish middleaged man who never seemed to consider
himself cosily dressed for his own fireside without his hat and topboots but
who never wore a coat except at church
He snuffed the candle and backing away a little to see how it looked
backed out of the room unexpectedly to me for I was going to ask him by whom
he had been sent The door of the opposite parlour being then opened I heard
some voices familiar in my ears I thought which stopped A quick light step
approached the room in which I was and who should stand before me but Richard
»My dear Esther« he said »my best friend« and he really was so
warmhearted and earnest that in the first surprise and pleasure of his
brotherly greeting I could scarcely find breath to tell him that Ada was well
»Answering my very thoughts always the same dear girl« said Richard
leading me to a chair and seating himself beside me
I put my veil up but not quite
»Always the same dear girl« said Richard just as heartily as before
I put up my veil altogether and laying my hand on Richards sleeve and
looking in his face told him how much I thanked him for his kind welcome and
how greatly I rejoiced to see him the more so because of the determination I
had made in my illness which I now conveyed to him
»My love« said Richard »there is no one with whom I have a greater wish to
talk than you for I want you to understand me«
»And I want you Richard« said I shaking my head »to understand some one
else«
»Since you refer so immediately to John Jarndyce« said Richard »I suppose
you mean him«
»Of course I do«
»Then I may say at once that I am glad of it because it is on that subject
that I am anxious to be understood By you mind you my dear I am not
accountable to Mr Jarndyce or Mr Anybody«
I was pained to find him taking this tone and he observed it
»Well well my dear« said Richard »we wont go into that now I want to
appear quietly in your country house here with you under my arm and give my
charming cousin a surprise I suppose your loyalty to John Jarndyce will allow
that«
»My dear Richard« I returned »you know you would be heartily welcome at
his house your home if you will but consider it so and you are as heartily
welcome here«
»Spoken like the best of little women« cried Richard gaily
I asked him how he liked his profession
»Oh I like it well enough« said Richard »Its all right It does as well
as anything else for a time I dont know that I shall care about it when I
come to be settled but I can sell out then and however never mind all that
botheration at present«
So young and handsome and in all respects so perfectly the opposite of Miss
Flite And yet in the clouded eager seeking look that passed over him so
dreadfully like her
»I am in town on leave just now« said Richard
»Indeed«
»Yes I have run over to look after my my Chancery interests before the
long vacation« said Richard forcing a careless laugh »We are beginning to
spin along with that old suit at last I promise you«
No wonder that I shook my head
»As you say its not a pleasant subject« Richard spoke with the same shade
crossing his face as before »Let it go to the four winds for tonight Puff
Gone Who do you suppose is with me«
»Was it Mr Skimpoles voice I heard«
»Thats the man He does me more good than anybody What a fascinating child
it is«
I asked Richard if any one knew of their coming down together He answered
No nobody He had been to call upon the dear old infant so he called Mr
Skimpole and the dear old infant had told him where we were and he had told
the dear old infant he was bent on coming to see us and the dear old infant had
directly wanted to come too and so he had brought him »And he is worth not
to say his sordid expenses but thrice his weight in gold« said Richard »He
is such a cheery fellow No worldliness about him Fresh and greenhearted«
I certainly did not see the proof of Mr Skimpoles unworldliness in his
having his expenses paid by Richard but I made no remark about that Indeed he
came in and turned our conversation He was charmed to see me said he had been
shedding delicious tears of joy and sympathy at intervals for six weeks on my
account had never been so happy as in hearing of my progress began to
understand the mixture of good and evil in the world now felt that he
appreciated health the more when somebody else was ill didnt know but what it
might be in the scheme of things that A should squint to make B happier in
looking straight or that C should carry a wooden leg to make D better
satisfied with his flesh and blood in a silk stocking
»My dear Miss Summerson here is our friend Richard« said Mr Skimpole
»full of the brightest visions of the future which he evokes out of the
darkness of Chancery Now thats delightful thats inspiriting thats full of
poetry In old times the woods and solitudes were made joyous to the shepherd
by the imaginary piping and dancing of Pan and the Nymphs This present
shepherd our pastoral Richard brightens the dull Inns of Court by making
Fortune and her train sport through them to the melodious notes of a judgment
from the bench Thats very pleasant you know Some illconditioned growling
fellow may say to me Whats the use of these legal and equitable abuses How do
you defend them I reply My growling friend I dont defend them but they are
very agreeable to me There is a shepherdyouth a friend of mine who
transmutes them into something highly fascinating to my simplicity I dont say
it is for this that they exist for I am a child among you worldly grumblers
and not called upon to account to you or myself for anything but it may be
so«
I began seriously to think that Richard could scarcely have found a worse
friend than this It made me uneasy that at such a time when he most required
some right principle and purpose he should have this captivating looseness and
puttingoff of everything this airy dispensing with all principle and purpose
at his elbow I thought I could understand how such a nature as my guardians
experienced in the world and forced to contemplate the miserable evasions and
contentions of the family misfortune found an immense relief in Mr Skimpoles
avowal of his weaknesses and display of guileless candour but I could not
satisfy myself that it was as artless as it seemed or that it did not serve Mr
Skimpoles idle turn quite as well as any other part and with less trouble
They both walked back with me and Mr Skimpole leaving us at the gate I
walked softly in with Richard and said »Ada my love I have brought a
gentleman to visit you« It was not difficult to read the blushing startled
face She loved him dearly and he knew it and I knew it It was a very
transparent business that meeting as cousins only
I almost mistrusted myself as growing quite wicked in my suspicions but I
was not so sure that Richard loved her dearly He admired her very much any
one must have done that and I dare say would have renewed their youthful
engagement with great pride and ardour but that he knew how she would respect
her promise to my guardian Still I had a tormenting idea that the influence
upon him extended even here that he was postponing his best truth and
earnestness in this as in all things until Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be off
his mind Ah me what Richard would have been without that blight I never shall
know now
He told Ada in his most ingenuous way that he had not come to make any
secret inroad on the terms she had accepted rather too implicitly and
confidingly he thought from Mr Jarndyce that he had come openly to see her
and to see me and to justify himself for the present terms on which he stood
with Mr Jarndyce As the dear old infant would be with us directly he begged
that I would make an appointment for the morning when he might set himself
right through the means of an unreserved conversation with me I proposed to
walk with him in the park at seven oclock and this was arranged Mr Skimpole
soon afterwards appeared and made us merry for an hour He particularly
requested to see Little Coavinses meaning Charley and told her with a
patriarchal air that he had given her late father all the business in his
power and that if one of her little brothers would make haste to get setup in
the same profession he hoped he should still be able to put a good deal of
employment in his way
»For I am constantly being taken in these nets« said Mr Skimpole looking
beamingly at us over a glass of wineandwater »and am constantly being bailed
out like a boat Or paid off like a ships company Somebody always does it
for me I cant do it you know for I never have any money But Somebody does
it I get out by Somebodys means I am not like the starling I get out If you
were to ask me who Somebody is upon my word I couldnt tell you Let us drink
to Somebody God bless him«
Richard was a little late in the morning but I had not to wait for him
long and we turned into the park The air was bright and dewy and the sky
without a cloud The birds sang delightfully the sparkles in the fern the
grass and trees were exquisite to see the richness of the woods seemed to
have increased twentyfold since yesterday as if in the still night when they
had looked so massively hushed in sleep Nature through all the minute details
of every wonderful leaf had been more wakeful than usual for the glory of that
day
»This is a lovely place« said Richard looking round »None of the jar and
discord of lawsuits here«
But there was other trouble
»I tell you what my dear girl« said Richard »when I get affairs in
general settled I shall come down here I think and rest«
»Would it not be better to rest now« I asked
»Oh as to resting now« said Richard »or as to doing anything very
definite now thats not easy In short it cant be done I cant do it at
least«
»Why not« said I
»You know why not Esther If you were living in an unfinished house liable
to have the roof put on or taken off to be from top to bottom pulled down or
built up tomorrow next day next week next month next year you would
find it hard to rest or settle So do I Now Theres no now for us suitors«
I could almost have believed in the attraction on which my poor little
wandering friend had expatiated when I saw again the darkened look of last
night Terrible to think it had in it also a shade of that unfortunate man who
had died
»My dear Richard« said I »this is a bad beginning of our conversation«
»I knew you would tell me so Dame Durden«
»And not I alone dear Richard It was not I who cautioned you once never
to found a hope or expectation on the family curse«
»There you come back to John Jarndyce« said Richard impatiently »Well We
must approach him sooner or later for he is the staple of what I have to say
and its as well at once My dear Esther how can you be so blind Dont you see
that he is an interested party and that it may be very well for him to wish me
to know nothing of the suit and care nothing about it but that it may not be
quite so well for me«
»O Richard« I remonstrated »is it possible that you can ever have seen him
and heard him that you can ever have lived under his roof and known him and
can yet breathe even to me in this solitary place where there is no one to hear
us such unworthy suspicions«
He reddened deeply as if his natural generosity felt a pang of reproach He
was silent for a little while before he replied in a subdued voice
»Esther I am sure you know that I am not a mean fellow and that I have
some sense of suspicion and distrust being poor qualities in one of my years«
»I know it very well« said I »I am not more sure of anything«
»Thats a dear girl« retorted Richard »and like you because it gives me
comfort I had need to get some scrap of comfort out of all this business for
its a bad one at the best as I have no occasion to tell you«
»I know perfectly« said I »I know as well Richard what shall I say as
well as you do that such misconstructions are foreign to your nature And I
know as well as you know what so changes it«
»Come sister come« said Richard a little more gaily »you will be fair
with me at all events If I have the misfortune to be under that influence so
has he If it has a little twisted me it may have a little twisted him too I
dont say that he is not an honourable man out of all this complication and
uncertainty I am sure he is But it taints everybody You know it taints
everybody You have heard him say so fifty times Then why should he escape«
»Because« said I »his is an uncommon character and he has resolutely kept
himself outside the circle Richard«
»Oh because and because« replied Richard in his vivacious way »I am not
sure my dear girl but that it may be wise and specious to preserve that
outward indifference It may cause other parties interested to become lax about
their interests and people may die off and points may drag themselves out of
memory and many things may smoothly happen that are convenient enough«
I was so touched with pity for Richard that I could not reproach him any
more even by a look I remembered my guardians gentleness towards his errors
and with what perfect freedom from resentment he had spoken of them
»Esther« Richard resumed »you are not to suppose that I have come here to
make underhanded charges against John Jarndyce I have only come to justify
myself What I say is it was all very well and we got on very well while I
was a boy utterly regardless of this same suit but as soon as I began to take
an interest in it and to look into it then it was quite another thing Then
John Jarndyce discovers that Ada and I must break off and that if I dont amend
that very objectionable course I am not fit for her Now Esther I dont mean
to amend that very objectionable course I will not hold John Jarndyces favour
on those unfair terms of compromise which he has no right to dictate Whether
it pleases him or displeases him I must maintain my rights and Adas I have
been thinking about it a good deal and this is the conclusion I have come to«
Poor dear Richard He had indeed been thinking about it a good deal His
face his voice his manner all showed that too plainly
»So I tell him honourably you are to know I have written to him about all
this that we are at issue and that we had better be at issue openly than
covertly I thank him for his goodwill and his protection and he goes his
road and I go mine The fact is our roads are not the same Under one of the
wills in dispute I should take much more than he I dont mean to say that it
is the one to be established but there it is and it has its chance«
»I have not to learn from you my dear Richard« said I »of your letter I
had heard of it already without an offended or angry word«
»Indeed« replied Richard softening »I am glad I said he was an honourable
man out of all this wretched affair But I always say that and have never
doubted it Now my dear Esther I know these views of mine appear extremely
harsh to you and will to Ada when you tell her what has passed between us But
if you had gone into the case as I have if you had only applied yourself to the
papers as I did when I was at Kenges if you only knew what an accumulation of
charges and countercharges and suspicions and crosssuspicions they involve
you would think me moderate in comparison«
»Perhaps so« said I »But do you think that among those many papers there
is much truth and justice Richard«
»There is truth and justice somewhere in the case Esther «
»Or was once long ago« said I
»Is is must be somewhere« pursued Richard impetuously »and must be
brought out To allow Ada to be made a bribe and hushmoney of is not the way
to bring it out You say the suit is changing me John Jarndyce says it changes
has changed and will change everybody who has any share in it Then the
greater right I have on my side when I resolve to do all I can to bring it to
an end«
»All you can Richard Do you think that in these many years no others have
done all they could Has the difficulty grown easier because of so many
failures«
»It cant last for ever« returned Richard with a fierceness kindling in
him which again presented to me that last sad reminder »I am young and earnest
and energy and determination have done wonders many a time Others have only
half thrown themselves into it I devote myself to it I make it the object of
my life«
»O Richard my dear so much the worse so much the worse«
»No no no dont you be afraid for me« he returned affectionately
»Youre a dear good wise quiet blessed girl but you have your
prepossessions So I come round to John Jarndyce I tell you my good Esther
when he and I were on those terms which he found so convenient we were not on
natural terms«
»Are division and animosity your natural terms Richard«
»No I dont say that I mean that all this business puts us on unnatural
terms with which natural relations are incompatible See another reason for
urging it on I may find out when its over that I have been mistaken in John
Jarndyce My head may be clearer when I am free of it and I may then agree with
what you say today Very well Then I shall acknowledge it and make him
reparation«
Everything postponed to that imaginary time Everything held in confusion
and indecision until then
»Now my best of confidantes« said Richard »I want my cousin Ada to
understand that I am not captious fickle and wilful about John Jarndyce but
that I have this purpose and reason at my back I wish to represent myself to
her through you because she has a great esteem and respect for her cousin John
and I know you will soften the course I take even though you disapprove of it
and and in short« said Richard who had been hesitating through these words
»I I dont like to represent myself in this litigious contentious doubting
character to a confiding girl like Ada«
I told him that he was more like himself in those latter words than in
anything he had said yet
»Why« acknowledged Richard »that may be true enough my love I rather
feel it to be so But I shall be able to give myself fairplay byandby I
shall come all right again then dont be afraid«
I asked him if this were all he wished me to tell Ada
»Not quite« said Richard »I am bound not to withhold from her that John
Jarndyce answered my letter in his usual manner addressing me as My dear Rick
trying to argue me out of my opinions and telling me that they should make no
difference in him All very well of course but not altering the case I also
want Ada to know that if I see her seldom just now I am looking after her
interests as well as my own we two being in the same boat exactly and that I
hope she will not suppose from any flying rumours she may hear that I am at
all lightheaded or imprudent on the contrary I am always looking forward to
the termination of the suit and always planning in that direction Being of age
now and having taken the step I have taken I consider myself free from any
accountability to John Jarndyce but Ada being still a ward of the Court I
dont yet ask her to renew our engagement When she is free to act for herself
I shall be myself once more and we shall both be in very different worldly
circumstances I believe If you tell her all this with the advantage of your
considerate way you will do me a very great and a very kind service my dear
Esther and I shall knock Jarndyce and Jarndyce on the head with greater vigour
Of course I ask for no secrecy at Bleak House«
»Richard« said I »you place great confidence in me but I fear you will
not take advice from me«
»Its impossible that I can on this subject my dear girl On any other
readily«
As if there were any other in his life As if his whole career and character
were not being dyed one colour
»But I may ask you a question Richard«
»I think so« said he laughing »I dont know who may not if you may not«
»You say yourself you are not leading a very settled life«
»How can I my dear Esther with nothing settled«
»Are you in debt again«
»Why of course I am« said Richard astonished at my simplicity
»Is it of course«
»My dear child certainly I cant throw myself into an object so
completely without expense You forget or perhaps you dont know that under
either of the wills Ada and I take something Its only a question between the
larger sum and the smaller I shall be within the mark any way Bless your
heart my excellent girl« said Richard quite amused with me »I shall be all
right I shall pull through my dear«
I felt so deeply sensible of the danger in which he stood that I tried in
Adas name in my guardians in my own by every fervent means that I could
think of to warn him of it and to show him some of his mistakes He received
everything I said with patience and gentleness but it all rebounded from him
without taking the least effect I could not wonder at this after the reception
his preoccupied mind had given to my guardians letter but I determined to try
Adas influence yet
So when our walk brought us round to the village again and I went home to
breakfast I prepared Ada for the account I was going to give her and told her
exactly what reason we had to dread that Richard was losing himself and
scattering his whole life to the winds It made her very unhappy of course
though she had a far far greater reliance on his correcting his errors than I
could have which was so natural and loving in my dear and she presently
wrote him this little letter
My Dearest Cousin
Esther has told me all you said to her this morning I write this
to repeat most earnestly for myself all that she said to you and to let
you know how sure I am that you will sooner or later find our cousin
John a pattern of truth sincerity and goodness when you will deeply
grieve to have done him without intending it so much wrong
I do not quite know how to write what I wish to say next but I
trust you will understand it as I mean it I have some fears my dearest
cousin that it may be partly for my sake you are now laying up so much
unhappiness for yourself and if for yourself for me In case this
should be so or in case you should entertain much thought of me in what
you are doing I most earnestly entreat and beg you to desist You can
do nothing for my sake that will make me half so happy as for ever
turning your back upon the shadow in which we both were born Do not be
angry with me for saying this Pray pray dear Richard for my sake
and for your own and in a natural repugnance for that source of trouble
which had its share in making us both orphans when we were very young
pray pray let it go for ever We have reason to know by this time
that there is no good in it and no hope that there is nothing to be
got from it but sorrow
My dearest cousin it is needless for me to say that you are quite
free and that it is very likely you may find some one whom you will
love much better than your first fancy I am quite sure if you will let
me say so that the object of your choice would greatly prefer to follow
your fortunes far and wide however moderate or poor and see you happy
doing your duty and pursuing your chosen way than to have the hope of
being, or even to be very rich with you if such a thing were
possible at the cost of dragging years of procrastination and anxiety
and of your indifference to other aims You may wonder at my saying this
so confidently with so little knowledge or experience, but I know it for
a certainty from my own heart
Ever my dearest cousin
Your most affectionate
ADA
This note brought Richard to us very soon but it made little change in him if
any We would fairly try he said who was right and who was wrong he would
show us we should see He was animated and glowing as if Adas tenderness had
gratified him but I could only hope with a sigh that the letter might have
some stronger effect upon his mind on reperusal than it assuredly had then
As they were to remain with us that day and had taken their places to
return by the coach next morning I sought an opportunity of speaking to Mr
Skimpole Our outofdoor life easily threw one in my way and I delicately
said that there was a responsibility in encouraging Richard
»Responsibility my dear Miss Summerson« he repeated catching at the word
with the pleasantest smile »I am the last man in the world for such a thing I
never was responsible in my life I cant be«
»I am afraid everybody is obliged to be« said I timidly enough he being
so much older and more clever than I
»No really« said Mr Skimpole receiving this new light with a most
agreeable jocularity of surprise »But every mans not obliged to be solvent I
am not I never was See my dear Miss Summerson« he took a handful of loose
silver and halfpence from his pocket »theres so much money I have not an idea
how much I have not the power of counting Call it four and ninepence call it
four pound nine They tell me I owe more than that I dare say I do I dare say
I owe as much as goodnatured people will let me owe If they dont stop why
should I There you have Harold Skimpole in little If thats responsibility I
am responsible«
The perfect ease of manner with which he put the money up again and looked
at me with a smile on his refined face as if he had been mentioning a curious
little fact about somebody else almost made me feel as if he really had nothing
to do with it
»Now when you mention responsibility« he resumed »I am disposed to say
that I never had the happiness of knowing any one whom I should consider so
refreshingly responsible as yourself You appear to me to be the very touchstone
of responsibility When I see you my dear Miss Summerson intent upon the
perfect working of the whole little orderly system of which you are the centre
I feel inclined to say to myself in fact I do say to myself very often
thats responsibility«
It was difficult after this to explain what I meant but I persisted so
far as to say that we all hoped he would check and not confirm Richard in the
sanguine views he entertained just then
»Most willingly« he retorted »if I could But my dear Miss Summerson I
have no art no disguise If he takes me by the hand and leads me through
Westminster Hall in an airy procession after Fortune I must go If he says
Skimpole join the dance I must join it Common sense wouldnt I know but I
have no common sense«
»It was very unfortunate for Richard« I said
»Do you think so« returned Mr Skimpole »Dont say that dont say that
Let us suppose him keeping company with Common Sense an excellent man a good
deal wrinkled dreadfully practical change for a tenpound note in every
pocketruled account book in his hand say upon the whole resembling a
taxgatherer Our dear Richard sanguine ardent overleaping obstacles
bursting with poetry like a young bud says to this highly respectable
companion I see a golden prospect before me its very bright its very
beautiful its very joyous here I go bounding over the landscape to come at
it The respectable companion instantly knocks him down with the ruled
accountbook tells him in a literal prosaic way that he sees no such thing
shows him its nothing but fees fraud horsehair wigs and black gowns Now you
know thats a painful change sensible in the last degree I have no doubt
but disagreeable I cant do it I havent got the ruled accountbook I have
none of the taxgathering elements in my composition I am not at all
respectable and I dont want to be Odd perhaps but so it is«
It was idle to say more so I proposed that we should join Ada and Richard
who were a little in advance and I gave up Mr Skimpole in despair He had been
over the Hall in the course of the morning and whimsically described the family
pictures as we walked There were such portentous shepherdesses among the Ladies
Dedlock dead and gone he told us that peaceful crooks became weapons of
assault in their hands They tended their flocks severely in buckram and powder
and put their stickingplaster patches on to terrify commoners as the chiefs of
some other tribes put on their warpaint There was a Sir Somebody Dedlock with
a battle a sprungmine volumes of smoke flashes of lightning a town on fire
and a stormed fort all in full action between his horses two hind legs
showing he supposed how little a Dedlock made of such trifles The whole race
he represented as having evidently been in life what he called stuffed people
a large collection glassy eyed set up in the most approved manner on their
various twigs and perches very correct perfectly free from animation and
always in glass cases
I was not so easy now during any reference to the name but that I felt it
a relief when Richard with an exclamation of surprise hurried away to meet a
stranger whom he first descried coming slowly towards us
»Dear me« said Mr Skimpole »Vholes«
We asked if that were a friend of Richards
»Friend and legal adviser« said Mr Skimpole »Now my dear Miss Summerson
if you want common sense responsibility and respectability all united if
you want an exemplary man Vholes is the man«
We had not known we said that Richard was assisted by any gentleman of
that name
»When he emerged from legal infancy« returned Mr Skimpole »he parted from
our conversational friend Kenge and took up I believe with Vholes Indeed I
know he did because I introduced him to Vholes«
»Had you known him long« asked Ada
»Vholes My dear Miss Clare I had had that kind of acquaintance with him
which I have had with several gentlemen of his profession He had done something
or other in a very agreeable civil manner taken proceedings I think is the
expression which ended in the proceeding of his taking me Somebody was so
good as to step in and pay the money something and fourpence was the amount I
forget the pounds and shillings but I know it ended with fourpence because it
struck me at the time as being so odd that I could owe anybody fourpence and
after that I brought them together Vholes asked me for the introduction and I
gave it Now I come to think of it« he looked inquiringly at us with his
frankest smile as he made the discovery »Vholes bribed me perhaps He gave me
something and called it commission Was it a fivepound note Do you know I
think it must have been a fivepound note«
His further consideration of the point was prevented by Richards coming
back to us in an excited state and hastily presenting Mr Vholes a sallow man
with pinched lips that looked as if they were cold a red eruption here and
there upon his face tall and thin about fifty years of age highshouldered
and stooping Dressed in black blackgloved and buttoned to the chin there
was nothing so remarkable in him as a lifeless manner and a slow fixed way he
had of looking at Richard
»I hope I dont disturb you ladies« said Mr Vholes and now I observed
that he was further remarkable for an inward manner of speaking »I arranged
with Mr Carstone that he should always know when his cause was in the
Chancellors paper and being informed by one of my clerks last night after post
time that it stood rather unexpectedly in the paper for tomorrow I put
myself into the coach early this morning and came down to confer with him«
»Yes« said Richard flushed and looking triumphantly at Ada and me »we
dont do these things in the old slow way now We spin along now Mr Vholes
we must hire something to get over to the post town in and catch the mail
tonight and go up by it«
»Anything you please sir« returned Mr Vholes »I am quite at your
service«
»Let me see« said Richard looking at his watch »If I run down to the
Dedlock and get my portmanteau fastened up and order a gig or a chaise or
whatevers to be got we shall have an hour then before starting Ill come back
to tea Cousin Ada will you and Esther take care of Mr Vholes when I am gone«
He was away directly in his heat and hurry and was soon lost in the dusk
of evening We who were left walked on towards the house
»Is Mr Carstones presence necessary tomorrow sir« said I »Can it do
any good«
»No miss« Mr Vholes replied »I am not aware that it can«
Both Ada and I expressed our regret that he should go then only to be
disappointed
»Mr Carstone has laid down the principle of watching his own interests«
said Mr Vholes »and when a client lays down his own principle and it is not
immoral it devolves upon me to carry it out I wish in business to be exact and
open I am a widower with three daughters Emma Jane and Caroline and my
desire is so to discharge the duties of life as to leave them a good name This
appears to be a pleasant spot miss«
The remark being made to me in consequence of my being next him as we
walked I assented and enumerated its chief attractions
»Indeed« said Mr Vholes »I have the privilege of supporting an aged
father in the Vale of Taunton his native place and I admire that country
very much I had no idea there was anything so attractive here«
To keep up the conversation I asked Mr Vholes if he would like to live
altogether in the country
»There miss« said he »you touch me on a tender string My health is not
good my digestion being much impaired and if I had only myself to consider I
should take refuge in rural habits especially as the cares of business have
prevented me from ever coming much into contact with general society and
particularly with ladies society which I have most wished to mix in But with
my three daughters Emma Jane and Caroline and my aged father I cannot
afford to be selfish It is true I have no longer to maintain a dear
grandmother who died in her hundredandsecond year but enough remains to
render it indispensable that the mill should be always going«
It required some attention to hear him on account of his inward speaking
and his lifeless manner
»You will excuse my having mentioned my daughters« he said »They are my
weak point I wish to leave the poor girls some little independence as well as
a good name«
We now arrived at Mr Boythorns house where the teatable all prepared
was awaiting us Richard came in restless and hurried shortly afterwards and
leaning over Mr Vholess chair whispered something in his ear Mr Vholes
replied aloud or as nearly aloud I suppose as he had ever replied to anything
»You will drive me will you sir It is all the same to me sir Anything you
please I am quite at your service«
We understood from what followed that Mr Skimpole was to be left until the
morning to occupy the two places which had been already paid for As Ada and I
were both in low spirits concerning Richard and very sorry so to part with him
we made it as plain as we politely could that we should leave Mr Skimpole to
the Dedlock Arms and retire when the nighttravellers were gone
Richards high spirits carrying everything before them we all went out
together to the top of the hill above the village where he had ordered a gig to
wait and where we found a man with a lantern standing at the head of the gaunt
pale horse that had been harnessed to it
I never shall forget those two seated side by side in the lanterns light
Richard all flush and fire and laughter with the reins in his hand Mr
Vholes quite still blackgloved and buttoned up looking at him as if he were
looking at his prey and charming it I have before me the whole picture of the
warm dark night the summer lightning the dusty track of road closed in by
hedgerows and high trees the gaunt pale horse with his ears pricked up and the
driving away at speed to Jarndyce and Jarndyce
My dear girl told me that night how Richards being thereafter prosperous
or ruined befriended or deserted could only make this difference to her that
the more he needed love from one unchanging heart the more love that unchanging
heart would have to give him how he thought of her through his present errors
and she would think of him at all times never of herself if she could devote
herself to him never of her own delights if she could minister to his
And she kept her word
I look along the road before me where the distance already shortens and the
journeys end is growing visible and true and good above the dead sea of the
Chancery suit and all the ashy fruit it cast ashore I think I see my darling
Chapter XXXVIII
A Struggle
When our time came for returning to Bleak House again we were punctual to the
day and were received with an overpowering welcome I was perfectly restored to
health and strength and finding my housekeeping keys laid ready for me in my
room rang myself in as if I had been a new year with a merry little peal
»Once more duty duty Esther« said I »and if you are not overjoyed to do it
more than cheerfully and contentedly through anything and everything you ought
to be Thats all I have to say to you my dear«
The first few mornings were mornings of so much bustle and business devoted
to such settlements of accounts such repeated journeys to and fro between the
Growlery and all other parts of the house so many rearrangements of drawers
and presses and such a general new beginning altogether that I had not a
moments leisure But when these arrangements were completed and everything was
in order I paid a visit of a few hours to London which something in the letter
I had destroyed at Chesney Wold had induced me to decide upon in my own mind
I made Caddy Jellyby her maiden name was so natural to me that I always
called her by it the pretext for this visit and wrote her a note previously
asking the favour of her company on a little business expedition Leaving home
very early in the morning I got to London by stagecoach in such good time
that I got to Newman Street with the day before me
Caddy who had not seen me since her weddingday was so glad and so
affectionate that I was halfinclined to fear I should make her husband jealous
But he was in his way just as bad I mean as good and in short it was the
old story and nobody would leave me any possibility of doing anything
meritorious
The elder Mr Turveydrop was in bed I found and Caddy was milling his
chocolate which a melancholy little boy who was an apprentice it seemed such
a curious thing to be apprenticed to the trade of dancing was waiting to carry
upstairs Her fatherinlaw was extremely kind and considerate Caddy told me
and they lived most happily together When she spoke of their living together
she meant that the old gentleman had all the good things and all the good
lodging while she and her husband had what they could get and were poked into
two corner rooms over the Mews
»And how is your mama Caddy« said I
»Why I hear of her Esther« replied Caddy »through Pa but I see very
little of her We are good friends I am glad to say but Ma thinks there is
something absurd in my having married a dancingmaster and she is rather afraid
of its extending to her«
It struck me that if Mrs Jellyby had discharged her own natural duties and
obligations before she swept the horizon with a telescope in search of others
she would have taken the best precautions against becoming absurd but I need
scarcely observe that I kept this to myself
»And your papa Caddy«
»He comes here every evening« returned Caddy »and is so fond of sitting in
the corner there that its a treat to see him«
Looking at the corner I plainly perceived the mark of Mr Jellybys head
against the wall It was consolatory to know that he had found such a
restingplace for it
»And you Caddy« said I »you are always busy Ill be bound«
»Well my dear« returned Caddy »I am indeed for to tell you a grand
secret I am qualifying myself to give lessons Princes health is not strong
and I want to be able to assist him What with schools and classes here and
private pupils and the apprentices he really has too much to do poor fellow«
The notion of the apprentices was still so odd to me that I asked Caddy if
there were many of them
»Four« said Caddy »One indoor and three out They are very good
children only when they get together they will play childrenlike instead
of attending to their work So the little boy you saw just now waltzes by
himself in the empty kitchen and we distribute the others over the house as
well as we can«
»That is only for their steps of course« said I
»Only for their steps« said Caddy »In that way they practise so many
hours at a time whatever steps they happen to be upon They dance in the
academy and at this time of year we do Figures at five every morning«
»Why what a laborious life« I exclaimed
»I assure you my dear« returned Caddy smiling »when the outdoor
apprentices ring us up in the morning the bell rings into our room not to
disturb old Mr Turveydrop and when I put up the window and see them standing
on the doorstep with their little pumps under their arms I am actually
reminded of the Sweeps«
All this presented the art to me in a singular light to be sure Caddy
enjoyed the effect of her communication and cheerfully recounted the
particulars of her own studies
»You see my dear to save expense I ought to know something of the Piano
and I ought to know something of the Kit too and consequently I have to
practise those two instruments as well as the details of our profession If Ma
had been like anybody else I might have had some little musical knowledge to
begin upon However I hadnt any and that part of the work is at first a
little discouraging I must allow But I have a very good ear and I am used to
drudgery I have to thank Ma for that at all events and where theres a will
theres a way you know Esther the world over« Saying these words Caddy
laughingly sat down at a little jingling square piano and really rattled off a
quadrille with great spirit Then she goodhumouredly and blushingly got up
again and while she still laughed herself said »Dont laugh at me please
thats a dear girl«
I would sooner have cried but I did neither I encouraged her and praised
her with all my heart For I conscientiously believed dancingmasters wife
though she was and dancingmistress though in her limited ambition she aspired
to be she had struck out a natural wholesome loving course of industry and
perseverance that was quite as good as a Mission
»My dear« said Caddy delighted »you cant think how you cheer me I shall
owe you you dont know how much What changes Esther even in my small world
You recollect that first night when I was so unpolite and inky Who would have
thought then of my ever teaching people to dance of all other possibilities
and impossibilities«
Her husband who had left us while we had this chat now coming back
preparatory to exercising the apprentices in the ballroom Caddy informed me
she was quite at my disposal But it was not my time yet I was glad to tell
her for I should have been vexed to take her away then Therefore we three
adjourned to the apprentices together and I made one in the dance
The apprentices were the queerest little people Besides the melancholy boy
who I hoped had not been made so by waltzing alone in the empty kitchen there
were two other boys and one dirty little limp girl in a gauzy dress Such a
precocious little girl with such a dowdy bonnet on that too of a gauzy
texture who brought her sandalled shoes in an old threadbare velvet reticule
Such mean little boys when they were not dancing with string and marbles and
crampbones in their pockets and the most untidy legs and feet and heels
particularly
I asked Caddy what had made their parents choose this profession for them
Caddy said she didnt know perhaps they were designed for teachers perhaps for
the stage They were all people in humble circumstances and the melancholy
boys mother kept a gingerbeer shop
We danced for an hour with great gravity the melancholy child doing wonders
with his lower extremities in which there appeared to be some sense of
enjoyment though it never rose above his waist Caddy while she was observant
of her husband and was evidently founded upon him had acquired a grace and
selfpossession of her own which united to her pretty face and figure was
uncommonly agreeable She already relieved him of much of the instruction of
these young people and he seldom interfered except to walk his part in the
figure if he had anything to do in it He always played the tune The
affectation of the gauzy child and her condescension to the boys was a sight
And thus we danced an hour by the clock
When the practice was concluded Caddys husband made himself ready to go
out of town to a school and Caddy ran away to get ready to go out with me I
sat in the ballroom in the interval contemplating the apprentices The two
outdoor boys went upon the staircase to put on their halfboots and pull the
indoor boys hair as I judged from the nature of his objections Returning
with their jackets buttoned and their pumps stuck in them they then produced
packets of cold bread and meat and bivouacked under a painted lyre on the wall
The little gauzy child having whisked her sandals into the reticule and put on
a troddendown pair of shoes shook her head into the dowdy bonnet at one shake
and answering my inquiry whether she liked dancing by replying »Not with
boys« tied it across her chin and went home contemptuous
»Old Mr Turveydrop is so sorry« said Caddy »that he has not finished
dressing yet and cannot have the pleasure of seeing you before you go You are
such a favourite of his Esther«
I expressed myself much obliged to him but did not think it necessary to
add that I readily dispensed with this attention
»It takes him a long time to dress« said Caddy »because he is very much
looked up to in such things you know and has a reputation to support You
cant think how kind he is to Pa He talks to Pa of an evening about the
Prince Regent and I never saw Pa so interested«
There was something in the picture of Mr Turveydrop bestowing his
Deportment on Mr Jellyby that quite took my fancy I asked Caddy if he
brought her papa out much
»No« said Caddy »I dont know that he does that but he talks to Pa and
Pa greatly admires him and listens and likes it Of course I am aware that Pa
has hardly any claims to Deportment but they get on together delightfully You
cant think what good companions they make I never saw Pa take snuff before in
my life but he takes one pinch out of Mr Turveydrops box regularly and keeps
putting it to his nose and taking it away again all the evening«
That old Mr Turveydrop should ever in the chances and changes of life
have come to the rescue of Mr Jellyby from BorrioboolaGha appeared to me to
be one of the pleasantest of oddities
»As to Peepy« said Caddy with a little hesitation »whom I was most afraid
of next to having any family of my own Esther as an inconvenience to Mr
Turveydrop the kindness of the old gentleman to that child is beyond
everything He asks to see him my dear He lets him take the newspaper up to
him in bed he gives him the crusts of his toast to eat he sends him on little
errands about the house he tells him to come to me for sixpences In short«
said Caddy cheerily »and not to prose I am a very fortunate girl and ought
to be very grateful Where are we going Esther«
»To the Old Street Road« said I »where I have a few words to say to the
solicitors clerk who was sent to meet me at the coachoffice on the very day
when I came to London and first saw you my dear Now I think of it the
gentleman who brought us to your house«
»Then indeed I seem to be naturally the person to go with you« returned
Caddy
To the Old Street Road we went and there inquired at Mrs Guppys residence
for Mrs Guppy Mrs Guppy occupying the parlours and having indeed been
visibly in danger of cracking herself like a nut in the front parlourdoor by
peeping out before she was asked for immediately presented herself and
requested us to walk in She was an old lady in a large cap with rather a red
nose and rather an unsteady eye but smiling all over Her close little
sittingroom was prepared for a visit and there was a portrait of her son in
it which I had almost written here was more like than life it insisted upon
him with such obstinacy and was so determined not to let him off
Not only was the portrait there but we found the original there too He was
dressed in a great many colours and was discovered at a table reading
lawpapers with his forefinger to his forehead
»Miss Summerson« said Mr Guppy rising »this is indeed an Oasis Mother
will you be so good as to put a chair for the other lady and get out of the
gangway«
Mrs Guppy whose incessant smiling gave her quite a waggish appearance did
as her son requested and then sat down in a corner holding her
pockethandkerchief to her chest like a fomentation with both hands
I presented Caddy and Mr Guppy said that any friend of mine was more than
welcome I then proceeded to the object of my visit
»I took the liberty of sending you a note sir« said I
Mr Guppy acknowledged the receipt by taking it out of his breastpocket
putting it to his lips and returning it to his pocket with a bow Mr Guppys
mother was so diverted that she rolled her head as she smiled and made a silent
appeal to Caddy with her elbow
»Could I speak to you alone for a moment« said I
Anything like the jocoseness of Mr Guppys mother just now I think I never
saw She made no sound of laughter but she rolled her head and shook it and
put her handkerchief to her mouth and appealed to Caddy with her elbow and her
hand and her shoulder and was so unspeakably entertained altogether that it
was with some difficulty she could marshal Caddy through the little foldingdoor
into her bedroom adjoining
»Miss Summerson« said Mr Guppy »you will excuse the waywardness of a
parent ever mindful of a sons appiness My mother though highly exasperating
to the feelings is actuated by maternal dictates«
I could hardly have believed that anybody could in a moment have turned so
red or changed so much as Mr Guppy did when I now put up my veil
»I asked the favour of seeing you for a few moments here« said I »in
preference to calling at Mr Kenges because remembering what you said on an
occasion when you spoke to me in confidence I feared I might otherwise cause
you some embarrassment Mr Guppy«
I caused him embarrassment enough as it was I am sure I never saw such
faltering such confusion such amazement and apprehension
»Miss Summerson« stammered Mr Guppy »I I beg your pardon but in our
profession we we find it necessary to be explicit You have reffered to an
occasion miss when I when I did myself the honour of making a declaration
which «
Something seemed to rise in his throat that he could not possibly swallow
He put his hand there coughed made faces tried again to swallow it coughed
again made faces again looked all round the room and fluttered his papers
»A kind of giddy sensation has come upon me miss« he explained »which
rather knocks me over I er a little subject to this sort of thing er By
George«
I gave him a little time to recover He consumed it in putting his hand to
his forehead and taking it away again and in backing his chair into the corner
behind him
»My intention was to remark miss« said Mr Guppy » dear me something
bronchial I think hem to remark that you was so good on that occasion as
to repel and repudiate that declaration You you wouldnt perhaps object to
admit that Though no witnesses are present it might be a satisfaction to to
your mind if you was to put in that admission«
»There can be no doubt« said I »that I declined your proposal without any
reservation or qualification whatever Mr Guppy«
»Thank you miss« he returned measuring the table with his troubled hands
»So far thats satisfactory and it does you credit Er this is certainly
bronchial must be in the tubes er you wouldnt perhaps be offended if I
was to mention not that its necessary for your own good sense or any
persons sense must show em that if I was to mention that such declaration on
my part was final and there terminated«
»I quite understand that« said I
»Perhaps er it may not be worth the form, but it might be a satisfaction
to your mind perhaps you wouldnt object to admit that miss« said Mr Guppy
»I admit it most fully and freely« said I
»Thank you« returned Mr Guppy »Very honourable I am sure I regret that
my arrangements in life combined with circumstances over which I have no
control will put it out of my power ever to fall back upon that offer or to
renew it in any shape or form whatever but it will ever be a retrospect
entwined er with friendships bowers« Mr Guppys bronchitis came to his
relief and stopped his measurement of the table
»I may now perhaps mention what I wished to say to you« I began
»I shall be honoured I am sure« said Mr Guppy »I am so persuaded that
your own good sense and right feeling miss will will keep you as square as
possible that I can have nothing but pleasure I am sure in hearing any
observation you may wish to offer«
»You were so good as to imply on that occasion «
»Excuse me miss« said Mr Guppy »but we had better not travel out of the
record into implication I cannot admit that I implied anything«
»You said on that occasion« I recommenced »that you might possibly have
the means of advancing my interests and promoting my fortunes by making
discoveries of which I should be the subject I presume that you founded that
belief upon your general knowledge of my being an orphan girl indebted for
everything to the benevolence of Mr Jarndyce Now the beginning and the end of
what I have come to beg of you is Mr Guppy that you will have the kindness to
relinquish all idea of so serving me I have thought of this sometimes and I
have thought of it most lately since I have been ill At length I have
decided in case you should at any time recall that purpose and act upon it in
any way to come to you and assure you that you are altogether mistaken You
could make no discovery in reference to me that would do me the least service
or give me the least pleasure I am acquainted with my personal history and I
have it in my power to assure you that you never can advance my welfare by such
means You may perhaps have abandoned this project a long time If so excuse
my giving you unnecessary trouble If not I entreat you on the assurance I
have given you henceforth to lay it aside I beg you to do this for my peace«
»I am bound to confess« said Mr Guppy »that you express yourself miss
with that good sense and right feeling for which I gave you credit Nothing can
be more satisfactory than such right feeling and if I mistook any intentions on
your part just now I am prepared to tender a full apology I should wish to be
understood miss as hereby offering that apology limiting it as your own
good sense and right feeling will point out the necessity of to the present
proceedings«
I must say for Mr Guppy that the snuffling manner he had had upon him
improved very much He seemed truly glad to be able to do something I asked and
he looked ashamed
»If you will allow me to finish what I have to say at once so that I may
have no occasion to resume« I went on seeing him about to speak »you will do
me a kindness sir I come to you as privately as possible because you
announced this impression of yours to me in a confidence which I have really
wished to respect and which I always have respected as you remember I have
mentioned my illness There really is no reason why I should hesitate to say
that I know very well that any little delicacy I might have had in making a
request to you is quite removed Therefore I make the entreaty I have now
preferred and I hope you will have sufficient consideration for me to accede
to it«
I must do Mr Guppy the further justice of saying that he had looked more
and more ashamed and that he looked most ashamed and very earnest when he now
replied with a burning face
»Upon my word and honour upon my life upon my soul Miss Summerson as I
am a living man Ill act according to your wish Ill never go another step in
opposition to it Ill take my oath to it if it will be any satisfaction to
you In what I promise at this present time touching the matters now in
question« continued Mr Guppy rapidly as if he were repeating a familiar form
of words »I speak the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so «
»I am quite satisfied« said I rising at this point »and I thank you very
much Caddy my dear I am ready«
Mr Guppys mother returned with Caddy now making me the recipient of her
silent laughter and her nudges and we took our leave Mr Guppy saw us to the
door with the air of one who was either imperfectly awake or walking in his
sleep and we left him there staring
But in a minute he came after us down the street without any hat and with
his long hair all blown about and stopped us saying fervently
»Miss Summerson upon my honour and soul you may depend upon me«
»I do« said I »quite confidently«
»I beg your pardon miss« said Mr Guppy going with one leg and staying
with the other »but this lady being present your own witness it might be a
satisfaction to your mind which I should wish to set at rest if you was to
repeat those admissions«
»Well Caddy« said I turning to her »perhaps you will not be surprised
when I tell you my dear that there never has been any engagement «
»No proposal or promise of marriage whatsoever« suggested Mr Guppy
»No proposal or promise of marriage whatsoever« said I »between this
gentleman «
»William Guppy of Penton Place Pentonville in the county of Middlesex« he
murmured
»Between this gentleman Mr William Guppy of Penton Place Pentonville in
the county of Middlesex and myself«
»Thank you miss« said Mr Guppy »Very full er excuse me ladys
name Christian and surname both«
I gave them
»Married woman I believe« said Mr Guppy »Married woman Thank you
Formerly Caroline Jellyby spinster then of Thavies Inn within the city of
London but extraparochial now of Newman Street Oxford Street Much obliged«
He ran home and came running back again
»Touching that matter you know I really and truly am very sorry that my
arrangements in life combined with circumstances over which I have no control
should prevent a renewal of what was wholly terminated some time back« said Mr
Guppy to me forlornly and despondently »but it couldnt be Now could it you
know I only put it to you«
I replied it certainly could not The subject did not admit of a doubt He
thanked me and ran to his mothers again and back again
»Its very honourable of you miss I am sure« said Mr Guppy »If an altar
could be erected in the bowers of friendship but upon my soul you may rely
upon me in every respect save and except the tender passion only«
The struggle in Mr Guppys breast and the numerous oscillations it
occasioned him between his mothers door and us were sufficiently conspicuous
in the windy street particularly as his hair wanted cutting to make us hurry
away I did so with a lightened heart but when we last looked back Mr Guppy
was still oscillating in the same troubled state of mind
Chapter XXXIX
Attorney and Client
The name of MR VHOLES preceded by the legend GROUND FLOOR is inscribed upon a
doorpost in Symonds Inn Chancery Lane a little pale walleyed woebegone
inn like a large dustbin of two compartments and a sifter It looks as if
Symond were a sparing man in his way and constructed his inn of old building
materials which took kindly to the dry rot and to dirt and all things decaying
and dismal and perpetuated Symonds memory with congenial shabbiness Quartered
in this dingy hatchment commemorative of Symond are the legal bearings of Mr
Vholes
Mr Vholess office in disposition retiring and in situation retired is
squeezed up in a corner and blinks at a dead wall Three feet of knotty floored
dark passage bring the client to Mr Vholess jet black door in an angle
profoundly dark on the brightest midsummer morning and encumbered by a black
bulkhead of cellarage staircase against which belated civilians generally
strike their brows Mr Vholess chambers are on so small a scale that one
clerk can open the door without getting off his stool while the other who
elbows him at the same desk has equal facilities for poking the fire A smell as
of unwholesome sheep blending with the smell of must and dust is referable to
the nightly and often daily consumption of mutton fat in candles and to the
fretting of parchment forms and skins in greasy drawers The atmosphere is
otherwise stale and close The place was last painted or whitewashed beyond the
memory of man and the two chimneys smoke and there is a loose outer surface of
soot everywhere and the dull cracked windows in their heavy frames have but one
piece of character in them which is a determination to be always dirty and
always shut unless coerced This accounts for the phenomenon of the weaker of
the two usually having a bundle of firewood thrust between its jaws in hot
weather
Mr Vholes is a very respectable man He has not a large business but he is
a very respectable man He is allowed by the greater attorneys who have made
good fortunes or are making them to be a most respectable man He never misses
a chance in his practice which is a mark of respectability He never takes any
pleasure which is another mark of respectability He is reserved and serious
which is another mark of respectability His digestion is impaired which is
highly respectable And he is making hay of the grass which is flesh for his
three daughters And his father is dependent on him in the Vale of Taunton
The one great principle of the English law is to make business for itself.
There is no other principle distinctly certainly and consistently maintained
through all its narrow turnings Viewed by this light it becomes a coherent
scheme and not the monstrous maze the laity are apt to think it Let them but
once clearly perceive that its grand principle is to make business for itself at
their expense and surely they will cease to grumble
But not perceiving this quite plainly only seeing it by halves in a
confused way the laity sometimes suffer in peace and pocket with a bad grace
and do grumble very much Then this respectability of Mr Vholes is brought into
powerful play against them »Repeal this statute my good sir« says Mr Kenge
to a smarting client »repeal it my dear sir Never with my consent Alter
this law, sir and what will be the effect of your rash proceeding on a class of
practitioners very worthily represented allow me to say to you by the opposite
attorney in the case Mr Vholes Sir that class of practitioners would be
swept from the face of the earth Now you cannot afford I will say the social
system cannot afford to lose an order of men like Mr Vholes Diligent
persevering steady acute in business My dear sir I understand your present
feelings against the existing state of things which I grant to be a little hard
in your case but I can never raise my voice for the demolition of a class of
men like Mr Vholes« The respectability of Mr Vholes has even been cited with
crushing effect before Parliamentary committees as in the following blue
minutes of a distinguished attorneys evidence »Question number five hundred
and seventeen thousand eight hundred and sixtynine If I understand you these
forms of practice indisputably occasion delay Answer Yes some delay
Question And great expense Answer Most assuredly they cannot be gone through
for nothing Question And unspeakable vexation Answer I am not prepared to
say that They have never given me any vexation quite the contrary Question
But you think that their abolition would damage a class of practitioners
Answer I have no doubt of it Question Can you instance any type of that
class Answer Yes I would unhesitatingly mention Mr Vholes He would be
ruined Question Mr Vholes is considered in the profession a respectable
man Answer« which proved fatal to the inquiry for ten years »Mr Vholes is
considered in the profession a most respectable man«
So in familiar conversation private authorities no less disinterested will
remark that they dont know what this age is coming to that we are plunging
down precipices that now here is something else gone that these changes are
death to people like Vholes a man of undoubted respectability with a father in
the Vale of Taunton and three daughters at home Take a few steps more in this
direction say they and what is to become of Vholess father Is he to perish
And of Vholess daughters Are they to be shirtmakers or governesses As
though Mr Vholes and his relations being minor cannibal chiefs and it being
proposed to abolish cannibalism indignant champions were to put the case thus
Make maneating unlawful and you starve the Vholeses
In a word Mr Vholes with his three daughters and his father in the Vale
of Taunton is continually doing duty like a piece of timber to shore up some
decayed foundation that has become a pitfall and a nuisance And with a great
many people in a great many instances the question is never one of a change
from Wrong to Right which is quite an extraneous consideration but is always
one of injury or advantage to that eminently respectable legion Vholes
The Chancellor is within these ten minutes up for the long vacation Mr
Vholes and his young client and several blue bags hastily stuffed out of all
regularity of form as the larger sort of serpents are in their first gorged
state have returned to the official den Mr Vholes quiet and unmoved as a
man of so much respectability ought to be takes off his close black gloves as
if he were skinning his hands lifts off his tight hat as if he were scalping
himself and sits down at his desk The client throws his hat and gloves upon
the ground tosses them anywhere without looking after them or caring where
they go flings himself into a chair half sighing and half groaning rests his
aching head upon his hand and looks the portrait of Young Despair
»Again nothing done« says Richard »Nothing nothing done«
»Dont say nothing done sir« returns the placid Vholes »That is scarcely
fair sir scarcely fair«
»Why what is done« says Richard turning gloomily upon him
»That may not be the whole question« returns Vholes »The question may
branch off into what is doing what is doing«
»And what is doing« asks the moody client
Vholes sitting with his arms on the desk quietly bringing the tips of his
five right fingers to meet the tips of his five left fingers and quietly
separating them again and fixedly and slowly looking at his client replies
»A good deal is doing sir We have put our shoulders to the wheel Mr
Carstone and the wheel is going round«
»Yes with Ixion on it How am I to get through the next four or five
accursed months« exclaims the young man rising from his chair and walking
about the room
»Mr C« returns Vholes following him close with his eyes wherever he
goes »your spirits are hasty and I am sorry for it on your account Excuse me
if I recommend you not to chafe so much not to be so impetuous not to wear
yourself out so You should have more patience You should sustain yourself
better«
»I ought to imitate you in fact Mr Vholes« says Richard sitting down
again with an impatient laugh and beating the Devils Tattoo with his boot on
the patternless carpet
»Sir« returns Vholes always looking at the client as if he were making a
lingering meal of him with his eyes as well as with his professional appetite
»Sir« returns Vholes with his inward manner of speech and his bloodless
quietude »I should not have had the presumption to propose myself as a model
for your imitation or any mans Let me but leave the good name to my three
daughters and that is enough for me I am not a self-seeker But since you
mention me so pointedly I will acknowledge that I should like to impart to you
a little of my come sir you are disposed to call it insensibility and I am
sure I have no objection say insensibility a little of my insensibility«
»Mr Vholes« explains the client somewhat abashed »I had no intention to
accuse you of insensibility«
»I think you had sir without knowing it« returns the equable Vholes
»Very naturally It is my duty to attend to your interests with a cool head and
I can quite understand that to your excited feelings I may appear at such times
as the present insensible My daughters may know me better my aged father may
know me better But they have known me much longer than you have and the
confiding eye of affection is not the distrustful eye of business Not that I
complain sir of the eye of business being distrustful quite the contrary In
attending to your interests I wish to have all possible checks upon me it is
right that I should have them I court inquiry But your interests demand that I
should be cool and methodical Mr Carstone and I cannot be otherwise no
sir not even to please you«
Mr Vholes after glancing at the official cat who is patiently watching a
mouses hole fixes his charmed gaze again on his young client and proceeds in
his buttonedup halfaudible voice as if there were an unclean spirit in him
that will neither come out nor speak out
»What are you to do sir you inquire during the vacation I should hope
you gentlemen of the army may find many means of amusing yourselves if you give
your minds to it If you had asked me what I was to do during the vacation I
could have answered you more readily I am to attend to your interests I am to
be found here day by day attending to your interests That is my duty Mr C
and termtime or vacation makes no difference to me If you wish to consult me
as to your interests you will find me here at all times alike Other
professional men go out of town I dont Not that I blame them for going I
merely say I dont go This desk is your rock sir«
Mr Vholes gives it a rap and it sounds as hollow as a coffin Not to
Richard though There is encouragement in the sound to him Perhaps Mr Vholes
knows there is
»I am perfectly aware Mr Vholes« says Richard more familiarly and
goodhumouredly »that you are the most reliable fellow in the world and that
to have to do with you is to have to do with a man of business who is not to be
hoodwinked But put yourself in my case dragging on this dislocated life
sinking deeper and deeper into difficulty every day continually hoping and
continually disappointed conscious of change upon change for the worse in
myself and of no change for the better in anything else and you will find it a
darklooking case sometimes as I do«
»You know« says Mr Vholes »that I never give hopes sir I told you from
the first Mr C that I never give hopes Particularly in a case like this
where the greater part of the costs comes out of the estate I should not be
considerate of my good name if I gave hopes It might seem as if costs were my
object Still when you say there is no change for the better I must as a bare
matter of fact, deny that«
»Aye« returns Richard brightening »But how do you make it out«
»Mr Carstone you are represented by «
»You said just now a rock«
»Yes sir« says Mr Vholes gently shaking his head and rapping the hollow
desk with a sound as if ashes were falling on ashes and dust on dust »a rock
Thats something You are separately represented and no longer hidden and lost
in the interests of others Thats something The suit does not sleep we wake
it up we air it we walk it about Thats something Its not all Jarndyce in
fact as well as in name Thats something Nobody has it all his own way now
sir And thats something surely«
Richard his face flushing suddenly strikes the desk with his clenched
hand
»Mr Vholes If any man had told me when I first went to John Jarndyces
house that he was anything but the disinterested friend he seemed that he was
what he has gradually turned out to be I could have found no words strong
enough to repel the slander I could not have defended him too ardently So
little did I know of the world Whereas now I do declare to you that he
becomes to me the embodiment of the suit that in place of its being an
abstraction it is John Jarndyce that the more I suffer the more indignant I
am with him that every new delay and every new disappointment is only a new
injury from John Jarndyces hand«
»No no« says Vholes »Dont say so We ought to have patience all of us
Besides I never disparage sir I never disparage«
»Mr Vholes« returns the angry client »You know as well as I that he
would have strangled the suit if he could«
»He was not active in it« Mr Vholes admits with an appearance of
reluctance »He certainly was not active in it But however but however he
might have had amiable intentions Who can read the heart Mr C«
»You can« returns Richard
»I Mr C«
»Well enough to know what his intentions were Are or are not our
interests conflicting Tell me that« says Richard accompanying his last
three words with three raps on his rock of trust
»Mr C« returns Vholes immovable in attitude and never winking his hungry
eyes »I should be wanting in my duty as your professional adviser I should be
departing from my fidelity to your interests if I represented those interests
as identical with the interests of Mr Jarndyce They are no such thing sir I
never impute motives I both have and am a father and I never impute motives
But I must not shrink from a professional duty even if it sows dissensions in
families I understand you to be now consulting me professionally as to your
interests You are so I reply then they are not identical with those of Mr
Jarndyce«
»Of course they are not« cries Richard »You found that out long ago«
»Mr C« returns Vholes »I wish to say no more of any third party than is
necessary I wish to leave my good name unsullied together with any little
property of which I may become possessed through industry and perseverance to
my daughters Emma Jane and Caroline I also desire to live in amity with my
professional brethren When Mr Skimpole did me the honour sir I will not say
the very high honour for I never stoop to flattery of bringing us together in
this room I mentioned to you that I could offer no opinion or advice as to your
interests while those interests were intrusted to another member of the
profession And I spoke in such terms as I was bound to speak of Kenge and
Carboys office which stands high You sir thought fit to withdraw your
interests from that keeping nevertheless and to offer them to me You brought
them with clean hands sir and I accepted them with clean hands Those
interests are now paramount in this office My digestive functions as you may
have heard me mention are not in a good state and rest might improve them but
I shall not rest sir while I am your representative Whenever you want me you
will find me here Summon me anywhere and I will come During the long
vacation sir I shall devote my leisure to studying your interests more and
more closely and to making arrangements for moving heaven and earth including
of course the Chancellor after Michaelmas term and when I ultimately
congratulate you sir« says Mr Vholes with the severity of a determined man
»when I ultimately congratulate you sir with all my heart on your accession
to fortune which but that I never give hopes I might say something further
about you will owe me nothing beyond whatever little balance may be then
outstanding of the costs as between solicitor and client not included in the
taxed costs allowed out of the estate I pretend to no claim upon you Mr C
but for the zealous and active discharge not the languid and routine
discharge sir that much credit I stipulate for of my professional duty My
duty prosperously ended all between us is ended«
Vholes finally adds by way of rider to this declaration of his principles
that as Mr Carstone is about to rejoin his regiment perhaps Mr C will favour
him with an order on his agent for twenty pounds on account
»For there have been many little consultations and attendances of late
sir« observes Vholes turning over the leaves of his Diary »and these things
mount up and I dont profess to be a man of capital When we first entered on
our present relations I stated to you openly it is a principle of mine that
there never can be too much openness between solicitor and client that I was
not a man of capital and that if capital was your object you had better leave
your papers in Kenges office No Mr C you will find none of the advantages
or disadvantages of capital here sir This« Vhole gives the desk one hollow
blow again »is your rock it pretends to be nothing more«
The client with his dejection insensibly relieved and his vague hopes
rekindled takes pen and ink and writes the draft not without perplexed
consideration and calculation of the date it may bear implying scant effects in
the agents hands All the while Vholes buttoned up in body and mind looks at
him attentively All the while Vholess official cat watches the mouses hole
Lastly the client shaking hands beseeches Mr Vholes for Heavens sake
and Earths sake to do his utmost to pull him through the Court of Chancery
Mr Vholes who never gives hopes lays his palm upon the clients shoulder and
answers with a smile »Always here sir Personally or by letter you will
always find me here sir with my shoulder to the wheel« Thus they part and
Vholes left alone employs himself in carrying sundry little matters out of his
Diary into his draft bill book for the ultimate behoof of his three daughters
So might an industrious fox or bear make up his account of chickens or stray
travellers with an eye to his cubs not to disparage by that word the three
rawvisaged lank and buttonedup maidens who dwell with the parent Vholes in
an earthy cottage situated in a damp garden at Kennington
Richard emerging from the heavy shade of Symonds Inn into the sunshine of
Chancery Lane for there happens to be sunshine there today walks
thoughtfully on and turns into Lincolns Inn and passes under the shadow of
the Lincolns Inn trees On many such loungers have the speckled shadows of
those trees often fallen on the like bent head the bitten nail the lowering
eye the lingering step the purposeless and dreamy air the good consuming and
consumed the life turned sour This lounger is not shabby yet but that may
come Chancery which knows no wisdom but in Precedent is very rich in such
Precedents and why should one be different from ten thousand
Yet the time is so short since his depreciation began that as he saunters
away reluctant to leave the spot for some long months together though he hates
it Richard himself may feel his own case as if it were a startling one While
his heart is heavy with corroding care suspense distrust and doubt it may
have room for some sorrowful wonder when he recalls how different his first
visit there how different he how different all the colours of his mind But
injustice breeds injustice the fighting with shadows and being defeated by
them necessitates the setting up of substances to combat from the impalpable
suit which no man alive can understand the time for that being long gone by it
has become a gloomy relief to turn to the palpable figure of the friend who
would have saved him from this ruin and make him his enemy Richard has told
Vholes the truth Is he in a hardened or a softened mood he still lays his
injuries equally at that door he was thwarted in that quarter of a set
purpose and that purpose could only originate in the one subject that is
resolving his existence into itself; besides it is a justification to him in
his own eyes to have an embodied antagonist and oppressor
Is Richard a monster in all this or would Chancery be found rich in such
Precedents too if they could be got for citation from the Recording Angel
Two pairs of eyes not unused to such people look after him as biting his
nails and brooding he crosses the square and is swallowed up by the shadow of
the southern gateway Mr Guppy and Mr Weevle are the possessors of those eyes
and they have been leaning in conversation against the low stone parapet under
the trees He passed close by them seeing nothing but the ground
»William« says Mr Weevle adjusting his whiskers »theres combustion
going on there Its not a case of Spontaneous but its smouldering combustion
it is«
»Ah« says Mr Guppy »he wouldnt keep out of Jarndyce and I suppose hes
over head and ears in debt I never knew much of him He was as high as the
Monument when he was on trial at our place A good riddance to me whether as
clerk or client Well Tony that as I was mentioning is what theyre up to«
Mr Guppy refolding his arms resettles himself against the parapet as
resuming a conversation of interest
»They are still up to it sir« says Mr Guppy »still taking stock still
examining papers still going over the heaps and heaps of rubbish At this rate
theyll be at it these seven years«
»And Small is helping«
»Small left us at a weeks notice Told Kenge his grandfathers business
was too much for the old gentleman and he could better himself by undertaking
it There had been a coolness between myself and Small on account of his being
so close But he said you and I began it and as he had me there for we did
I put our acquaintance on the old footing Thats how I come to know what
theyre up to«
»You havent looked in at all«
»Tony« says Mr Guppy a little disconcerted »to be unreserved with you I
dont greatly relish the house except in your company and therefore I have
not and therefore I proposed this little appointment for our fetching away your
things There goes the hour by the clock Tony« Mr Guppy becomes mysteriously
and tenderly eloquent »it is necessary that I should impress upon your mind
once more that circumstances over which I have no control have made a
melancholy alteration in my most cherished plans and in that unrequited image
which I formerly mentioned to you as a friend That image is shattered and that
idol is laid low My only wish now in connexion with the objects which I had an
idea of carrying out in the court with your aid as a friend is to let em
alone and bury em in oblivion Do you think it possible do you think it at all
likely I put it to you Tony as a friend from your knowledge of that
capricious and deep old character who fell a prey to the Spontaneous element
do you Tony think it at all likely that on second thoughts he put those
letters away anywhere after you saw him alive and that they were not destroyed
that night«
Mr Weevle reflects for some time Shakes his head Decidedly thinks not
»Tony« says Mr Guppy as they walk towards the court »once again
understand me as a friend Without entering into further explanations I may
repeat that the idol is down I have no purpose to serve now but burial in
oblivion To that I have pledged myself I owe it to myself and I owe it to the
shattered image as also to the circumstances over which I have no control If
you was to express to me by a gesture by a wink that you saw lying anywhere in
your late lodgings any papers that so much as looked like the papers in
question I would pitch them into the fire sir on my own responsibility«
Mr Weevle nods Mr Guppy much elevated in his own opinion by having
delivered these observations with an air in part forensic and in part romantic
this gentleman having a passion for conducting anything in the form of an
examination or delivering anything in the form of a summing up or a speech
accompanies his friend with dignity to the court
Never since it has been a court has it had such a Fortunatuss purse of
gossip as in the proceedings at the rag and bottle shop Regularly every
morning at eight is the elder Mr Smallweed brought down to the corner and
carried in accompanied by Mrs Smallweed Judy and Bart and regularly all
day do they all remain there until nine at night solaced by gipsy dinners not
abundant in quantity from the cooks shop rummaging and searching digging
delving and diving among the treasures of the late lamented What those
treasures are they keep so secret that the court is maddened In its delirium
it imagines guineas pouring out of teapots crownpieces overflowing
punchbowls old chairs and mattresses stuffed with Bank of England notes It
possesses itself of the sixpenny history with highlycoloured folding
frontispiece of Mr Daniel Dancer and his sister and also of Mr Elwes of
Suffolk and transfers all the facts from those authentic narratives to Mr
Krook Twice when the dustman is called in to carry off a cartload of old paper
ashes and broken bottles the whole court assembles and pries into the baskets
as they come forth Many times the two gentlemen who write with the ravenous
little pens on the tissue paper are seen prowling in the neighbourhood shy of
each other their late partnership being dissolved The Sol skilfully carries a
vein of the prevailing interest through the Harmonic nights Little Swills in
what are professionally known as patter allusions to the subject is received
with loud applause and the same vocalist gags in the regular business like a
man inspired Even Miss M Melvilleson in the revived Caledonian melody of
»Were a nodding« points the sentiment that the dogs love broo whatever the
nature of that refreshment may be with such archness and such a turn of the
head towards next door that she is immediately understood to mean Mr
Smallweed loves to find money and is nightly honoured with a double encore For
all this the court discovers nothing and as Mrs Piper and Mrs Perkins now
communicate to the late lodger whose appearance is the signal for a general
rally it is in one continual ferment to discover everything and more
Mr Weevle and Mr Guppy with every eye in the courts head upon them
knock at the closed door of the late lamenteds house in a high state of
popularity But being contrary to the courts expectation admitted they
immediately become unpopular and are considered to mean no good
The shutters are more or less closed all over the house and the
groundfloor is sufficiently dark to require candles Introduced into the back
shop by Mr Smallweed the younger they fresh from the sunlight can at first
see nothing save darkness and shadows but they gradually discern the elder Mr
Smallweed seated in his chair upon the brink of a well or grave of waste paper
the virtuous Judy groping therein like a female sexton and Mrs Smallweed on
the level ground in the vicinity snowed up in a heap of paper fragments print
and manuscript which would appear to be the accumulated compliments that have
been sent flying at her in the course of the day The whole party Small
included are blackened with dust and dirt and present a fiendish appearance
not relieved by the general aspect of the room There is more litter and lumber
in it than of old and it is dirtier if possible likewise it is ghostly with
traces of its dead inhabitant and even with his chalked writing on the wall
On the entrance of visitors Mr Smallweed and Judy simultaneously fold
their arms and stop in their researches
»Aha« croaks the old gentleman »How de do gentlemen how de do Come to
fetch your property Mr Weevle Thats well thats well Ha ha We should
have been forced to sell you up sir to pay your warehouse room if you had
left it here much longer You feel quite at home here again I dare say Glad
to see you glad to see you«
Mr Weevle thanking him casts an eye about Mr Guppys eye follows Mr
Weevles eye Mr Weevles eye comes back without any new intelligence in it
Mr Guppys eye comes back and meets Mr Smallweeds eye That engaging old
gentleman is still murmuring like some woundup instrument running down »How
de do sir how de how « And then having run down he lapses into grinning
silence as Mr Guppy starts at seeing Mr Tulkinghorn standing in the darkness
opposite with his hands behind him
»Gentleman so kind as to act as my solicitor« says Grandfather Smallweed
»I am not the sort of client for a gentleman of such note but he is so good«
Mr Guppy slightly nudging his friend to take another look makes a
shuffling bow to Mr Tulkinghorn who returns it with an easy nod Mr
Tulkinghorn is looking on as if he had nothing else to do and were rather
amused by the novelty
»A good deal of property here sir I should say« Mr Guppy observes to Mr
Smallweed
»Principally rags and rubbish my dear friend rags and rubbish Me and
Bart and my granddaughter Judy are endeavouring to make out an inventory of
whats worth anything to sell But we havent come to much as yet we havent
come to hah«
Mr Smallweed has run down again while Mr Weevles eye attended by Mr
Guppys eye has again gone round the room and come back
»Well sir« says Mr Weevle »We wont intrude any longer if youll allow
us to go upstairs«
»Anywhere my dear sir anywhere Youre at home Make yourself so pray«
As they go upstairs Mr Guppy lifts his eyebrows inquiringly and looks at
Tony Tony shakes his head They find the old room very dull and dismal with
the ashes of the fire that was burning on that memorable night yet in the
discoloured grate They have a great disinclination to touch any object and
carefully blow the dust from it first Nor are they desirous to prolong their
visit packing the few movables with all possible speed and never speaking
above a whisper
»Look here« says Tony recoiling »Heres that horrible cat coming in«
Mr Guppy retreats behind a chair »Small told me of her She went leaping
and bounding and tearing about that night like a Dragon and got out on the
housetop and roamed about up there for a fortnight and then came tumbling
down the chimney very thin Did you ever see such a brute Looks as if she knew
all about it dont she Almost looks as if she was Krook Shoohoo Get out you
goblin«
Lady Jane in the doorway with her tigersnarl from ear to ear and her club
of a tail shows no intention of obeying but Mr Tulkinghorn stumbling over
her she spits at his rusty legs and swearing wrathfully takes her arched back
upstairs Possibly to roam the housetops again and return by the chimney
»Mr Guppy« says Mr Tulkinghorn »could I have a word with you«
Mr Guppy is engaged in collecting the Galaxy Gallery of British Beauty from
the wall and depositing those works of art in their old ignoble bandbox »Sir«
he returns reddening »I wish to act with courtesy towards every member of the
profession and especially I am sure towards a member of it so well known as
yourself I will truly add sir so distinguished as yourself Still Mr
Tulkinghorn sir I must stipulate that if you have any word with me that word
is spoken in the presence of my friend«
»Oh indeed« says Mr Tulkinghorn
»Yes sir My reasons are not of a personal nature at all but they are
amply sufficient for myself«
»No doubt no doubt« Mr Tulkinghorn is as imperturbable as the hearthstone
to which he has quietly walked »The matter is not of that consequence that I
need put you to the trouble of making any conditions Mr Guppy« He pauses here
to smile and his smile is as dull and rusty as his pantaloons »You are to be
congratulated Mr Guppy you are a fortunate young man sir«
»Pretty well so Mr Tulkinghorn I dont complain«
»Complain High friends free admission to great houses and access to
elegant ladies Why Mr Guppy there are people in London who would give their
ears to be you«
Mr Guppy looking as if he would give his own reddening and still reddening
ears to be one of those people at present instead of himself replies »Sir if
I attend to my profession and do what is right by Kenge and Carboy my friends
and acquaintances are of no consequence to them nor to any member of the
profession not excepting Mr Tulkinghorn of the Fields I am not under any
obligation to explain myself further and with all respect for you sir and
without offence I repeat without offence «
»O certainly«
» I dont intend to do it«
»Quite so« says Mr Tulkinghorn with a calm nod »Very good I see by
these portraits that you take a strong interest in the fashionable great sir«
He addresses this to the astounded Tony who admits the soft impeachment
»A virtue in which few Englishmen are deficient« observes Mr Tulkinghorn
He has been standing on the hearthstone with his back to the smoked
chimneypiece and now turns round with his glasses to his eyes »Who is this
Lady Dedlock Ha A very good likeness in its way but it wants force of
character Good day to you gentlemen good day«
When he has walked out Mr Guppy in a great perspiration nerves himself
to the hasty completion of the taking down of the Galaxy Gallery concluding
with Lady Dedlock
»Tony« he says hurriedly to his astonished companion »let us be quick in
putting the things together and in getting out of this place It were in vain
longer to conceal from you Tony that between myself and one of the members of
a swanlike aristocracy whom I now hold in my hand there has been undivulged
communication and association The time might have been when I might have
revealed it to you It never will be more It is due alike to the oath I have
taken alike to the shattered idol and alike to circumstances over which I have
no control that the whole should be buried in oblivion I charge you as a
friend by the interest you have ever testified in the fashionable intelligence
and by any little advances with which I may have been able to accommodate you
so to bury it without a word of inquiry«
This charge Mr Guppy delivers in a state little short of forensic lunacy
while his friend shows a dazed mind in his whole head of hair and even in his
cultivated whiskers
Chapter XL
National and Domestic
England has been in a dreadful state for some weeks Lord Coodle would go out
Sir Thomas Doodle wouldnt come in and there being nobody in Great Britain to
speak of except Coodle and Doodle there has been no Government It is a mercy
that the hostile meeting between those two great men which at one time seemed
inevitable did not come off because if both pistols had taken effect and
Coodle and Doodle had killed each other it is to be presumed that England must
have waited to be governed until young Coodle and young Doodle now in frocks
and long stockings were grown up This stupendous national calamity however
was averted by Lord Coodles making the timely discovery that if in the heat of
debate he had said that he scorned and despised the whole ignoble career of Sir
Thomas Doodle he had merely meant to say that party differences should never
induce him to withhold from it the tribute of his warmest admiration while it
as opportunely turned out on the other hand that Sir Thomas Doodle had in his
own bosom expressly booked Lord Coodle to go down to posterity as the mirror of
virtue and honour Still England has been some weeks in the dismal strait of
having no pilot as was well observed by Sir Leicester Dedlock to weather the
storm and the marvellous part of the matter is that England has not appeared
to care very much about it but has gone on eating and drinking and marrying and
giving in marriage as the old world did in the days before the flood But
Coodle knew the danger and Doodle knew the danger and all their followers and
hangerson had the clearest possible perception of the danger At last Sir
Thomas Doodle has not only condescended to come in but has done it handsomely
bringing in with him all his nephews all his male cousins and all his
brothersinlaw So there is hope for the old ship yet
Doodle has found that he must throw himself upon the country chiefly in
the form of sovereigns and beer In this metamorphosed state he is available in
a good many places simultaneously and can throw himself upon a considerable
portion of the country at one time Britannia being much occupied in pocketing
Doodle in the form of sovereigns and swallowing Doodle in the form of beer and
in swearing herself black in the face that she does neither plainly to the
advancement of her glory and morality the London season comes to a sudden end
through all the Doodleites and Coodleites dispersing to assist in Britannia in
those religious exercises
Hence Mrs Rouncewell housekeeper at Chesney Wold foresees though no
instructions have yet come down that the family may shortly be expected
together with a pretty large accession of cousins and others who can in any way
assist the great Constitutional work And hence the stately old dame taking
Time by the forelock leads him up and down the staircases and along the
galleries and passages and through the rooms to witness before he grows any
older that everything is ready that floors are rubbed bright carpets spread
curtains shaken out beds puffed and patted stillroom and kitchen cleared for
action all things prepared as beseems the Dedlock dignity
This present summer evening as the sun goes down the preparations are
complete Dreary and solemn the old house looks with so many appliances of
habitation and with no inhabitants except the pictured forms upon the walls So
did these come and go a Dedlock in possession might have ruminated passing
along so did they see this gallery hushed and quiet as I see it now so think
as I think of the gap that they would make in this domain when they were gone
so find it as I find it difficult to believe that it could be without them
so pass from my world as I pass from theirs now closing the reverberating
door so leave no blank to miss them and so die
Through some of the fiery windows beautiful from without and set at this
sunset hour not in dull grey stone but in a glorious house of gold the light
excluded at other windows pours in rich lavish overflowing like the summer
plenty in the land Then do the frozen Dedlocks thaw Strange movements come
upon their features as the shadows of leaves play there A dense Justice in a
corner is beguiled into a wink A staring Baronet with a truncheon gets a
dimple in his chin Down into the bosom of a stony shepherdess there steals a
fleck of light and warmth that would have done it good a hundred years ago
One ancestress of Volumnia in highheeled shoes very like her casting the
shadow of that virgin event before her full two centuries shoots out into a
halo and becomes a saint A maid of honour of the court of Charles the Second
with large round eyes and other charms to correspond seems to bathe in
glowing water and it ripples as it glows
But the fire of the sun is dying Even now the floor is dusky and shadow
slowly mounts the walls bringing the Dedlocks down like age and death And now
upon my Ladys picture over the great chimneypiece a weird shade falls from
some old tree that turns it pale and flutters it and looks as if a great arm
held a veil or hood watching an opportunity to draw it over her Higher and
darker rises shadow on the wall now a red gloom on the ceiling now the fire
is out
All that prospect which from the terrace looked so near has moved solemnly
away and changed not the first nor the last of beautiful things that look so
near and will so change into a distant phantom Light mists arise and the dew
falls and all the sweet scents in the garden are heavy in the air Now the
woods settle into great masses as if they were each one profound tree And now
the moon rises to separate them and to glimmer here and there in horizontal
lines behind their stems and to make the avenue a pavement of light among high
cathedral arches fantastically broken
Now the moon is high and the great house needing habitation more than
ever is like a body without life Now it is even awful stealing through it
to think of the live people who have slept in the solitary bedrooms to say
nothing of the dead Now is the time for shadow when every corner is a cavern
and every downward step a pit when the stained glass is reflected in pale and
faded hues upon the floors when anything and everything can be made of the
heavy staircase beams excepting their own proper shapes when the armour has
dull lights upon it not easily to be distinguished from stealthy movement and
when barred helmets are frightfully suggestive of heads inside But of all the
shadows in Chesney Wold the shadow in the long drawingroom upon my Ladys
picture is the first to come the last to be disturbed At this hour and by this
light it changes into threatening hands raised up and menacing the handsome
face with every breath that stirs
»She is not well maam« says a groom in Mrs Rouncewells
audiencechamber
»My Lady not well Whats the matter«
»Why my Lady has been but poorly maam since she was last here I dont
mean with the family maam but when she was here as a bird of passagelike My
Lady has not been out much for her and has kept her room a good deal«
»Chesney Wold Thomas« rejoins the housekeeper with proud complacency
»will set my Lady up There is no finer air and no healthier soil in the
world«
Thomas may have his own personal opinions on this subject probably hints
them in his manner of smoothing his sleek head from the nape of his neck to his
temples but he forbears to express them further and retires to the servants
hall to regale on cold meatpie and ale
This groom is the pilotfish before the nobler shark Next evening down
come Sir Leicester and my Lady with their largest retinue and down come the
cousins and others from all the points of the compass Thenceforth for some
weeks backward and forward rush mysterious men with no names who fly about all
those particular parts of the country on which Doodle is at present throwing
himself in an auriferous and malty shower but who are merely persons of a
restless disposition and never do anything anywhere
On these national occasions Sir Leicester finds the cousins useful A
better man than the Honourable Bob Stables to meet the Hunt at dinner there
could not possibly be Better got up gentlemen than the other cousins to ride
over to pollingbooths and hustings here and there and show themselves on the
side of England it would be hard to find Volumnia is a little dim but she is
of the true descent and there are many who appreciate her sprightly
conversation her French conundrums so old as to have become in the cycles of
time almost new again the honour of taking the fair Dedlock in to dinner or
even the privilege of her hand in the dance On these national occasions
dancing may be a patriotic service and Volumnia is constantly seen hopping
about for the good of an ungrateful and unpensioning country
My Lady takes no great pains to entertain the numerous guests and being
still unwell rarely appears until late in the day But at all the dismal
dinners leaden lunches basilisk balls and other melancholy pageants her mere
appearance is a relief As to Sir Leicester he conceives it utterly impossible
that anything can be wanting in any direction by any one who has the good
fortune to be received under that roof and in a state of sublime satisfaction
he moves among the company a magnificent refrigerator
Daily the cousins trot through dust and canter over roadside turf away to
hustings and pollingbooths with leather gloves and huntingwhips for the
counties and kid gloves and ridingcanes for the boroughs and daily bring
back reports on which Sir Leicester holds forth after dinner Daily the restless
men who have no occupation in life present the appearance of being rather busy
Daily Volumnia has a little cousinly talk with Sir Leicester on the state of
the nation from which Sir Leicester is disposed to conclude that Volumnia is a
more reflecting woman than he had thought her
»How are we getting on« says Miss Volumnia clasping her hands »Are we
safe«
The mighty business is nearly over by this time and Doodle will throw
himself off the country in a few days more Sir Leicester has just appeared in
the long drawingroom after dinner a bright particular star surrounded by
clouds of cousins
»Volumnia« replies Sir Leicester who has a list in his hand »we are doing
tolerably«
»Only tolerably«
Although it is summer weather Sir Leicester always had his own particular
fire in the evening He takes his usual screened seat near it and repeats with
much firmness and a little displeasure as who should say I am not a common
man and when I say tolerably it must not be understood as a common expression
»Volumnia we are doing tolerably«
»At least there is no opposition to you« Volumnia asserts with confidence
»No Volumnia This distracted country has lost its senses in many respects
I grieve to say but «
»It is not so mad as that I am glad to hear it«
Volumnias finishing the sentence restores her to favour Sir Leicester
with a gracious inclination of his head seems to say to himself »A sensible
woman this on the whole though occasionally precipitate«
In fact as to this question of opposition the fair Dedlocks observation
was superfluous Sir Leicester on these occasions always delivering in his own
candidateship as a kind of handsome wholesale order to be promptly executed
Two other little seats that belong to him he treats as retail orders of less
importance merely sending down the men and signifying to the tradespeople
»You will have the goodness to make these materials into two members of
parliament and to send them home when done«
»I regret to say Volumnia that in many places the people have shown a bad
spirit and that this opposition to the Government has been of a most determined
and most implacable description«
»Wrretches« says Volumnia
»Even« proceeds Sir Leicester glancing at the circumjacent cousins on
sofas and ottomans »even in many in fact in most of those places in which
the Government has carried it against a faction «
Note by the way that the Coodleites are always a faction with the
Doodleites and that the Doodleites occupy exactly the same position towards the
Coodleites
» Even in them I am shocked for the credit of Englishmen to be
constrained to inform you that the Party has not triumphed without being put to
an enormous expense Hundreds« says Sir Leicester eyeing the cousins with
increasing dignity and swelling indignation »hundreds of thousands of pounds«
If Volumnia have a fault it is the fault of being a trifle too innocent
seeing that the innocence which would go extremely well with a sash and tucker
is a little out of keeping with the rouge and pearl necklace Howbeit impelled
by innocence she asks
»What for«
»Volumnia« remonstrates Sir Leicester with his utmost severity
»Volumnia«
»No no I dont mean what for« cries Volumnia with her favourite little
scream »How stupid I am I mean what a pity«
»I am glad« returns Sir Leicester »that you do mean what a pity«
Volumnia hastens to express her opinion that the shocking people ought to be
tried as traitors and made to support the Party
»I am glad Volumnia« repeats Sir Leicester unmindful of these mollifying
sentiments »that you do mean what a pity It is disgraceful to the electors
But as you though inadvertently and without intending so unreasonable a
question asked me what for let me reply to you For necessary expenses And I
trust to your good sense Volumnia not to pursue the subject here or
elsewhere«
Sir Leicester feels it incumbent on him to observe a crushing aspect towards
Volumnia because it is whispered abroad that these necessary expenses will in
some two hundred election petitions be unpleasantly connected with the word
bribery and because some graceless jokers have consequently suggested the
omission from the Church service of the ordinary supplication in behalf of the
High Court of Parliament and have recommended instead that the prayers of the
congregation be requested for six hundred and fiftyeight gentlemen in a very
unhealthy state
»I suppose« observes Volumnia having taken a little time to recover her
spirits after her late castigation »I suppose Mr Tulkinghorn has been worked
to death«
»I dont know« says Sir Leicester opening his eyes »why Mr Tulkinghorn
should be worked to death I dont know what Mr Tulkinghorns engagements may
be He is not a candidate«
Volumnia had thought he might have been employed Sir Leicester could desire
to know by whom and what for Volumnia abashed again suggests by Somebody
to advise and make arrangements Sir Leicester is not aware that any client of
Mr Tulkinghorn has been in need of his assistance
Lady Dedlock seated at an open window with her arm upon its cushioned ledge
and looking out at the evening shadows falling on the park has seemed to attend
since the lawyers name was mentioned
A languid cousin with a moustache in a state of extreme debility now
observes from his couch that man told him yaasdy that Tulkinghorn had gone
down t that iron place t give legal pinion bout something and that contest
being over t day twould be highly jawlly thing if Tulkinghorn should pear
with news that Coodle man was floored
Mercury in attendance with coffee informs Sir Leicester hereupon that Mr
Tulkinghorn has arrived and is taking dinner My Lady turns her head inward for
the moment then looks out again as before
Volumnia is charmed to hear that her Delight is come He is so original
such a stolid creature such an immense being for knowing all sorts of things
and never telling them Volumnia is persuaded that he must be a Freemason Is
sure he is at the head of a lodge and wears short aprons and is made a perfect
Idol of with candlesticks and trowels These lively remarks the fair Dedlock
delivers in her youthful manner while making a purse
»He has not been here once« she adds »since I came I really had some
thoughts of breaking my heart for the inconstant creature I had almost made up
my mind that he was dead«
It may be the gathering gloom of evening or it may be the darker gloom
within herself but a shade is on my Ladys face as if she thought »I would he
were«
»Mr Tulkinghorn« says Sir Leicester »is always welcome here and always
discreet wheresoever he is A very valuable person and deservedly respected«
The debilitated cousin supposes he is normously rich fler
»He has a stake in the country« says Sir Leicester »I have no doubt He
is of course handsomely paid and he associates almost on a footing of
equality with the highest society«
Everybody starts For a gun is fired close by
»Good gracious whats that« cries Volumnia with her little withered
scream
»A rat« says my Lady »And they have shot him«
Enter Mr Tulkinghorn followed by Mercuries with lamps and candles
»No no« says Sir Leicester »I think not My Lady do you object to the
twilight«
On the contrary my Lady prefers it
»Volumnia«
O nothing is so delicious to Volumnia as to sit and talk in the dark
»Then take them away« says Sir Leicester »Tulkinghorn I beg your pardon
How do you do«
Mr Tulkinghorn with his usual leisurely ease advances renders his passing
homage to my Lady shakes Sir Leicesters hand and subsides into the chair
proper to him when he has anything to communicate on the opposite side of the
Baronets little newspapertable Sir Leicester is apprehensive that my Lady
not being very well will take cold at that open window My Lady is obliged to
him but would rather sit there for the air Sir Leicester rises adjusts her
scarf about her and returns to his seat Mr Tulkinghorn in the meanwhile takes
a pinch of snuff
»Now« says Sir Leicester »How has that contest gone«
»Oh hollow from the beginning Not a chance They have brought in both
their people You are beaten out of all reason Three to one«
It is a part of Mr Tulkinghorns policy and mastery to have no political
opinions indeed no opinions Therefore he says you are beaten and not we
Sir Leicester is majestically wroth Volumnia never heard of such a thing
The debilitated cousin holds that its sort of thing thats sure tapn slongs
votes givn Mob
»Its the place you know« Mr Tulkinghorn goes on to say in the fast
increasing darkness when there is silence again »where they wanted to put up
Mrs Rouncewells son«
»A proposal which as you correctly informed me at the time he had the
becoming taste and perception« observes Sir Leicester »to decline I cannot
say that I by any means approve of the sentiments expressed by Mr Rouncewell
when he was here for some halfhour in this room but there was a sense of
propriety in his decision which I am glad to acknowledge«
»Ha« says Mr Tulkinghorn »It did not prevent him from being very active
in this election though«
Sir Leicester is distinctly heard to gasp before speaking »Did I understand
you Did you say that Mr Rouncewell had been very active in this election«
»Uncommonly active«
»Against «
»O dear yes against you He is a very good speaker Plain and emphatic He
made a damaging effect and has great influence In the businesspart of the
proceedings he carried all before him«
It is evident to the whole company though nobody can see him that Sir
Leicester is staring majestically
»And he was much assisted« says Mr Tulkinghorn as a windup »by his
son«
»By his son sir« repeats Sir Leicester with awful politeness
»By his son«
»The son who wished to marry the young woman in my Ladys service«
»That son He has but one«
»Then upon my honour« says Sir Leicester after a terrific pause during
which he has been heard to snort and felt to stare »then upon my honour upon
my life upon my reputation and principles the floodgates of society are burst
open and the waters have a obliterated the landmarks of the framework of
the cohesion by which things are held together«
General burst of cousinly indignation Volumnia thinks it is really high
time you know for somebody in power to step in and do something strong
Debilitated cousin thinks Countrys going DAYVLE steeplechase pace
»I beg« says Sir Leicester in a breathless condition »that we may not
comment further on this circumstance Comment is superfluous My Lady let me
suggest in reference to that young woman «
»I have no intention« observes my Lady from her window in a low but
decided tone »of parting with her«
»That was not my meaning« returns Sir Leicester »I am glad to hear you say
so I would suggest that as you think her worthy of your patronage you should
exert your influence to keep her from these dangerous hands You might show her
what violence would be done in such association to her duties and principles
and you might preserve her for a better fate You might point out to her that
she probably would in good time find a husband at Chesney Wold by whom she
would not be « Sir Leicester adds after a moments consideration »dragged
from the altars of her forefathers«
These remarks he offers with his unvarying politeness and deference when he
addresses himself to his wife She merely moves her head in reply The moon is
rising and where she sits there is a little stream of cold pale light in which
her head is seen
»It is worthy of remark« says Mr Tulkinghorn »however that these people
are in their way very proud«
»Proud« Sir Leicester doubts his hearing
»I should not be surprised if they all voluntarily abandoned the girl
yes lover and all instead of her abandoning them supposing she remained at
Chesney Wold under such circumstances«
»Well« says Sir Leicester tremulously »Well You should know Mr
Tulkinghorn You have been among them«
»Really Sir Leicester« returns the lawyer »I state the fact Why I could
tell you a story with Lady Dedlocks permission«
Her head concedes it and Volumnia is enchanted A story O he is going to
tell something at last A ghost in it Volumnia hopes
»No Real flesh and blood« Mr Tulkinghorn stops for an instant and
repeats with some little emphasis grafted upon his usual monotony »Real flesh
and blood Miss Dedlock Sir Leicester these particulars have only lately
become known to me They are very brief They exemplify what I have said I
suppress names for the present Lady Dedlock will not think me illbred I
hope«
By the light of the fire which is low he can be seen looking towards the
moonlight By the light of the moon Lady Dedlock can be seen perfectly still
»A townsman of this Mr Rouncewell a man in exactly parallel circumstances
as I am told had the good fortune to have a daughter who attracted the notice
of a great lady I speak of really a great lady not merely great to him but
married to a gentleman of your condition Sir Leicester«
Sir Leicester condescendingly says »Yes Mr Tulkinghorn« implying that
then she must have appeared of very considerable moral dimensions indeed in the
eyes of an ironmaster
»The lady was wealthy and beautiful and had a liking for the girl and
treated her with great kindness and kept her always near her Now this lady
preserved a secret under all her greatness which she had preserved for many
years In fact she had in early life been engaged to marry a young rake he
was a captain in the army nothing connected with whom came to any good She
never did marry him but she gave birth to a child of which he was the father«
By the light of the fire he can be seen looking towards the moonlight By
the moonlight Lady Dedlock can be seen in profile perfectly still
»The captain in the army being dead she believed herself safe but a train
of circumstances with which I need not trouble you led to discovery As I
received the story they began in an imprudence on her own part one day when
she was taken by surprise which shows how difficult it is for the firmest of us
she was very firm to be always guarded There was great domestic trouble and
amazement you may suppose I leave you to imagine Sir Leicester the husbands
grief But that is not the present point When Mr Rouncewells townsman heard
of the disclosure he no more allowed the girl to be patronised and honoured
than he would have suffered her to be trodden underfoot before his eyes Such
was his pride that he indignantly took her away as if from reproach and
disgrace He had no sense of the honour done him and his daughter by the ladys
condescension not the least He resented the girls position as if the lady
had been the commonest of commoners That is the story I hope Lady Dedlock will
excuse its painful nature«
There are various opinions on the merits more or less conflicting with
Volumnias That fair young creature cannot believe there ever was any such
lady and rejects the whole history on the threshold The majority incline to
the debilitated cousins sentiment which is in few words no business
Rouncewells fernal townsman Sir Leicester generally refers back in his mind to
Wat Tyler and arranges a sequence of events on a plan of his own
There is not much conversation in all for late hours have been kept at
Chesney Wold since the necessary expenses elsewhere began and this is the first
night in many on which the family have been alone It is past ten when Sir
Leicester begs Mr Tulkinghorn to ring for candles Then the stream of moonlight
has swelled into a lake and then Lady Dedlock for the first time moves and
rises and comes forward to a table for a glass of water Winking cousins
batlike in the candle glare crowd round to give it Volumnia always ready for
something better if procurable takes another a very mild sip of which contents
her Lady Dedlock graceful selfpossessed looked after by admiring eyes
passes away slowly down the long perspective by the side of that Nymph not at
all improving her as a question of contrast
Chapter XLI
In Mr Tulkinghorns Room
Mr Tulkinghorn arrives in his turretroom a little breathed by the journey up
though leisurely performed There is an expression on his face as if he had
discharged his mind of some grave matter and were in his close way satisfied
To say of a man so severely and strictly selfrepressed that he is triumphant
would be to do him as great an injustice as to suppose him troubled with love or
sentiment or any romantic weakness He is sedately satisfied Perhaps there is
a rather increased sense of power upon him as he loosely grasps one of his
veinous wrists with his other hand and holding it behind his back walks
noiselessly up and down
There is a capacious writingtable in the room on which is a pretty large
accumulation of papers The green lamp is lighted his readingglasses lie upon
the desk the easychair is wheeled up to it and it would seem as though he had
intended to bestow an hour or so upon these claims on his attention before going
to bed But he happens not to be in a business mind After a glance at the
documents awaiting his notice with his head bent low over the table the old
mans sight for print or writing being defective at night he opens the French
window and steps out upon the leads There he again walks slowly up and down in
the same attitude subsiding if a man so cool may have any need to subside
from the story he has related downstairs
The time was once when men as knowing as Mr Tulkinghorn would walk on
turrettops in the starlight and look up into the sky to read their fortunes
there Hosts of stars are visible tonight though their brilliancy is eclipsed
by the splendour of the moon If he be seeking his own star as he methodically
turns and turns upon the leads it should be but a pale one to be so rustily
represented below If he be tracing out his destiny that may be written in
other characters nearer to his hand
As he paces the leads with his eyes most probably as high above his
thoughts as they are high above the earth he is suddenly stopped in passing the
window by two eyes that meet his own The ceiling of his room is rather low and
the upper part of the door which is opposite the window is of glass There is
an inner baize door too but the night being warm he did not close it when he
came upstairs These eyes that meet his own are looking in through the glass
from the corridor outside He knows them well The blood has not flushed into
his face so suddenly and redly for many a long year as when he recognises Lady
Dedlock
He steps into the room and she comes in too closing both the doors behind
her There is a wild disturbance is it fear or anger in her eyes In her
carriage and all else she looks as she looked downstairs two hours ago
Is it fear or is it anger now He cannot be sure Both might be as pale
both as intent
»Lady Dedlock«
She does not speak at first nor even when she has slowly dropped into the
easychair by the table They look at each other like two pictures
»Why have you told my story to so many persons«
»Lady Dedlock it was necessary for me to inform you that I knew it«
»How long have you known it«
»I have suspected it a long while fully known it little while«
»Months«
»Days«
He stands before her with one hand on a chairback and the other in his
oldfashioned waistcoat and shirtfrill exactly as he has stood before her at
any time since her marriage The same formal politeness the same composed
deference that might as well be defiance the whole man the same dark cold
object at the same distance which nothing has ever diminished
»Is this true concerning the poor girl«
He slightly inclines and advances his head as not quite understanding the
question
»You know what you related Is it true Do her friends know my story also
Is it the towntalk yet Is it chalked upon the walls and cried in the
streets«
So Anger and fear and shame All three contending What power this woman
has to keep these raging passions down Mr Tulkinghorns thoughts take such
form as he looks at her with his ragged grey eyebrows a hairsbreadth more
contracted than usual under her gaze
»No Lady Dedlock That was a hypothetical case arising out of Sir
Leicesters unconsciously carrying the matter with so high a hand But it would
be a real case if they knew what we know«
»Then they do not know it yet«
»No«
»Can I save the poor girl from injury before they know it«
»Really Lady Dedlock« Mr Tulkinghorn replies »I cannot give a
satisfactory opinion on that point«
And he thinks with the interest of attentive curiosity as he watches the
struggle in her breast »The power and force of this woman are astonishing«
»Sir« she says for the moment obliged to set her lips with all the energy
she has that she may speak distinctly »I will make it plainer I do not
dispute your hypothetical case I anticipated it and felt its truth as strongly
as you can do when I saw Mr Rouncewell here I knew very well that if he could
have had the power of seeing me as I was he would consider the poor girl
tarnished by having for a moment been although most innocently the subject of
my great and distinguished patronage But I have an interest in her or I
should rather say no longer belonging to this place I had and if you can
find so much consideration for the woman under your foot as to remember that
she will be very sensible of your mercy«
Mr Tulkinghorn profoundly attentive throws this off with a shrug of
self-depreciation and contracts his eyebrows a little more
»You have prepared me for my exposure and I thank you for that too Is
there anything that you require of me Is there any claim that I can release or
any charge or trouble that I can spare my husband in obtaining his release by
certifying to the exactness of your discovery I will write anything here and
now that you will dictate I am ready to do it«
And she would do it thinks the lawyer watchful of the firm hand with which
she takes the pen
»I will not trouble you Lady Dedlock Pray spare yourself«
»I have long expected this as you know I neither wish to spare myself nor
to be spared You can do nothing worse to me than you have done Do what
remains now«
»Lady Dedlock there is nothing to be done I will take leave to say a few
words when you have finished«
Their need for watching one another should be over now but they do it all
this time and the stars watch them both through the opened window Away in the
moonlight lie the woodland fields at rest and the wide house is as quiet as the
narrow one The narrow one Where are the digger and the spade this peaceful
night destined to add the last great secret to the many secrets of the
Tulkinghorn existence? Is the man born yet is the spade wrought yet Curious
questions to consider more curious perhaps not to consider under the watching
stars upon a summer night
»Of repentance or remorse or any feeling of mine« Lady Dedlock presently
proceeds »I say not a word If I were not dumb you would be deaf Let that go
by It is not for your ears«
He makes a feint of offering a protest but she sweeps it away with her
disdainful hand
»Of other and very different things I come to speak to you My jewels are
all in their proper places of keeping They will be found there So my dresses
So all the valuables I have Some ready money I had with me please to say but
no large amount I did not wear my own dress in order that I might avoid
observation I went to be henceforward lost Make this known I leave no other
charge with you«
»Excuse me Lady Dedlock« says Mr Tulkinghorn quite unmoved »I am not
sure that I understand you You went «
»To be lost to all here I leave Chesney Wold tonight I go this hour«
Mr Tulkinghorn shakes his head She rises but he without moving hand from
chairback or from oldfashioned waistcoat and shirtfrill shakes his head
»What Not go as I have said«
»No Lady Dedlock« he very calmly replies
»Do you know the relief that my disappearance will be Have you forgotten
the stain and blot upon this place and where it is and who it is«
»No Lady Dedlock not by any means«
Without deigning to rejoin she moves to the inner door and has it in her
hand when he says to her without himself stirring hand or foot or raising his
voice
»Lady Dedlock have the goodness to stop and hear me or before you reach
the staircase I shall ring the alarmbell and raise the house And then I must
speak out before every guest and servant every man and woman in it«
He has conquered her She falters trembles and puts her hand confusedly to
her head Slight tokens these in any one else but when so practised an eye as
Mr Tulkinghorns sees indecision for a moment in such a subject he thoroughly
knows its value
He promptly says again »Have the goodness to hear me Lady Dedlock« and
motions to the chair from which she has risen She hesitates but he motions
again and she sits down
»The relations between us are of an unfortunate description Lady Dedlock
but as they are not of my making I will not apologise for them The position I
hold in reference to Sir Leicester is so well known to you that I can hardly
imagine but that I must long have appeared in your eyes the natural person to
make this discovery«
»Sir« she returns without looking up from the ground on which her eyes
are now fixed »I had better have gone It would have been far better not to
have detained me I have no more to say«
»Excuse me Lady Dedlock if I add a little more to hear«
»I wish to hear it at the window then I cant breathe where I am«
His jealous glance as she walks that way betrays an instants misgiving
that she may have it in her thoughts to leap over and dashing against ledge and
cornice strike her life out upon the terrace below But a moments observation
of her figure as she stands in the window without any support looking out at
the stars not up gloomily out at those stars which are low in the heavens
reassures him By facing round as she has moved he stands a little behind her
»Lady Dedlock I have not yet been able to come to a decision satisfactory
to myself on the course before me I am not clear what to do or how to act
next I must request you in the mean time to keep your secret as you have kept
it so long and not to wonder that I keep it too«
He pauses but she makes no reply
»Pardon me Lady Dedlock This is an important subject You are honouring me
with your attention«
»I am«
»Thank you I might have known it from what I have seen of your strength of
character I ought not to have asked the question but I have the habit of
making sure of my ground step by step as I go on The sole consideration in
this unhappy case is Sir Leicester«
»Then why« she asks in a low voice and without removing her gloomy look
from those distant stars »do you detain me in his house«
»Because he is the consideration Lady Dedlock I have no occasion to tell
you that Sir Leicester is a very proud man that his reliance upon you is
implicit that the fall of that moon out of the sky would not amaze him more
than your fall from your high position as his wife«
She breathes quickly and heavily but she stands as unflinchingly as ever he
has seen her in the midst of her grandest company
»I declare to you Lady Dedlock that with anything short of this case that
I have I would as soon have hoped to root up by means of my own strength and
my own hands the oldest tree on this estate as to shake your hold upon Sir
Leicester and Sir Leicesters trust and confidence in you And even now with
this case I hesitate Not that he could doubt that even with him is
impossible but that nothing can prepare him for the blow«
»Not my flight« she returned »Think of it again«
»Your flight Lady Dedlock would spread the whole truth and a hundred
times the whole truth far and wide It would be impossible to save the family
credit for a day It is not to be thought of«
There is a quiet decision in his reply which admits of no remonstrance
»When I speak of Sir Leicester being the sole consideration he and the
family credit are one Sir Leicester and the baronetcy Sir Leicester and
Chesney Wold Sir Leicester and his ancestors and his patrimony« Mr
Tulkinghorn very dry here »are I need not say to you Lady Dedlock
inseparable«
»Go on«
»Therefore« says Mr Tulkinghorn pursuing his case in his jogtrot style
»I have much to consider This is to be hushed up if it can be How can it be
if Sir Leicester is driven out of his wits or laid upon a deathbed If I
inflicted this shock upon him tomorrow morning how could the immediate change
in him be accounted for What could have caused it What could have divided you
Lady Dedlock the wallchalking and the streetcrying would come on directly
and you are to remember that it would not affect you merely whom I cannot at
all consider in this business but your husband Lady Dedlock your husband«
He gets plainer as he gets on but not an atom more emphatic or animated
»There is another point of view« he continues »in which the case presents
itself Sir Leicester is devoted to you almost to infatuation He might not be
able to overcome that infatuation even knowing what we know I am putting an
extreme case but it might be so If so it were better that he knew nothing
Better for common sense better for him better for me I must take all this
into account and it combines to render a decision very difficult«
She stands looking out at the same stars without a word They are beginning
to pale and she looks as if their coldness froze her
»My experience teaches me« says Mr Tulkinghorn who has by this time got
his hands in his pockets and is going on in his business consideration of the
matter like a machine »My experience teaches me Lady Dedlock that most of the
people I know would do far better to leave marriage alone It is at the bottom
of threefourths of their troubles So I thought when Sir Leicester married and
so I always have thought since No more about that I must now be guided by
circumstances In the meanwhile I must beg you to keep your own counsel and I
will keep mine«
»I am to drag my present life on holding its pains at your pleasure day by
day« she asks still looking at the distant sky
»Yes I am afraid so Lady Dedlock«
»It is necessary you think that I should be so tied to the stake«
»I am sure that what I recommend is necessary«
»I am to remain on this gaudy platform on which my miserable deception has
been so long acted and it is to fall beneath me when you give the signal« she
said slowly
»Not without notice Lady Dedlock I shall take no step without forewarning
you«
She asks all her questions as if she were repeating them from memory or
calling them over in her sleep
»We are to meet as usual«
»Precisely as usual if you please«
»And I am to hide my guilt as I have done so many years«
»As you have done so many years I should not have made that reference
myself Lady Dedlock but I may now remind you that your secret can be no
heavier to you than it was and is no worse and no better than it was I know it
certainly but I believe we have never wholly trusted each other«
She stands absorbed in the same frozen way for some little time before
asking
»Is there anything more to be said tonight«
»Why« Mr Tulkinghorn returns methodically as he softly rubs his hands »I
should like to be assured of your acquiescence in my arrangements Lady
Dedlock«
»You may be assured of it«
»Good And I would wish in conclusion to remind you as a business
precaution in case it should be necessary to recall the fact in any
communication with Sir Leicester that throughout our interview I have expressly
stated my sole consideration to be Sir Leicesters feelings and honour and the
family reputation I should have been happy to have made Lady Dedlock a
prominent consideration too if the case had admitted of it but unfortunately
it does not«
»I can attest your fidelity sir«
Both before and after saying it she remains absorbed but at length moves
and turns unshaken in her natural and acquired presence towards the door Mr
Tulkinghorn opens both the doors exactly as he would have done yesterday or as
he would have done ten years ago and makes his oldfashioned bow as she passes
out It is not an ordinary look that he receives from the handsome face as it
goes into the darkness and it is not an ordinary movement though a very slight
one that acknowledges his courtesy But as he reflects when he is left alone
the woman has been putting no common constraint upon herself
He would know it all the better if he saw the woman pacing her own rooms
with her hair wildly thrown from her flungback face her hands clasped behind
her head her figure twisted as if by pain He would think so all the more if
he saw the woman thus hurrying up and down for hours without fatigue without
intermission followed by the faithful step upon the Ghosts Walk But he shuts
out the now chilled air draws the windowcurtain goes to bed and falls
asleep And truly when the stars go out and the wan day peeps into the
turretchamber finding him at his oldest he looks as if the digger and the
spade were both commissioned and would soon be digging
The same wan day peeps in at Sir Leicester pardoning the repentant country
in a majestically condescending dream and at the cousins entering on various
public employments principally receipt of salary and at the chaste Volumnia
bestowing a dower of fifty thousand pounds upon a hideous old General with a
mouth of false teeth like a pianoforte too full of keys long the admiration of
Bath and the terror of every other community Also into rooms high in the roof
and into offices in courtyards and over stables where humbler ambition dreams
of bliss in keepers lodges and in holy matrimony with Will or Sally Up comes
the bright sun drawing everything up with it the Wills and Sallys the latent
vapour in the earth the drooping leaves and flowers the birds and beasts and
creeping things the gardeners to sweep the dewy turf and unfold emerald velvet
where the roller passes the smoke of the great kitchen fire wreathing itself
straight and high into the lightsome air Lastly up comes the flag over Mr
Tulkinghorns unconscious head cheerfully proclaiming that Sir Leicester and
Lady Dedlock are in their happy home and that there is hospitality at the place
in Lincolnshire
Chapter XLII
In Mr Tulkinghorns Chambers
From the verdant undulations and the spreading oaks of the Dedlock property Mr
Tulkinghorn transfers himself to the stale heat and dust of London His manner
of coming and going between the two places is one of his impenetrabilities He
walks into Chesney Wold as if it were next door to his chambers and returns to
his chambers as if he had never been out of Lincolns Inn Fields He neither
changes his dress before the journey nor talks of it afterwards He melted out
of his turretroom this morning just as now in the late twilight he melts
into his own square
Like a dingy London bird among the birds at roost in these pleasant fields
where the sheep are all made into parchment the goats into wigs and the
pasture into chaff the lawyer smokedried and faded dwelling among mankind
but not consorting with them aged without experience of genial youth and so
long used to make his cramped nest in holes and corners of human nature that he
has forgotten its broader and better range comes sauntering home In the oven
made by the hot pavements and hot buildings he has baked himself dryer than
usual and he has in his thirsty mind his mellowed portwine half a century
old
The lamplighter is skipping up and down his ladder on Mr Tulkinghorns side
of the Fields when that highpriest of noble mysteries arrives at his own dull
courtyard He ascends the doorsteps and is gliding into the dusky hall when
he encounters on the top step a bowing and propitiatory little man
»Is that Snagsby«
»Yes sir I hope you are well sir I was just giving you up sir and
going home«
»Aye What is it What do you want with me«
»Well sir« says Mr Snagsby holding his hat at the side of his head in
his deference towards his best customer »I was wishful to say a word to you
sir«
»Can you say it here«
»Perfectly sir«
»Say it then« The lawyer turns leans his arms on the iron railing at the
top of the steps and looks at the lamplighter lighting the courtyard
»It is relating« says Mr Snagsby in a mysterious low voice »it is
relating not to put too fine a point upon it to the foreigner sir«
Mr Tulkinghorn eyes him with some surprise »What foreigner«
»The foreign female sir French if I dont mistake I am not acquainted
with that language myself but I should judge from her manners and appearance
that she was French anyways certainly foreign Her that was upstairs sir
when Mr Bucket and me had the honour of waiting upon you with the sweepingboy
that night«
»Oh yes yes Mademoiselle Hortense«
»Indeed sir« Mr Snagsby coughs his cough of submission behind his hat »I
am not acquainted myself with the names of foreigners in general but I have no
doubt it would be that« Mr Snagsby appears to have set out in this reply with
some desperate design of repeating the name but on reflection coughs again to
excuse himself
»And what can you have to say Snagsby« demands Mr Tulkinghorn »about
her«
»Well sir« returns the stationer shading his communication with his hat
»it falls a little hard upon me My domestic happiness is very great at least
its as great as can be expected Im sure but my little woman is rather given
to jealousy Not to put too fine a point upon it she is very much given to
jealousy And you see a foreign female of that genteel appearance coming into
the shop and hovering I should be the last to make use of a strong
expression if I could avoid it but hovering sir in the court you know it
is now aint it I only put it to yourself sir«
Mr Snagsby having said this in a very plaintive manner throws in a cough
of general application to fill up all the blanks
»Why what do you mean« asks Mr Tulkinghorn
»Just so sir« returns Mr Snagsby »I was sure you would feel it yourself
and would excuse the reasonableness of my feelings when coupled with the known
excitableness of my little woman You see the foreign female which you
mentioned her name just now with quite a native sound I am sure caught up the
word Snagsby that night being uncommon quick and made inquiry and got the
direction and come at dinnertime Now Guster our young woman is timid and has
fits and she taking fright at the foreigners looks which are fierce and
at a grinding manner that she has of speaking which is calculated to alarm a
weak mind gave way to it instead of bearing up against it and tumbled down
the kitchen stairs out of one into another such fits as I do sometimes think
are never gone into or come out of in any house but ours Consequently there
was by good fortune ample occupation for my little woman and only me to answer
the shop When she did say that Mr Tulkinghorn being always denied to her by
his Employer which I had no doubt at the time was a foreign mode of viewing a
clerk she would do herself the pleasure of continually calling at my place
until she was let in here Since then she has been as I began by saying
hovering Hovering sir« Mr Snagsby repeats the word with pathetic emphasis
»in the court The effects of which movement it is impossible to calculate I
shouldnt wonder if it might have already given rise to the painfullest mistakes
even in the neighbours minds not mentioning if such a thing was possible my
little woman Whereas Goodness knows« says Mr Snagsby shaking his head »I
never had an idea of a foreign female except as being formerly connected with a
bunch of brooms and a baby or at the present time with a tambourine and
earrings I never had I do assure you sir«
Mr Tulkinghorn has listened gravely to this complaint and inquires when
the stationer has finished »And thats all is it Snagsby«
»Why yes sir thats all« says Mr Snagsby ending with a cough that
plainly adds »and its enough too for me«
»I dont know what Mademoiselle Hortense may want or mean unless she is
mad« says the lawyer
»Even if she was you know sir« Mr Snagsby pleads »it wouldnt be a
consolation to have some weapon or another in the form of a foreign dagger
planted in the family«
»No« says the other »Well well This shall be stopped I am sorry you
have been inconvenienced If she comes again send her here«
Mr Snagsby with much bowing and short apologetic coughing takes his
leave lightened in heart Mr Tulkinghorn goes upstairs saying to himself
»These women were created to give trouble the whole earth over The Mistress
not being enough to deal with heres the maid now But I will be short with
this jade at least«
So saying he unlocks his door gropes his way into his murky rooms lights
his candles and looks about him It is too dark to see much of the allegory
overhead there but that importunate Roman who is for ever toppling out of the
clouds and pointing is at his old work pretty distinctly Not honouring him
with much attention Mr Tulkinghorn takes a small key from his pocket unlocks
a drawer in which there is another key which unlocks a chest in which there is
another key and so comes to the cellarkey with which he prepares to descend
to the regions of old wine He is going towards the door with a candle in his
hand when a knock comes
»Whos this Aye aye mistress its you is it You appear at a good
time I have just been hearing of you Now What do you want«
He stands the candle on the chimneypiece in the clerks hall and taps his
dry cheek with the key as he addresses these words of welcome to Mademoiselle
Hortense That feline personage with her lips tightly shut and her eyes
looking out at him sideways softly closes the door before replying
»I have had great deal of trouble to find you sir«
»Have you«
»I have been here very often sir It has always been said to me he is not
at home he is engage he is this and that he is not for you«
»Quite right and quite true«
»Not true Lies«
At times there is a suddenness in the manner of Mademoiselle Hortense so
like a bodily spring upon the subject of it that such subject involuntarily
starts and falls back It is Mr Tulkinghorns case at present though
Mademoiselle Hortense with her eyes almost shut up but still looking out
sideways is only smiling contemptuously and shaking her head
»Now mistress« says the lawyer tapping the key hastily upon the
chimneypiece »If you have anything to say say it say it«
»Sir you have not use me well You have been mean and shabby«
»Mean and shabby eh« returns the lawyer rubbing his nose with the key
»Yes What is it that I tell you You know you have You have attrapped me
catched me to give you information you have asked me to show you the dress of
mine my Lady must have wore that night you have prayed me to come in it here to
meet that boy Say Is it not« Mademoiselle Hortense makes another spring
»You are a vixen a vixen« Mr Tulkinghorn seems to meditate as he looks
distrustfully at her then he replies »Well wench well I paid you«
»You paid me« she repeats with fierce disdain »Two sovereign I have not
change them I refuse them I despise them I throw them from me« Which she
literally does taking them out of her bosom as she speaks and flinging them
with such violence on the floor that they jerk up again into the light before
they roll away into corners and slowly settle down there after spinning
vehemently
»Now« says Mademoiselle Hortense darkening her large eyes again »You have
paid me Eh my God O yes«
Mr Tulkinghorn rubs his head with the key while she entertains herself
with a sarcastic laugh
»You must be rich my fair friend« he composedly observes »to throw money
about in that way«
»I am rich« she returns »I am very rich in hate I hate my Lady of all my
heart You know that«
»Know it How should I know it«
»Because you have known it perfectly before you prayed me to give you that
information Because you have known perfectly that I was enrrrraged« It
appears impossible for Mademoiselle to roll the letter r sufficiently in this
word notwithstanding that she assists her energetic delivery by clenching both
her hands and setting all her teeth
»Oh I knew that did I« says Mr Tulkinghorn examining the wards of the
key
»Yes without doubt I am not blind You have made sure of me because you
knew that You had reason I detest her« Mademoiselle folds her arms and
throws this last remark at him over one of her shoulders
»Having said this have you anything else to say Mademoiselle«
»I am not yet placed Place me well Find me a good condition If you
cannot or do not choose to do that employ me to pursue her to chase her to
disgrace and to dishonour her I will help you well and with a good will It is
what you do Do I not know that«
»You appear to know a good deal« Mr Tulkinghorn retorts
»Do I not Is it that I am so weak as to believe like a child that I come
here in that dress to receive that boy only to decide a little bet a wager
Eh my God O yes« In this reply down to the word wager inclusive Mademoiselle
has been ironically polite and tender then as suddenly dashed into the
bitterest and most defiant scorn with her black eyes in one and the same moment
very nearly shut and staringly wide open
»Now let us see« says Mr Tulkinghorn tapping his chin with the key and
looking imperturbably at her »how this matter stands«
»Ah Let us see« Mademoiselle assents with many angry and tight nods of
her head
»You come here to make a remarkably modest demand which you have just
stated and it not being conceded you will come again«
»And again« says Mademoiselle with more tight and angry nods »And yet
again And yet again And many times again In effect for ever«
»And not only here but you will go to Mr Snagsbys too perhaps That
visit not succeeding either you will go again perhaps«
»And again« repeats Mademoiselle cataleptic with determination »And yet
again And yet again And many times again In effect for ever«
»Very well Now Mademoiselle Hortense let me recommend you to take the
candle and pick up that money of yours I think you will find it behind the
clerks partition in the corner yonder«
She merely throws a laugh over her shoulder and stands her ground with
folded arms
»You will not eh«
»No I will not«
»So much the poorer you so much the richer I Look mistress this is the
key of my winecellar It is a large key but the keys of prisons are larger In
this city there are houses of correction where the treadmills are for women
the gates of which are very strong and heavy and no doubt the keys too I am
afraid a lady of your spirit and activity would find it an inconvenience to have
one of those keys turned upon her for any length of time What do you think«
»I think« Mademoiselle replies without any action and in a clear obliging
voice »that you are a miserable wretch«
»Probably« returns Mr Tulkinghorn quietly blowing his nose »But I dont
ask what you think of myself I ask what you think of the prison«
»Nothing What does it matter to me«
»Why it matters this much mistress« says the lawyer deliberately putting
away his handkerchief and adjusting his frill »the law is so despotic here
that it interferes to prevent any of our good English citizens from being
troubled even by a ladys visits against his desire And on his complaining
that he is so troubled it takes hold of the troublesome lady and shuts her up
in prison under hard discipline Turns the key upon her mistress« Illustrating
with the cellarkey
»Truly« returns Mademoiselle in the same pleasant voice »That is droll
But my faith still what does it matter to me«
»My fair friend« says Mr Tulkinghorn »make another visit here or at Mr
Snagsbys and you shall learn«
»In that case you will send Me to the prison perhaps«
»Perhaps«
It would be contradictory for one in Mademoiselles state of agreeable
jocularity to foam at the mouth otherwise a tigerish expansion thereabouts
might look as if a very little more would make her do it
»In a word mistress« says Mr Tulkinghorn »I am sorry to be unpolite but
if you ever present yourself uninvited here or there again I will give
you over to the police Their gallantry is great but they carry troublesome
people through the streets in an ignominious manner strapped down on a board
my good wench«
»I will prove you« whispers Mademoiselle stretching out her hand »I will
try if you dare to do it«
»And if« pursues the lawyer without minding her »I place you in that good
condition of being locked up in jail it will be some time before you find
yourself at liberty again«
»I will prove you« repeats Mademoiselle in her former whisper
»And now« proceeds the lawyer still without minding her »you had better
go Think twice before you come here again«
»Think you« she answers »twice two hundred times«
»You were dismissed by your lady you know« Mr Tulkinghorn observes
following her out upon the staircase »as the most implacable and unmanageable
of women Now turn over a new leaf and take warning by what I say to you For
what I say I mean and what I threaten I will do mistress«
She goes down without answering or looking behind her When she is gone he
goes down too and returning with his cobwebcovered bottle devotes himself to
a leisurely enjoyment of its contents now and then as he throws his head back
in his chair catching sight of the pertinacious Roman pointing from the
ceiling
Chapter XLIII
Esthers Narrative
It matters little now how much I thought of my living mother who had told me
evermore to consider her dead I could not venture to approach her or to
communicate with her in writing for my sense of the peril in which her life was
passed was only to be equalled by my fears of increasing it Knowing that my
mere existence as a living creature was an unforeseen danger in her way I could
not always conquer that terror of myself which had seized me when I first knew
the secret At no time did I dare to utter her name I felt as if I did not even
dare to hear it If the conversation anywhere when I was present took that
direction as it sometimes naturally did I tried not to hear I mentally
counted repeated something that I knew or went out of the room I am
conscious now that I often did these things when there can have been no danger
of her being spoken of but I did them in the dread I had of hearing anything
that might lead to her betrayal and to her betrayal through me
It matters little now how often I recalled the tones of my mothers voice
wondered whether I should ever hear it again as I so longed to do and thought
how strange and desolate it was that it should be so new to me It matters
little that I watched for every public mention of my mothers name that I
passed and repassed the door of her house in town loving it but afraid to look
at it that I once sat in the theatre when my mother was there and saw me and
when we were so wide asunder before the great company of all degrees that any
link or confidence between us seemed a dream It is all all over My lot has
been so blest that I can relate little of myself which is not a story of
goodness and generosity in others I may well pass that little and go on
When we were settled at home again Ada and I had many conversations with my
guardian of which Richard was the theme My dear girl was deeply grieved that
he should do their kind cousin so much wrong but she was so faithful to
Richard that she could not bear to blame him even for that My guardian was
assured of it and never coupled his name with a word of reproof »Rick is
mistaken my dear« he would say to her »Well well we have all been mistaken
over and over again We must trust to you and time to set him right«
We knew afterwards what we suspected then that he did not trust to time
until he had often tried to open Richards eyes That he had written to him
gone to him talked with him tried every gentle and persuasive art his kindness
could devise Our poor devoted Richard was deaf and blind to all If he were
wrong he would make amends when the Chancery suit was over If he were groping
in the dark he could not do better than do his utmost to clear away those
clouds in which so much was confused and obscured Suspicion and
misunderstanding were the fault of the suit Then let him work the suit out and
come through it to his right mind This was his unvarying reply Jarndyce and
Jarndyce had obtained such possession of his whole nature that it was
impossible to place any consideration before him which he did not with a
distorted kind of reason make a new argument in favour of his doing what he
did »So that it is even more mischievous« said my guardian once to me »to
remonstrate with the poor dear fellow than to leave him alone«
I took one of these opportunities of mentioning my doubts of Mr Skimpole as
a good adviser for Richard
»Adviser« returned my guardian laughing »My dear who would advise with
Skimpole«
»Encourager would perhaps have been a better word« said I
»Encourager« returned my guardian again »Who could be encouraged by
Skimpole«
»Not Richard« I asked
»No« he replied »Such an unworldly uncalculating gossamer creature is a
relief to him and an amusement But as to advising or encouraging or occupying
a serious station towards anybody or anything it is simply not to be thought of
in such a child as Skimpole«
»Pray cousin John« said Ada who had just joined us and now looked over
my shoulder »what made him such a child«
»What made him such a child« inquired my guardian rubbing his head a
little at a loss
»Yes cousin John«
»Why« he slowly replied roughening his head more and more »he is all
sentiment and and susceptibility and and sensibility and and
imagination And these qualities are not regulated in him somehow I suppose
the people who admired him for them in his youth attached too much importance
to them and too little to any training that would have balanced and adjusted
them and so he became what he is Hey« said my guardian stopping short and
looking at us hopefully »What do you think you two«
Ada glancing at me said she thought it was a pity he should be an expense
to Richard
»So it is so it is« returned my guardian hurriedly »That must not be We
must arrange that I must prevent it That will never do«
And I said I thought it was to be regretted that he had ever introduced
Richard to Mr Vholes for a present of five pounds
»Did he« said my guardian with a passing shade of vexation on his face
»But there you have the man There you have the man There is nothing mercenary
in that with him He has no idea of the value of money He introduces Rick and
then he is good friends with Mr Vholes and borrows five pounds of him He
means nothing by it and thinks nothing of it He told you himself Ill be
bound my dear«
»Oh yes« said I
»Exactly« cried my guardian quite triumphant »There you have the man If
he had meant any harm by it or was conscious of any harm in it he wouldnt
tell it He tells it as he does it in mere simplicity But you shall see him in
his own home and then youll understand him better We must pay a visit to
Harold Skimpole and caution him on these points Lord bless you my dears an
infant an infant«
In pursuance of this plan we went into London on an early day and
presented ourselves at Mr Skimpoles door
He lived in a place called the Polygon in Somers Town where there were at
that time a number of poor Spanish refugees walking about in cloaks smoking
little paper cigars Whether he was a better tenant than one might have
supposed in consequence of his friend Somebody always paying his rent at last
or whether his inaptitude for business rendered it particularly difficult to
turn him out I dont know but he had occupied the same house some years It
was in a state of dilapidation quite equal to our expectation Two or three of
the area railings were gone the waterbutt was broken the knocker was loose
the bellhandle had been pulled off a long time to judge from the rusty state
of the wire and dirty footprints on the steps were the only signs of its being
inhabited
A slatternly fullblown girl who seemed to be bursting out at the rents in
her gown and the cracks in her shoes like an overripe berry answered our
knock by opening the door a very little way and stopping up the gap with her
figure As she knew Mr Jarndyce indeed Ada and I both thought that she
evidently associated him with the receipt of her wages she immediately
relented and allowed us to pass in The lock of the door being in a disabled
condition she then applied herself to securing it with the chain which was not
in good action either and said would we go upstairs
We went upstairs to the first floor still seeing no other furniture than
the dirty footprints Mr Jarndyce without further ceremony entered a room
there and we followed It was dingy enough and not at all clean but furnished
with an odd kind of shabby luxury with a large footstool a sofa and plenty of
cushions an easychair and plenty of pillows a piano books drawing
materials music newspapers and a few sketches and pictures A broken pane of
glass in one of the dirty windows was papered and wafered over but there was a
little plate of hothouse nectarines on the table and there was another of
grapes and another of spongecakes and there was a bottle of light wine Mr
Skimpole himself reclined upon the sofa in a dressinggown drinking some
fragrant coffee from an old china cup it was then about midday and looking
at a collection of wallflowers in the balcony
He was not in the least disconcerted by our appearance but rose and
received us in his usual airy manner
»Here I am you see« he said when we were seated not without some little
difficulty the greater part of the chairs being broken »Here I am This is my
frugal breakfast Some men want legs of beef and mutton for breakfast I dont
Give me my peach my cup of coffee and my claret I am content I dont want
them for themselves but they remind me of the sun Theres nothing solar about
legs of beef and mutton Mere animal satisfaction«
»This is our friends consulting room or would be if he ever prescribed
his sanctum his studio« said my guardian to us
»Yes« said Mr Skimpole turning his bright face about »this is the birds
cage This is where the bird lives and sings They pluck his feathers now and
then and clip his wings but he sings he sings«
He handed us the grapes repeating in his radiant way »He sings Not an
ambitious note but still he sings«
»These are very fine« said my guardian »A present«
»No« he answered »No Some amiable gardener sells them His man wanted to
know when he brought them last evening whether he should wait for the money
Really my friend I said I think not if your time is of any value to you I
suppose it was for he went away«
My guardian looked at us with a smile as though he asked us »Is it
possible to be worldly with this baby«
»This is a day« said Mr Skimpole gaily taking a little claret in a
tumbler »that will ever be remembered here We shall call it Saint Clare and
Saint Summerson day You must see my daughters I have a blueeyed daughter who
is my Beauty daughter I have a Sentiment daughter and I have a Comedy
daughter You must see them all Theyll be enchanted«
He was going to summon them when my guardian interposed and asked him to
pause a moment as he wished to say a word to him first »My dear Jarndyce« he
cheerfully replied going back to his sofa »as many moments as you please Time
is no object here We never know what oclock it is and we never care Not the
way to get on in life youll tell me Certainly But we dont get on in life
We dont pretend to do it«
My guardian looked at us again plainly saying »You hear him«
»Now Harold« he began »the word I have to say relates to Rick«
»The dearest friend I have« returned Mr Skimpole cordially »I suppose he
ought not to be my dearest friend as he is not on terms with you But he is I
cant help it he is full of youthful poetry and I love him If you dont like
it I cant help it I love him«
The engaging frankness with which he made this declaration really had a
disinterested appearance and captivated my guardian if not for the moment
Ada too
»You are welcome to love him as much as you like« returned Mr Jarndyce
»but we must save his pocket Harold«
»Oh« said Mr Skimpole »His pocket Now you are coming to what I dont
understand« Taking a little more claret and dipping one of the cakes in it he
shook his head and smiled at Ada and me with an ingenuous foreboding that he
never could be made to understand
»If you go with him here or there« said my guardian plainly »you must not
let him pay for both«
»My dear Jarndyce« returned Mr Skimpole his genial face irradiated by the
comicality of this idea »what am I to do If he takes me anywhere I must go
And how can I pay I never have any money If I had any money I dont know
anything about it Suppose I say to a man how much Suppose the man says to me
seven and sixpence I know nothing about seven and sixpence It is impossible
for me to pursue the subject with any consideration for the man I dont go
about asking busy people what seven and sixpence is in Moorish which I dont
understand Why should I go about asking them what seven and sixpence is in
Money which I dont understand«
»Well« said my guardian by no means displeased with this artless reply
»if you come to any kind of journeying with Rick you must borrow the money of
me never breathing the least allusion to that circumstance and leave the
calculation to him«
»My dear Jarndyce« returned Mr Skimpole »I will do anything to give you
pleasure but it seems an idle form a superstition Besides I give you my
word Miss Clare and my dear Miss Summerson I thought Mr Carstone was
immensely rich I thought he had only to make over something or to sign a bond
or a draft or a cheque or a bill or to put something on a file somewhere to
bring down a shower of money«
»Indeed it is not so sir« said Ada »He is poor«
»No really« returned Mr Skimpole with his bright smile »you surprise
me«
»And not being the richer for trusting in a rotten reed« said my guardian
laying his hand emphatically on the sleeve of Mr Skimpoles dressinggown »be
you very careful not to encourage him in that reliance Harold«
»My dear good friend« returned Mr Skimpole »and my dear Miss Summerson
and my dear Miss Clare how can I do that Its business and I dont know
business It is he who encourages me He emerges from great feats of business
presents the brightest prospects before me as their result and calls upon me to
admire them I do admire them as bright prospects But I know no more about
them and I tell him so«
The helpless kind of candour with which he presented this before us the
lighthearted manner in which he was amused by his innocence the fantastic way
in which he took himself under his own protection and argued about that curious
person combined with the delightful ease of everything he said exactly to make
out my guardians case The more I saw of him the more unlikely it seemed to
me when he was present that he could design conceal or influence anything
and yet the less likely that appeared when he was not present and the less
agreeable it was to think of his having anything to do with any one for whom I
cared
Hearing that his examination as he called it was now over Mr Skimpole
left the room with a radiant face to fetch his daughters his sons had run away
at various times leaving my guardian quite delighted by the manner in which he
had vindicated his childish character He soon came back bringing with him the
three young ladies and Mrs Skimpole who had once been a beauty but was now a
delicate highnosed invalid suffering under a complication of disorders
»This« said Mr Skimpole »is my Beauty daughter Arethusa plays and
sings odds and ends like her father This is my Sentiment daughter Laura
plays a little but dont sing This is my Comedy daughter Kitty sings a
little but dont play We all draw a little and compose a little and none of
us have any idea of time or money«
Mrs Skimpole sighed I thought as if she would have been glad to strike
out this item in the family attainments I also thought that she rather
impressed her sigh upon my guardian and that she took every opportunity of
throwing in another
»It is pleasant« said Mr Skimpole turning his sprightly eyes from one to
the other of us »and it is whimsically interesting to trace peculiarities in
families In this family we are all children and I am the youngest«
The daughters who appeared to be very fond of him were amused by this
droll fact particularly the Comedy daughter
»My dears it is true« said Mr Skimpole »is it not So it is and so it
must be because like the dogs in the hymn it is our nature to Now here is
Miss Summerson with a fine administrative capacity and a knowledge of details
perfectly surprising It will sound very strange in Miss Summersons ears I
dare say that we know nothing about chops in this house But we dont not the
least We cant cook anything whatever A needle and thread we dont know how to
use We admire the people who possess the practical wisdom we want but we dont
quarrel with them Then why should they quarrel with us Live and let live we
say to them Live upon your practical wisdom and let us live upon you«
He laughed but as usual seemed quite candid and really to mean what he
said
»We have sympathy my roses« said Mr Skimpole »sympathy for everything
Have we not«
»O yes papa« cried the three daughters
»In fact that is our family department« said Mr Skimpole »in this
hurlyburly of life We are capable of looking on and of being interested and
we do look on and we are interested What more can we do Here is my Beauty
daughter married these three years Now I dare say her marrying another child
and having two more was all wrong in point of political economy but it was
very agreeable We had our little festivities on those occasions and exchanged
social ideas She brought her young husband home one day and they and their
young fledgelings have their nest upstairs I dare say at some time or other
Sentiment and Comedy will bring their husbands home and have their nests
upstairs too So we get on we dont know how but somehow«
She looked very young indeed to be the mother of two children and I could
not help pitying both her and them It was evident that the three daughters had
grown up as they could and had had just as little hap instruction as qualified
them to be their fathers playthings in his idlest hours His pictorial tastes
were consulted I observed in their respective styles of wearing their hair
the Beauty daughter being in the classic manner the Sentiment daughter
luxuriant and flowing and the Comedy daughter in the arch style with a good
deal of sprightly forehead and vivacious little curls dotted about the corners
of her eyes They were dressed to correspond though in a most untidy and
negligent way
Ada and I conversed with these young ladies and found them wonderfully like
their father In the meanwhile Mr Jarndyce who had been rubbing his head to a
great extent and hinted at a change in the wind talked with Mrs Skimpole in a
corner where we could not help hearing the chink of money Mr Skimpole had
previously volunteered to go home with us and had withdrawn to dress himself
for the purpose
»My roses« he said when he came back »take care of mama She is poorly
today By going home with Mr Jarndyce for a day or two I shall hear the larks
sing and preserve my amiability It has been tried you know and would be
tried again if I remained at home«
»That bad man« said the Comedy daughter
»At the very time when he knew papa was lying ill by his wallflowers
looking at the blue sky« Laura complained
»And when the smell of hay was in the air« said Arethusa
»It showed a want of poetry in the man« Mr Skimpole assented but with
perfect goodhumour »It was coarse There was an absence of the finer touches
of humanity in it My daughters have taken great offence« he explained to us
»at an honest man «
»Not honest papa Impossible« they all three protested
»At a rough kind of fellow a sort of human hedgehog rolled up« said Mr
Skimpole »who is a baker in this neighbourhood and from whom we borrowed a
couple of armchairs We wanted a couple of armchairs and we hadnt got them
and therefore of course we looked to a man who had got them to lend them Well
this morose person lent them and we wore them out When they were worn out he
wanted them back He had them back He was contented you will say Not at all
He objected to their being worn I reasoned with him and pointed out his
mistake I said Can you at your time of life be so headstrong my friend as
to persist that an armchair is a thing to put upon a shelf and look at That it
is an object to contemplate to survey from a distance to consider from a point
of sight Dont you know that these armchairs were borrowed to be sat upon He
was unreasonable and unpersuadable and used intemperate language Being as
patient as I am at this minute I addressed another appeal to him I said Now
my good man however our business capacities may vary we are all children of
one great mother Nature On this blooming summer morning here you see me I was
on the sofa with flowers before me fruit upon the table the cloudless sky
above me the air full of fragrance contemplating Nature I entreat you by our
common brotherhood not to interpose between me and a subject so sublime the
absurd figure of an angry baker But he did« said Mr Skimpole raising his
laughing eyes in playful astonishment »he did interpose that ridiculous figure
and he does and he will again And therefore I am very glad to get out of his
way and to go home with my friend Jarndyce«
It seemed to escape his consideration that Mrs Skimpole and the daughters
remained behind to encounter the baker but this was so old a story to all of
them that it had become a matter of course He took leave of his family with a
tenderness as airy and graceful as any other aspect in which he showed himself
and rode away with us in perfect harmony of mind We had an opportunity of
seeing through some open doors as we went downstairs that his own apartment
was a palace to the rest of the house
I could have no anticipation and I had none that something very startling
to me at the moment and ever memorable to me in what ensued from it was to
happen before this day was out Our guest was in such spirits on the way home
that I could do nothing but listen to him and wonder at him nor was I alone in
this for Ada yielded to the same fascination As to my guardian the wind
which had threatened to become fixed in the east when we left Somers Town
veered completely round before we were a couple of miles from it
Whether of questionable childishness or not in any other matters Mr
Skimpole had a childs enjoyment of change and bright weather In no way wearied
by his sallies on the road he was in the drawingroom before any of us and I
heard him at the piano while I was yet looking after my housekeeping singing
refrains of barcarolles and drinking songs Italian and German by the score
We were all assembled shortly before dinner and he was still at the piano
idly picking out in his luxurious way little strains of music and talking
between whiles of finishing some sketches of the ruined old Verulam wall
tomorrow which he had begun a year or two ago and had got tired of when a
card was brought in and my guardian read aloud in a surprised voice
»Sir Leicester Dedlock«
The visitor was in the room while it was yet turning round with me and
before I had the power to stir If I had had it I should have hurried away I
had not even the presence of mind in my giddiness to retire to Ada in the
window or to see the window or to know where it was I heard my name and
found that my guardian was presenting me before I could move to a chair
»Pray be seated Sir Leicester«
»Mr Jarndyce« said Sir Leicester in reply as he bowed and seated himself
»I do myself the honour of calling here «
»You do me the honour Sir Leicester«
»Thank you of calling here on my road from Lincolnshire to express my
regret that any cause of complaint however strong that I may have against a
gentleman who who is known to you and has been your host and to whom
therefore I will make no further reference should have prevented you still
more ladies under your escort and charge from seeing whatever little there may
be to gratify a polite and refined taste at my house Chesney Wold«
»You are exceedingly obliging Sir Leicester and on behalf of those ladies
who are present and for myself I thank you very much«
»It is possible Mr Jarndyce that the gentleman to whom for the reasons I
have mentioned I refrain from making further allusion it is possible Mr
Jarndyce that that gentleman may have done me the honour so far as to
misapprehend my character as to induce you to believe that you would not have
been received by my local establishment in Lincolnshire with that urbanity that
courtesy which its members are instructed to show to all ladies and gentlemen
who present themselves at that house I merely beg to observe sir that the
fact is the reverse«
My guardian delicately dismissed this remark without making any verbal
answer
»It has given me pain Mr Jarndyce« Sir Leicester weightily proceeded »I
assure you sir it has given Me pain to learn from the housekeeper at
Chesney Wold that a gentleman who was in your company in that part of the
county and who would appear to possess a cultivated taste for the Fine Arts
was likewise deterred by some such cause from examining the family pictures
with that leisure that attention that care which he might have desired to
bestow upon them and which some of them might possibly have repaid« Here he
produced a card and read with much gravity and a little trouble through his
eyeglass »Mr Hirrold Herald Harold Skampling Skumpling I beg your
pardon Skimpole«
»This is Mr Harold Skimpole« said my guardian evidently surprised
»Oh« exclaimed Sir Leicester »I am happy to meet Mr Skimpole and to have
the opportunity of tendering my personal regrets I hope sir that when you
again find yourself in my part of the county you will be under no similar sense
of restraint«
»You are very obliging Sir Leicester Dedlock So encouraged I shall
certainly give myself the pleasure and advantage of another visit to your
beautiful house The owners of such places as Chesney Wold« said Mr Skimpole
with his usual happy and easy air »are public benefactors They are good enough
to maintain a number of delightful objects for the admiration and pleasure of us
poor men and not to reap all the admiration and pleasure that they yield is to
be ungrateful to our benefactors«
Sir Leicester seemed to approve of this sentiment highly »An artist sir«
»No« returned Mr Skimpole »A perfectly idle man A mere amateur«
Sir Leicester seemed to approve of this even more He hoped he might have
the good fortune to be at Chesney Wold when Mr Skimpole next came down into
Lincolnshire Mr Skimpole professed himself much flattered and honoured
»Mr Skimpole mentioned« pursued Sir Leicester addressing himself again to
my guardian »mentioned to the housekeeper who as he may have observed is an
old and attached retainer of the family «
»That is when I walked through the house the other day on the occasion of
my going down to visit Miss Summerson and Miss Clare« Mr Skimpole airily
explained to us
»That the friend with whom he had formerly been staying there was Mr
Jarndyce« Sir Leicester bowed to the bearer of that name »And hence I became
aware of the circumstance for which I have professed my regret That this should
have occurred to any gentleman Mr Jarndyce but especially a gentleman
formerly known to Lady Dedlock and indeed claiming some distant connexion with
her and for whom as I learn from my Lady herself she entertains a high
respect does I assure you give Me pain«
»Pray say no more about it Sir Leicester« returned my guardian »I am very
sensible as I am sure we all are of your consideration Indeed the mistake was
mine and I ought to apologise for it«
I had not once looked up I had not seen the visitor and had not even
appeared to myself to hear the conversation It surprises me to find that I can
recall it for it seemed to make no impression on me as it passed I heard them
speaking but my mind was so confused and my instinctive avoidance of this
gentleman made his presence so distressing to me that I thought I understood
nothing through the rushing in my head and the beating of my heart
»I mentioned the subject to Lady Dedlock« said Sir Leicester rising »and
my Lady informed me that she had had the pleasure of exchanging a few words with
Mr Jarndyce and his wards on the occasion of an accidental meeting during
their sojourn in the vicinity Permit me Mr Jarndyce to repeat to yourself
and to these ladies the assurance I have already tendered to Mr Skimpole
Circumstances undoubtedly prevent my saying that it would afford me any
gratification to hear that Mr Boythorn had favoured my house with his presence
but those circumstances are confined to that gentleman himself and do not
extend beyond him«
»You know my old opinion of him« said Mr Skimpole lightly appealing to
us »An amiable bull who is determined to make every colour scarlet«
Sir Leicester Dedlock coughed as if he could not possibly hear another word
in reference to such an individual and took his leave with great ceremony and
politeness I got to my own room with all possible speed and remained there
until I had recovered my selfcommand It had been very much disturbed but I
was thankful to find when I went downstairs again that they only rallied me
for having been shy and mute before the great Lincolnshire baronet
By that time I had made up my mind that the period was come when I must tell
my guardian what I knew The possibility of my being brought into contact with
my mother of my being taken to her house even of Mr Skimpoles however
distantly associated with me receiving kindnesses and obligations from her
husband was so painful that I felt I could no longer guide myself without
his assistance
When we had retired for the night and Ada and I had had our usual talk in
our pretty room I went out at my door again and sought my guardian among his
books I knew he always read at that hour and as I drew near I saw the light
shining out into the passage from his readinglamp
»May I come in Guardian«
»Surely little woman Whats the matter«
»Nothing is the matter I thought I would like to take this quiet time of
saying a word to you about myself«
He put a chair for me shut his book and put it by and turned his kind
attentive face towards me I could not help observing that it wore that curious
expression I had observed in it once before on that night when he had said
that he was in no trouble which I could readily understand
»What concerns you my dear Esther« said he »concerns us all You cannot
be more ready to speak than I am to hear«
»I know that Guardian But I have such need of your advice and support O
you dont know how much need I have tonight«
He looked unprepared for my being so earnest and even a little alarmed
»Or how anxious I have been to speak to you« said I »ever since the
visitor was here today«
»The visitor my dear Sir Leicester Dedlock«
»Yes«
He folded his arms and sat looking at me with an air of the profoundest
astonishment awaiting what I should say next I did not know how to prepare
him
»Why Esther« said he breaking into a smile »our visitor and you are the
two last persons on earth I should have thought of connecting together«
»O yes Guardian I know it And I too but a little while ago«
The smile passed from his face and he became graver than before He crossed
to the door to see that it was shut but I had seen to that and resumed his
seat before me
»Guardian« said I »do you remember when we were overtaken by the
thunderstorm Lady Dedlocks speaking to you of her sister«
»Of course Of course I do«
»And reminding you that she and her sister had differed had gone their
several ways«
»Of course«
»Why did they separate Guardian«
His face quite altered as he looked at me »My child what questions are
these I never knew No one but themselves ever did know I believe Who could
tell what the secrets of those two handsome and proud women were You have seen
Lady Dedlock If you had ever seen her sister you would know her to have been
as resolute and haughty as she«
»O Guardian I have seen her many and many a time«
»Seen her«
He paused a little biting his lip »Then Esther when you spoke to me long
ago of Boythorn and when I told you that he was all but married once and that
the lady did not die but died to him and that that time had had its influence
on his later life did you know it all and know who the lady was«
»No Guardian« I returned fearful of the light that dimly broke upon me
»Nor do I know yet«
»Lady Dedlocks sister«
»And why« I could scarcely ask him »why Guardian pray tell me why were
they parted«
»It was her act and she kept its motives in her inflexible heart He
afterwards did conjecture but it was mere conjecture that some injury which
her haughty spirit had received in her cause of quarrel with her sister had
wounded her beyond all reason but she wrote him that from the date of that
letter she died to him as in literal truth she did and that the resolution
was exacted from her by her knowledge of his proud temper and his strained sense
of honour which were both her nature too In consideration for those master
points in him and even in consideration for them in herself she made the
sacrifice she said and would live in it and die in it She did both I fear
certainly he never saw her never heard of her from that hour Nor did any one«
»O Guardian what have I done« I cried giving way to my grief »what
sorrow have I innocently caused«
»You caused Esther«
»Yes Guardian Innocently but most surely That secluded sister is my
first remembrance«
»No no« he cried starting
»Yes Guardian yes And her sister is my mother«
I would have told him all my mothers letter but he would not hear it then
He spoke so tenderly and wisely to me and he put so plainly before me all I had
myself imperfectly thought and hoped in my better state of mind that
penetrated as I had been with fervent gratitude towards him through so many
years I believed I had never loved him so dearly never thanked him in my heart
so fully as I did that night And when he had taken me to my room and kissed me
at the door and when at last I lay down to sleep my thought was how could I
ever be busy enough how could I ever be good enough how in my little way could
I ever hope to be forgetful enough of myself devoted enough to him and useful
enough to others to show him how I blessed and honoured him
Chapter XLIV
The Letter and the Answer
My guardian called me into his room next morning and then I told him what had
been left untold on the previous night There was nothing to be done he said
but to keep the secret and to avoid another such encounter as that of
yesterday He understood my feeling and entirely shared it He charged himself
even with restraining Mr Skimpole from improving his opportunity One person
whom he need not name to me it was not now possible for him to advise or help
He wished it were but no such thing could be If her mistrust of the lawyer
whom she had mentioned were wellfounded which he scarcely doubted he dreaded
discovery He knew something of him both by sight and by reputation and it was
certain that he was a dangerous man Whatever happened he repeatedly impressed
upon me with anxious affection and kindness I was as innocent of as himself
and as unable to influence
»Nor do I understand« said he »that any doubts tend towards you my dear
Much suspicion may exist without that connexion«
»With the lawyer« I returned »But two other persons have come into my mind
since I have been anxious« Then I told him all about Mr Guppy who I feared
might have had his vague surmises when I little understood his meaning but in
whose silence after our last interview I expressed perfect confidence
»Well« said my guardian »Then we may dismiss him for the present Who is
the other«
I called to his recollection the French maid and the eager offer of herself
she had made to me
»Ha« he returned thoughtfully »that is a more alarming person than the
clerk But after all my dear it was but seeking for a new service She had
seen you and Ada a little while before and it was natural that you should come
into her head She merely proposed herself for your maid you know She did
nothing more«
»Her manner was strange« said I
»Yes and her manner was strange when she took her shoes off and showed
that cool relish for a walk that might have ended in her deathbed« said my
guardian »It would be useless selfdistress and torment to reckon up such
chances and possibilities There are very few harmless circumstances that would
not seem full of perilous meaning so considered Be hopeful little woman You
can be nothing better than yourself be that through this knowledge as you
were before you had it It is the best you can do for everybodys sake I
sharing the secret with you «
»And lightening it Guardian so much« said I
» Will be attentive to what passes in that family so far as I can observe
it from my distance And if the time should come when I can stretch out a hand
to render the least service to one whom it is better not to name even here I
will not fail to do it for her dear daughters sake«
I thanked him with my whole heart What could I ever do but thank him I was
going out at the door when he asked me to stay a moment Quickly turning round
I saw that same expression on his face again and all at once I dont know how
it flashed upon me as a new and far off possibility that I understood it
»My dear Esther« said my guardian »I have long had something in my
thoughts that I have wished to say to you«
»Indeed«
»I have had some difficulty in approaching it and I still have I should
wish it to be so deliberately said and so deliberately considered Would you
object to my writing it«
»Dear Guardian how could I object to your writing anything for me to read«
»Then see my love« said he with his cheery smile »am I at this moment
quite as plain and easy do I seem as open as honest and oldfashioned as I
am at any time«
I answered in all earnestness »Quite« With the strictest truth for his
momentary hesitation was gone it had not lasted a minute and his fine
sensible cordial sterling manner was restored
»Do I look as if I suppressed anything meant anything but what I said had
any reservation at all no matter what« said he with his bright clear eyes on
mine
I answered most assuredly he did not
»Can you fully trust me and thoroughly rely on what I profess Esther«
»Most thoroughly« said I with my whole heart
»My dear girl« returned my guardian »give me your hand«
He took it in his holding me lightly with his arm and looking down into
my face with the same genuine freshness and faithfulness of manner the old
protecting manner which had made that house my home in a moment said »You
have wrought changes in me little woman since the winter day in the
stagecoach First and last you have done me a world of good since that time«
»Ah Guardian what have you done for me since that time«
»But« said he »that is not to be remembered now«
»It never can be forgotten«
»Yes Esther« said he with a gentle seriousness »it is to be forgotten
now to be forgotten for a while You are only to remember now that nothing can
change me as you know me Can you feel quite assured of that my dear«
»I can and I do« I said
»Thats much« he answered »Thats everything But I must not take that at
a word I will not write this something in my thoughts until you have quite
resolved within yourself that nothing can change me as you know me If you doubt
that in the least degree I will never write it If you are sure of that on
good consideration send Charley to me this night week for the letter But if
you are not quite certain never send Mind I trust to your truth in this
thing as in everything If you are not quite certain on that one point never
send«
»Guardian« said I »I am already certain I can no more be changed in that
conviction than you can be changed towards me I shall send Charley for the
letter«
He shook my hand and said no more Nor was any more said in reference to
this conversation either by him or me through the whole week When the
appointed night came I said to Charley as soon as I was alone »Go and knock at
Mr Jarndyces door Charley and say you have come from me for the letter«
Charley went up the stairs and down the stairs and along the passages the
zigzag way about the oldfashioned house seemed very long in my listening ears
that night and so came back along the passages and down the stairs and up
the stairs and brought the letter »Lay it on the table Charley« said I So
Charley laid it on the table and went to bed and I sat looking at it without
taking it up thinking of many things
I began with my overshadowed childhood and passed through those timid days
to the heavy time when my aunt lay dead with her resolute face so cold and set
and when I was more solitary with Mrs Rachael than if I had had no one in the
world to speak to or to look at I passed to the altered days when I was so
blest as to find friends in all around me and to be beloved I came to the time
when I first saw my dear girl and was received into that sisterly affection
which was the grace and beauty of my life I recalled the first bright gleam of
welcome which had shone out of those very windows upon our expectant faces on
that cold bright night and which had never paled I lived my happy life there
over again I went through my illness and recovery I thought of myself so
altered and of those around me so unchanged and all this happiness shone like a
light from one central figure represented before me by the letter on the table
I opened it and read it It was so impressive in its love for me and in the
unselfish caution it gave me and the consideration it showed for me in every
word that my eyes were too often blinded to read much at a time But I read it
through three times before I laid it down I had thought beforehand that I knew
its purport and I did It asked me would I be the mistress of Bleak House
It was not a love letter though it expressed so much love but was written
just as he would at any time have spoken to me I saw his face and heard his
voice and felt the influence of his kind protecting manner in every line It
addressed me as if our places were reversed as if all the good deeds had been
mine and all the feelings they had awakened his It dwelt on my being young
and he past the prime of life on his having attained a ripe age while I was a
child on his writing to me with a silvered head and knowing all this so well
as to set it in full before me for mature deliberation It told me that I would
gain nothing by such a marriage and lose nothing by rejecting it for no new
relation could enhance the tenderness in which he held me and whatever my
decision was he was certain it would be right But he had considered this step
anew since our late confidence and had decided on taking it if it only served
to show me through one poor instance that the whole world would readily unite
to falsify the stern prediction of my childhood I was the last to know what
happiness I could bestow upon him but of that he said no more for I was always
to remember that I owed him nothing and that he was my debtor and for very
much He had often thought of our future and foreseeing that the time must
come and fearing that it might come soon when Ada now very nearly of age
would leave us and when our present mode of life must be broken up had become
accustomed to reflect on this proposal Thus he made it If I felt that I could
ever give him the best right he could have to be my protector and if I felt
that I could happily and justly become the dear companion of his remaining life
superior to all lighter chances and changes than Death even then he could not
have me bind myself irrevocably while this letter was yet so new to me but
even then I must have ample time for reconsideration In that case or in the
opposite case let him be unchanged in his old relation in his old manner in
the old name by which I called him And as to his bright Dame Durden and little
housekeeper she would ever be the same he knew
This was the substance of the letter written throughout with a justice and
a dignity as if he were indeed my responsible guardian impartially
representing the proposal of a friend against whom in his integrity he stated
the full case
But he did not hint to me that when I had been betterlooking he had had
this same proceeding in his thoughts and had refrained from it That when my
old face was gone from me and I had no attractions he could love me just as
well as in my fairer days That the discovery of my birth gave him no shock
That his generosity rose above my disfigurement and my inheritance of shame
That the more I stood in need of such fidelity the more firmly I might trust in
him to the last
But I knew it I knew it well now It came upon me as the close of the
benignant history I had been pursuing and I felt that I had but one thing to
do To devote my life to his happiness was to thank him poorly and what had I
wished for the other night but some new means of thanking him
Still I cried very much not only in the fulness of my heart after reading
the letter not only in the strangeness of the prospect for it was strange
though I had expected the contents but as if something for which there was no
name or distinct idea were indefinitely lost to me I was very happy very
thankful very hopeful but I cried very much
Byandby I went to my old glass My eyes were red and swollen and I said
»O Esther Esther can that be you« I am afraid the face in the glass was going
to cry again at this reproach but I held up my finger at it and it stopped
»That is more like the composed look you comforted me with my dear when
you showed me such a change« said I beginning to let down my hair »When you
are mistress of Bleak House you are to be as cheerful as a bird In fact you
are always to be cheerful so let us begin for once and for all«
I went on with my hair now quite comfortably I sobbed a little still but
that was because I had been crying not because I was crying then
»And so Esther my dear you are happy for life Happy with your best
friends happy in your old home happy in the power of doing a great deal of
good and happy in the undeserved love of the best of men«
I thought all at once if my guardian had married some one else how should
I have felt and what should I have done That would have been a change indeed
It presented my life in such a new and blank form that I rang my housekeeping
keys and gave them a kiss before I laid them down in their basket again
Then I went on to think as I dressed my hair before the glass how often
had I considered within myself that the deep traces of my illness and the
circumstances of my birth were only new reasons why I should be busy busy
busy useful amiable serviceable in all honest unpretending ways This was
a good time to be sure to sit down morbidly and cry As to its seeming at all
strange to me at first if that were any excuse for crying which it was not
that I was one day to be the mistress of Bleak House why should it seem
strange Other people had thought of such things if I had not »Dont you
remember my plain dear« I asked myself looking at the glass »what Mrs
Woodcourt said before those scars were there about your marrying «
Perhaps the name brought them to my remembrance The dried remains of the
flowers It would be better not to keep them now They had only been preserved
in memory of something wholly past and gone but it would be better not to keep
them now
They were in a book and it happened to be in the next room our
sittingroom dividing Adas chamber from mine I took a candle and went softly
in to fetch it from its shelf After I had it in my hand I saw my beautiful
darling through the open door lying asleep and I stole in to kiss her
It was weak in me I know and I could have no reason for crying but I
dropped a tear upon her dear face and another and another Weaker than that I
took the withered flowers out and put them for a moment to her lips I thought
about her love for Richard though indeed the flowers had nothing to do with
that Then I took them into my own room and burned them at the candle and they
were dust in an instant
On entering the breakfastroom next morning I found my guardian just as usual
quite as frank as open and free There being not the least constraint in his
manner there was none or I think there was none in mine I was with him
several times in the course of the morning in and out when there was no one
there and I thought it not unlikely that he might speak to me about the letter
but he did not say a word
So on the next morning and the next and for at least a week over which
time Mr Skimpole prolonged his stay I expected every day that my guardian
might speak to me about the letter but he never did
I thought then growing uneasy that I ought to write an answer I tried
over and over again in my own room at night but I could not write an answer
that at all began like a good answer so I thought each night I would wait one
more day And I waited seven more days and he never said a word
At last Mr Skimpole having departed we three were one afternoon going out
for a ride and I being dressed before Ada and going down came upon my
guardian with his back towards me standing at the drawingroom window looking
out
He turned on my coming in and said smiling »Aye its you little woman
is it« and looked out again
I had made up my mind to speak to him now In short I had come down on
purpose »Guardian« I said rather hesitating and trembling »when would you
like to have the answer to the letter Charley came for«
»When its ready my dear« he replied
»I think it is ready« said I
»Is Charley to bring it« he asked pleasantly
»No I have brought it myself Guardian« I returned
I put my two arms round his neck and kissed him and he said was this the
mistress of Bleak House and I said yes and it made no difference presently
and we all went out together and I said nothing to my precious pet about it
Chapter XLV
In Trust
One morning when I had done jingling about with my basket of keys as my beauty
and I were walking round and round the garden I happened to turn my eyes towards
the house and saw a long thin shadow going in which looked like Mr Vholes Ada
had been telling me only that morning of her hopes that Richard might exhaust
his ardour in the Chancery suit by being so very earnest in it and therefore
not to damp my dear girls spirits I said nothing about Mr Vholess shadow
Presently came Charley lightly winding among the bushes and tripping along
the paths as rosy and pretty as one of Floras attendants instead of my maid
saying »O if you please miss would you step and speak to Mr Jarndyce«
It was one of Charleys peculiarities that whenever she was charged with a
message she always began to deliver it as soon as she beheld at any distance
the person for whom it was intended Therefore I saw Charley asking me in her
usual form of words to step and speak to Mr Jarndyce long before I heard her
And when I did hear her she had said it so often that she was out of breath
I told Ada I would make haste back and inquired of Charley as we went in
whether there was not a gentleman with Mr Jarndyce To which Charley whose
grammar I confess to my shame never did any credit to my educational powers
replied »Yes miss Him as come down in the country with Mr Richard«
A more complete contrast than my guardian and Mr Vholes I suppose there
could not be I found them looking at one another across a table the one so
open and the other so close the one so broad and upright and the other so
narrow and stooping the one giving out what he had to say in such a rich
ringing voice and the other keeping it in in such a coldblooded gasping
fishlike manner that I thought I never had seen two people so unmatched
»You know Mr Vholes my dear« said my guardian Not with the greatest
urbanity I must say
Mr Vholes rose gloved and buttoned up as usual and seated himself again
just as he had seated himself beside Richard in the gig Not having Richard to
look at he looked straight before him
»Mr Vholes« said my guardian eyeing his black figure as if he were a
bird of illomen »has brought an ugly report of our most unfortunate Rick«
Laying a marked emphasis on most unfortunate as if the words were rather
descriptive of his connexion with Mr Vholes
I sat down between them Mr Vholes remained immovable except that he
secretly picked at one of the red pimples on his yellow face with his black
glove
»And as Rick and you are happily good friends I should like to know« said
my guardian »what you think my dear Would you be so good as to as to speak
up Mr Vholes«
Doing anything but that Mr Vholes observed
»I have been saying that I have reason to know Miss Summerson as Mr Cs
professional adviser that Mr Cs circumstances are at the present moment in
an embarrassed state Not so much in point of amount as owing to the peculiar
and pressing nature of liabilities Mr C has incurred and the means he has of
liquidating or meeting the same I have staved off many little matters for Mr
C but there is a limit to staving off and we have reached it I have made
some advances out of pocket to accommodate these unpleasantnesses but I
necessarily look to being repaid for I do not pretend to be a man of capital
and I have a father to support in the Vale of Taunton besides striving to
realise some little independence for three dear girls at home My apprehension
is Mr Cs circumstances being such lest it should end in his obtaining leave
to part with his commission which at all events is desirable to be made known
to his connexions«
Mr Vholes who had looked at me while speaking here emerged into the
silence he could hardly be said to have broken so stifled was his tone and
looked before him again
»Imagine the poor fellow without even his present resource« said my
guardian to me »Yet what can I do You know him Esther He would never accept
of help from me now To offer it or hint at it would be to drive him to an
extremity if nothing else did«
Mr Vholes hereupon addressed me again
»What Mr Jarndyce remarks miss is no doubt the case and is the
difficulty I do not see that anything is to be done I do not say that anything
is to be done Far from it I merely come down here under the seal of confidence
and mention it in order that everything may be openly carried on and that it
may not be said afterwards that everything was not openly carried on My wish is
that everything should be openly carried on I desire to leave a good name
behind me If I consulted merely my own interests with Mr C I should not be
here So insurmountable as you must well know would be his objections This is
not a professional attendance This can be charged to nobody I have no interest
in it except as a member of society and a father and a son« said Mr Vholes
who had nearly forgotten that point
It appeared to us that Mr Vholes said neither more nor less than the truth
in intimating that he sought to divide the responsibility such as it was of
knowing Richards situation I could only suggest that I should go down to Deal
where Richard was then stationed and see him and try if it were possible to
avert the worst Without consulting Mr Vholes on this point I took my guardian
aside to propose it while Mr Vholes gauntly stalked to the fire and warmed
his funeral gloves
The fatigue of the journey formed an immediate objection on my guardians
part but as I saw he had no other and as I was only too happy to go I got his
consent We had then merely to dispose of Mr Vholes
»Well sir« said Mr Jarndyce »Miss Summerson will communicate with Mr
Carstone and we can only hope that his position may be yet retrievable You
will allow me to order you lunch after your journey sir«
»I thank you Mr Jarndyce« said Mr Vholes putting out his long black
sleeve to check the ringing of the bell »not any I thank you no not a
morsel My digestion is much impaired and I am but a poor knife and fork at any
time If I was to partake of solid food at this period of the day I dont know
what the consequences might be Everything having been openly carried on sir I
will now with your permission take my leave«
»And I would that you could take your leave and we could all take our
leave Mr Vholes« returned my guardian bitterly »of a Cause you know of«
Mr Vholes whose black dye was so deep from head to foot that it had quite
steamed before the fire diffusing a very unpleasant perfume made a short
onesided inclination of his head from the neck and slowly shook it
»We whose ambition it is to be looked upon in the light of respectable
practitioners sir can but put our shoulders to the wheel We do it sir At
least I do it myself and I wish to think well of my professional brethren one
and all You are sensible of an obligation not to refer to me miss in
communicating with Mr C«
I said I would be careful not to do it
»Just so miss Good morning Mr Jarndyce good morning sir« Mr Vholes
put his dead glove which scarcely seemed to have any hand in it on my fingers
and then on my guardians fingers and took his long thin shadow away I thought
of it on the outside of the coach passing over all the sunny landscape between
us and London chilling the seed in the ground as it glided along
Of course it became necessary to tell Ada where I was going and why I was
going and of course she was anxious and distressed But she was too true to
Richard to say anything but words of pity and words of excuse and in a more
loving spirit still my dear devoted girl she wrote him a long letter of
which I took charge
Charley was to be my travelling companion though I am sure I wanted none
and would willingly have left her at home We all went to London that afternoon
and finding two places in the mail secured them At our usual bedtime Charley
and I were rolling away seaward with the Kentish letters
It was a nights journey in those coach times but we had the mail to
ourselves and did not find the night very tedious It passed with me as I
suppose it would with most people under such circumstances At one while my
journey looked hopeful and at another hopeless Now I thought I should do some
good and now I wondered how I could ever have supposed so Now it seemed one of
the most reasonable things in the world that I should have come and now one of
the most unreasonable In what state I should find Richard what I should say to
him and what he would say to me occupied my mind by turns with these two
states of feeling and the wheels seemed to play one tune to which the burden
of my guardians letter set itself over and over again all night
At last we came into the narrow streets of Deal and very gloomy they were
upon a raw misty morning The long flat beach with its little irregular houses
wooden and brick and its litter of capstans and great boats and sheds and
bare upright poles with tackle and blocks and loose gravelly waste places
overgrown with grass and weeds wore as dull an appearance as any place I ever
saw The sea was heaving under a thick white fog and nothing else was moving
but a few early ropemakers who with the yarn twisted round their bodies
looked as if tired of their present state of existence they were spinning
themselves into cordage
But when we got into a warm room in an excellent hotel and sat down
comfortably washed and dressed to an early breakfast for it was too late to
think of going to bed Deal began to look more cheerful Our little room was
like a ships cabin and that delighted Charley very much Then the fog began to
rise like a curtain and numbers of ships that we had had no idea were near
appeared I dont know how many sail the waiter told us were then lying in the
Downs Some of these vessels were of grand size one was a large Indiaman just
come home and when the sun shone through the clouds making silvery pools in
the dark sea the way in which these ships brightened and shadowed and
changed amid a bustle of boats pulling off from the shore to them and from them
to the shore and a general life and motion in themselves and everything around
them was most beautiful
The large Indiaman was our great attraction because she had come into the
Downs in the night She was surrounded by boats and we said how glad the people
on board of her must be to come ashore Charley was curious too about the
voyage and about the heat in India and the serpents and the tigers and as she
picked up such information much faster than grammar I told her what I knew on
those points I told her too how people in such voyages were sometimes wrecked
and cast on rocks where they were saved by the intrepidity and humanity of one
man And Charley asking how that could be I told her how we knew at home of
such a case
I had thought of sending Richard a note saying I was there but it seemed
so much better to go to him without preparation As he lived in barracks I was a
little doubtful whether this was feasible but we went out to reconnoitre
Peeping in at the gate of the barrackyard we found everything very quiet at
that time in the morning and I asked a serjeant standing on the
guardhousesteps where he lived He sent a man before to show me who went up
some bare stairs and knocked with his knuckles at a door and left us
»Now then« cried Richard from within So I left Charley in the little
passage and going on to the halfopen door said »Can I come in Richard Its
only Dame Durden«
He was writing at a table with a great confusion of clothes tin cases
books boots brushes and portmanteaus strewn all about the floor He was only
halfdressed in plain clothes I observed not in uniform and his hair was
unbrushed and he looked as wild as his room All this I saw after he had
heartily welcomed me and I was seated near him for he started upon hearing my
voice and caught me in his arms in a moment Dear Richard He was ever the same
to me Down to ah poor poor fellow to the end he never received me but
with something of his old merry boyish manner
»Good Heaven my dear little woman« said he »how do you come here Who
could have thought of seeing you Nothing the matter Ada is well«
»Quite well Lovelier than ever Richard«
»Ah« he said leaning back in his chair »My poor cousin I was writing to
you Esther«
So worn and haggard as he looked even in the fulness of his handsome youth
leaning back in his chair and crushing the closely written sheet of paper in
his hand
»Have you been at the trouble of writing all that and am I not to read it
after all« I asked
»Oh my dear« he returned with a hopeless gesture »You may read it in the
whole room It is all over here«
I mildly entreated him not to be despondent I told him that I had heard by
chance of his being in difficulty and had come to consult with him what could
best be done
»Like you Esther but useless and so not like you« said he with a
melancholy smile »I am away on leave this day should have been gone in
another hour and that is to smooth it over for my selling out Well Let
bygones be bygones So this calling follows the rest I only want to have been
in the church to have made the round of all the professions«
»Richard« I urged »it is not so hopeless as that«
»Esther« he returned »it is indeed I am just so near disgrace as that
those who are put in authority over me as the catechism goes would far rather
be without me than with me And they are right Apart from debts and duns and
all such drawbacks I am not fit even for this employment I have no care no
mind no heart no soul but for one thing Why if this bubble hadnt broken
now« he said tearing the letter he had written into fragments and moodily
casting them away by driblets »how could I have gone abroad I must have been
ordered abroad but how could I have gone How could I with my experience of
that thing trust even Vholes unless I was at his back«
I suppose he knew by my face what I was about to say but he caught the hand
I had laid upon his arm and touched my own lips with it to prevent me from
going on
»No Dame Durden Two subjects I forbid must forbid The first is John
Jarndyce The second you know what Call it madness and I tell you I cant
help it now and cant be sane But it is no such thing it is the one object I
have to pursue It is a pity I ever was prevailed upon to turn out of my road
for any other It would be wisdom to abandon it now after all the time
anxiety and pains I have bestowed upon it O yes true wisdom It would be very
agreeable too to some people but I never will«
He was in that mood in which I thought it best not to increase his
determination if anything could increase it by opposing him I took out Adas
letter and put it in his hand
»Am I to read it now« he asked
As I told him yes he laid it on the table and resting his head upon his
hand began He had not read far when he rested his head upon his two hands
to hide his face from me In a little while he rose as if the light were bad
and went to the window He finished reading it there with his back towards me
and after he had finished and had folded it up stood there for some minutes
with the letter in his hand When he came back to his chair I saw tears in his
eyes
»Of course Esther you know what she says here« He spoke in a softened
voice and kissed the letter as he asked me
»Yes Richard«
»Offers me« he went on tapping his foot upon the floor »the little
inheritance she is certain of so soon just as little and as much as I have
wasted and begs and prays me to take it set myself right with it and remain
in the service«
»I know your welfare to be the dearest wish of her heart« said I »And O
my dear Richard Adas is a noble heart«
»I am sure it is I I wish I was dead«
He went back to the window and laying his arm across it leaned his head
down on his arm It greatly affected me to see him so but I hoped he might
become more yielding and I remained silent My experience was very limited I
was not at all prepared for his rousing himself out of this emotion to a new
sense of injury
»And this is the heart that the same John Jarndyce who is not otherwise to
be mentioned between us stepped in to estrange from me« said he indignantly
»And the dear girl makes me this generous offer from under the same John
Jarndyces roof and with the same John Jarndyces gracious consent and
connivance I dare say as a new means of buying me off«
»Richard« I cried out rising hastily »I will not hear you say such
shameful words« I was very angry with him indeed for the first time in my
life but it only lasted a moment When I saw his worn young face looking at me
as if he were sorry I put my hand on his shoulder and said »If you please my
dear Richard do not speak in such a tone to me Consider«
He blamed himself exceedingly and told me in the most generous manner that
he had been very wrong and that he begged my pardon a thousand times At that I
laughed but trembled a little too for I was rather fluttered after being so
fiery
»To accept this offer my dear Esther« said he sitting down beside me and
resuming our conversation »once more pray pray forgive me I am deeply
grieved to accept my dearest cousins offer is I need not say impossible
Besides I have letters and papers that I could show you which would convince
you it is all over here I have done with the red coat believe me But it is
some satisfaction in the midst of my troubles and perplexities to know that I
am pressing Adas interests in pressing my own Vholes has his shoulder to the
wheel and he cannot help urging it on as much for her as for me thank God«
His sanguine hopes were rising within him and lighting up his features but
they made his face more sad to me than it had been before
»No no« cried Richard exultingly »If every farthing of Adas little
fortune were mine no part of it should be spent in retaining me in what I am
not fit for can take no interest in and am weary of It should be devoted to
what promises a better return and should be used where she has a larger stake
Dont be uneasy for me I shall now have only one thing on my mind and Vholes
and I will work it I shall not be without means Free of my commission I shall
be able to compound with some small usurers who will hear of nothing but their
bond now Vholes says so I should have a balance in my favour anyway but that
would swell it Come come You shall carry a letter to Ada from me Esther and
you must both of you be more hopeful of me and not believe that I am quite cast
away just yet my dear«
I will not repeat what I said to Richard I know it was tiresome and nobody
is to suppose for a moment that it was at all wise It only came from my heart
He heard it patiently and feelingly but I saw that on the two subjects he had
reserved it was at present hopeless to make any representation to him I saw
too and had experienced in this very interview the sense of my guardians
remark that it was even more mischievous to use persuasion with him than to
leave him as he was
Therefore I was driven at last to asking Richard if he would mind convincing
me that it really was all over there as he had said and that it was not his
mere impression He showed me without hesitation a correspondence making it
quite plain that his retirement was arranged I found from what he told me
that Mr Vholes had copies of these papers and had been in consultation with
him throughout Beyond ascertaining this and having been the bearer of Adas
letter and being as I was going to be Richards companion back to London I
had done no good by coming down Admitting this to myself with a reluctant
heart I said I would return to the hotel and wait until he joined me there so
he threw a cloak over his shoulders and saw me to the gate and Charley and I
went back along the beach
There was a concourse of people in one spot surrounding some naval officers
who were landing from a boat and pressing about them with unusual interest I
said to Charley this would be one of the great Indiamans boats now and we
stopped to look
The gentlemen came slowly up from the waterside speaking goodhumouredly to
each other and to the people around and glancing about them as if they were
glad to be in England again »Charley Charley« said I »come away« And I
hurried on so swiftly that my little maid was surprised
It was not until we were shut up in our cabinroom and I had had time to
take breath that I began to think why I had made such haste In one of the
sunburnt faces I had recognised Mr Allan Woodcourt and I had been afraid of
his recognising me I had been unwilling that he should see my altered looks I
had been taken by surprise and my courage had quite failed me
But I knew this would not do and I now said to myself »My dear there is
no reason there is and there can be no reason at all why it should be worse
for you now than it ever has been What you were last month you are today
you are no worse you are no better This is not your resolution call it up
Esther call it up« I was in a great tremble with running and at first was
quite unable to calm myself but I got better and I was very glad to know it
The party came to the hotel I heard them speaking on the staircase I was
sure it was the same gentlemen because I knew their voices again I mean I knew
Mr Woodcourts It would still have been a great relief to me to have gone away
without making myself known but I was determined not to do so »No my dear
no No no no«
I untied my bonnet and put my veil half up I think I mean half down but
it matters very little and wrote on one of my cards that I happened to be
there with Mr Richard Carstone and I sent it in to Mr Woodcourt He came
immediately I told him I was rejoiced to be by chance among the first to
welcome him home to England And I saw that he was very sorry for me
»You have been in shipwreck and peril since you left us Mr Woodcourt«
said I »but we can hardly call that a misfortune which enabled you to be so
useful and so brave We read of it with the truest interest It first came to my
knowledge through your old patient poor Miss Flite when I was recovering from
my severe illness«
»Ah little Miss Flite« he said »She lives the same life yet«
»Just the same«
I was so comfortable with myself now as not to mind the veil and to be
able to put it aside
»Her gratitude to you Mr Woodcourt is delightful She is a most
affectionate creature as I have reason to say«
»You you have found her so« he returned »I I am glad of that« He was
so very sorry for me that he could scarcely speak
»I assure you« said I »that I was deeply touched by her sympathy and
pleasure at the time I have referred to«
»I was grieved to hear that you had been very ill«
»I was very ill«
»But you have quite recovered«
»I have quite recovered my health and my cheerfulness« said I »You know
how good my guardian is and what a happy life we lead and I have everything to
be thankful for and nothing in the world to desire«
I felt as if he had greater commiseration for me than I had ever had for
myself It inspired me with new fortitude and new calmness to find that it was
I who was under the necessity of reassuring him I spoke to him of his voyage
out and home and of his future plans and of his probable return to India He
said that was very doubtful He had not found himself more favoured by fortune
there than here He had gone out a poor ships surgeon and had come home
nothing better While we were talking and when I was glad to believe that I had
alleviated if I may use such a term the shock he had had in seeing me Richard
came in He had heard downstairs who was with me and they met with cordial
pleasure
I saw that after their first greetings were over and when they spoke of
Richards career Mr Woodcourt had a perception that all was not going well
with him He frequently glanced at his face as if there were something in it
that gave him pain and more than once he looked towards me as though he sought
to ascertain whether I knew what the truth was Yet Richard was in one of his
sanguine states and in good spirits and was thoroughly pleased to see Mr
Woodcourt again whom he had always liked
Richard proposed that we all should go to London together but Mr Woodcourt
having to remain by his ship a little longer could not join us He dined with
us however at an early hour and became so much more like what he used to be
that I was still more at peace to think I had been able to soften his regrets
Yet his mind was not relieved of Richard When the coach was almost ready and
Richard ran down to look after his luggage he spoke to me about him
I was not sure that I had a right to lay his whole story open but I
referred in a few words to his estrangement from Mr Jarndyce and to his being
entangled in the illfated Chancery suit Mr Woodcourt listened with interest
and expressed his regret
»I saw you observe him rather closely« said I »Do you think him so
changed«
»He is changed« he returned shaking his head
I felt the blood rush into my face for the first time but it was only an
instantaneous emotion I turned my head aside and it was gone
»It is not« said Mr Woodcourt »his being so much younger or older or
thinner or fatter or paler or ruddier as there being upon his face such a
singular expression I never saw so remarkable a look in a young person One
cannot say that it is all anxiety or all weariness yet it is both and like
ungrown despair«
»You do not think he is ill« said I
No He looked robust in body
»That he cannot be at peace in mind we have too much reason to know« I
proceeded »Mr Woodcourt you are going to London«
»Tomorrow or the next day«
»There is nothing Richard wants so much as a friend He always liked you
Pray see him when you get there Pray help him sometimes with your
companionship if you can You do not know of what service it might be You
cannot think how Ada and Mr Jarndyce and even I how we should all thank
you Mr Woodcourt«
»Miss Summerson« he said more moved than he had been from the first
»before Heaven I will be a true friend to him I will accept him as a trust
and it shall be a sacred one«
»God bless you« said I with my eyes filling fast but I thought they
might when it was not for myself »Ada loves him we all love him but Ada
loves him as we cannot I will tell her what you say Thank you and God bless
you in her name«
Richard came back as we finished exchanging these hurried words and gave me
his arm to take me to the coach
»Woodcourt« he said unconscious with what application »pray let us meet
in London«
»Meet« returned the other »I have scarcely a friend there now but you
Where shall I find you«
»Why I must get a lodging of some sort« said Richard pondering »Say at
Vholess Symonds Inn«
»Good Without loss of time«
They shook hands heartily When I was seated in the coach and Richard was
yet standing in the street Mr Woodcourt laid his friendly hand on Richards
shoulder and looked at me I understood him and waved mine in thanks
And in his last look as we drove away I saw that he was very sorry for me
I was glad to see it I felt for my old self as the dead may feel if they ever
revisit these scenes I was glad to be tenderly remembered to be gently pitied
not to be quite forgotten
Chapter XLVI
Stop Him
Darkness rests upon TomallAlones Dilating and dilating since the sun went
down last night it has gradually swelled until it fills every void in the
place For a time there were some dungeon lights burning as the lamp of Life
burns in TomallAlones heavily heavily in the nauseous air and winking
as that lamp too winks in TomallAlones at many horrible things But they
are blotted out The moon has eyed Tom with a dull cold stare as admitting some
puny emulation of herself in his desert region unfit for life and blasted by
volcanic fires but she has passed on and is gone The blackest nightmare in
the infernal stables grazes on TomallAlones and Tom is fast asleep
Much mighty speechmaking there has been both in and out of Parliament
concerning Tom and much wrathful disputation how Tom shall be got right
Whether he shall be put into the main road by constables or by beadles or by
bellringing or by force of figures or by correct principles of taste or by
high church or by low church or by no church whether he shall be set to
splitting trusses of polemical straws with the crooked knife of his mind or
whether he shall be put to stonebreaking instead In the midst of which dust
and noise there is but one thing perfectly clear to wit that Tom only may and
can or shall and will be reclaimed according to somebodys theory but nobodys
practice And in the hopeful meantime Tom goes to perdition head foremost in
his old determined spirit
But he has his revenge Even the winds are his messengers and they serve
him in these hours of darkness There is not a drop of Toms corrupted blood but
propagates infection and contagion somewhere It shall pollute this very night
the choice stream in which chemists on analysis would find the genuine
nobility of a Norman house and his Grace shall not be able to say Nay to the
infamous alliance There is not an atom of Toms slime not a cubic inch of any
pestilential gas in which he lives not one obscenity or degradation about him
not an ignorance not a wickedness not a brutality of his committing but shall
work its retribution through every order of society up to the proudest of the
proud and to the highest of the high Verily what with tainting plundering
and spoiling Tom has his revenge
It is a moot point whether TomallAlones be uglier by day or by night but
on the argument that the more that is seen of it the more shocking it must be
and that no part of it left to the imagination is at all likely to be made so
bad as the reality day carries it The day begins to break now and in truth it
might be better for the national glory even that the sun should sometimes set
upon the British dominions than that it should ever rise upon so vile a wonder
as Tom
A brown sunburnt gentleman who appears in some inaptitude for sleep to be
wandering abroad rather than counting the hours on a restless pillow strolls
hitherward at this quiet time Attracted by curiosity he often pauses and looks
about him up and down the miserable byways Nor is he merely curious for in
his bright dark eye there is compassionate interest and as he looks here and
there he seems to understand such wretchedness and to have studied it before
On the banks of the stagnant channel of mud which is the main street of
TomallAlones nothing is to be seen but the crazy houses shut up and silent
No waking creature save himself appears except in one direction where he sees
the solitary figure of a woman sitting on a doorstep He walks that way
Approaching he observes that she has journeyed a long distance and is footsore
and travelstained She sits on the doorstep in the manner of one who is
waiting with her elbow on her knee and her head upon her hand Beside her is a
canvas bag or bundle she has carried She is dozing probably for she gives no
heed to his steps as he comes toward her
The broken footway is so narrow that when Allan Woodcourt comes to where
the woman sits he has to turn into the road to pass her Looking down at her
face his eye meets hers and he stops
»What is the matter«
»Nothing sir«
»Cant you make them hear Do you want to be let in«
»Im waiting till they get up at another house a lodginghouse not
here« the woman patiently returns »Im waiting here because there will be sun
here presently to warm me«
»I am afraid you are tired I am sorry to see you sitting in the street«
»Thank you sir It dont matter«
A habit in him of speaking to the poor and of avoiding patronage or
condescension or childishness which is the favourite device many people
deeming it quite a subtlety to talk to them like little spelling books has
put him on good terms with the woman easily
»Let me look at your forehead« he says bending down »I am a doctor Dont
be afraid I wouldnt hurt you for the world«
He knows that by touching her with his skilful and accustomed hand he can
soothe her yet more readily She makes a slight objection saying »Its
nothing« but he has scarcely laid his fingers on the wounded place when she
lifts it up to the light
»Aye A bad bruise and the skin sadly broken This must be very sore«
»It do ache a little sir« returns the woman with a started tear upon her
cheek
»Let me try to make it more comfortable My handkerchief wont hurt you«
»O dear no sir Im sure of that«
He cleanses the injured place and dries it and having carefully examined it
and gently pressed it with the palm of his hand takes a small case from his
pocket dresses it and binds it up While he is thus employed he says after
laughing at his establishing a surgery in the street
»And so your husband is a brickmaker«
»How do you know that sir« asked the woman astonished
»Why I suppose so from the colour of the clay upon your bag and on your
dress And I know brickmakers go about working at piecework in different places
And I am sorry to say I have known them cruel to their wives too«
The woman hastily lifts up her eyes as if she would deny that her injury is
referable to such a cause But feeling the hand upon her forehead and seeing
his busy and composed face she quietly drops them again
»Where is he now« asks the surgeon
»He got into trouble last night sir but hell look for me at the
lodginghouse«
»He will get into worse trouble if he often misuses his large and heavy hand
as he has misused it here But you forgive him brutal as he is and I say no
more of him except that I wish he deserved it You have no young child«
The woman shakes her head »One as I calls mine sir but its Lizs«
»Your own is dead I see Poor little thing«
By this time he has finished and is putting up his case »I suppose you
have some settled home Is it far from here« he asks goodhumouredly making
light of what he has done as she gets up and curtseys
»Its a good two or threeandtwenty mile from here sir At Saint Albans
You know Saint Albans sir I thought you gave a start like as if you did«
»Yes I know something of it And now I will ask you a question in return
Have you money for your lodging«
»Yes sir« she says »really and truly« And she shows it He tells her in
acknowledgment of her many subdued thanks that she is very welcome gives her
good day and walks away TomallAlones is still asleep and nothing is astir
Yes something is As he retraces his way to the point from which he
descried the woman at a distance sitting on the step he sees a ragged figure
coming very cautiously along crouching close to the soiled walls which the
wretchedest figure might as well avoid and furtively thrusting a hand before
it It is the figure of a youth whose face is hollow and whose eyes have an
emaciated glare He is so intent on getting along unseen that even the
apparition of a stranger in whole garments does not tempt him to look back He
shades his face with his ragged elbow as he passes on the other side of the way
and goes shrinking and creeping on with his anxious hand before him and his
shapeless clothes hanging in shreds Clothes made for what purpose or of what
material it would be impossible to say They look in colour and in substance
like a bundle of rank leaves of swampy growth that rotted long ago
Allan Woodcourt pauses to look after him and note all this with a shadowy
belief that he has seen the boy before He cannot recall how or where but
there is some association in his mind with such a form He imagines that he must
have seen it in some hospital or refuge still cannot make out why it comes
with any special force on his remembrance
He is gradually emerging from TomallAlones in the morning light thinking
about it when he hears running feet behind him and looking round sees the boy
scouring towards him at great speed followed by the woman
»Stop him stop him« cries the woman almost breathless »Stop him sir«
He darts across the road into the boys path but the boy is quicker than he
makes a curve ducks dives under his hands comes up halfadozen yards
beyond him and scours away again Still the woman follows crying »Stop him
sir pray stop him« Allan not knowing but that he has just robbed her of her
money follows in chase and runs so hard that he runs the boy down a dozen
times but each time he repeats the curve the duck the dive and scours away
again To strike at him on any of these occasions would be to fell and disable
him but the pursuer cannot resolve to do that and so the grimly ridiculous
pursuit continues At last the fugitive hardpressed takes to a narrow
passage and a court which has no thoroughfare Here against a hoarding of
decaying timber he is brought to bay and tumbles down lying gasping at his
pursuer who stands and gasps at him until the woman comes up
»O you Jo« cries the woman »What I have found you at last«
»Jo« repeats Allan looking at him with attention »Jo Stay To be sure I
recollect this lad some time ago being brought before the Coroner«
»Yes I see you once afore at the Inkwhich« whimpers Jo »What of that
Cant you never let such an unfortnet as me alone Ant I unfortnet enough for
you yet How unfortnet do you want me fur to be Ive been a chivied and a
chivied fust by one on you and nixt by another on you till Im worritted to
skins and bones The Inkwhich warnt my fault I done nothink He wos wery good
to me he wos he wos the only one I knowed to speak to as ever come across my
crossing It aint wery likely I should want him to be Inkwhichd I only wish I
wos myself I dont know why I dont go and make a hole in the water Im sure
I dont«
He says it with such a pitiable air and his grimy tears appear so real and
he lies in the corner up against the hoarding so like a growth of fungus or any
unwholesome excrescence produced there in neglect and impurity that Allan
Woodcourt is softened towards him He says to the woman »Miserable creature
what has he done«
To which she only replies shaking her head at the prostrate figure more
amazedly than angrily »O you Jo you Jo I have found you at last«
»What has he done« says Allan »Has he robbed you«
»No sir no Robbed me He did nothing but what was kindhearted by me and
thats the wonder of it«
Allan looks from Jo to the woman and from the woman to Jo waiting for one
of them to unravel the riddle
»But he was along with me sir« says the woman »O you Jo he was along
with me sir down at Saint Albans ill and a young lady Lord bless her for a
good friend to me took pity on him when I durstnt and took him home «
Allan shrinks back from him with a sudden horror
»Yes sir yes Took him home and made him comfortable and like a
thankless monster he ran away in the night and never has been seen or heard of
since till I set eyes on him just now And that young lady that was such a
pretty dear caught his illness lost her beautiful looks and wouldnt hardly
be known for the same young lady now if it wasnt for her angel temper and her
pretty shape and her sweet voice Do you know it You ungrateful wretch do you
know that this is all along of you and of her goodness to you« demands the
woman beginning to rage at him as she recalls it and breaking into passionate
tears
The boy in rough sort stunned by what he hears falls to smearing his dirty
forehead with his dirty palm and to staring at the ground and to shaking from
head to foot until the crazy hoarding against which he leans rattles
Allan restrains the woman merely by a quiet gesture but effectually
»Richard told me« he falters » I mean I have heard of this dont mind
me for a moment I will speak presently«
He turns away and stands for a while looking out at the covered passage
When he comes back he has recovered his composure except that he contends
against an avoidance of the boy which is so very remarkable that it absorbs
the womans attention
»You hear what she says But get up get up«
Jo shaking and chattering slowly rises and stands after the manner of
his tribe in a difficulty sideways against the hoarding resting one of his
high shoulders against it and covertly rubbing his right hand over his left
and his left foot over his right
»You hear what she says and I know its true Have you been here ever
since«
»Wishermaydie if I seen TomallAlones till this blessed morning« replies
Jo hoarsely
»Why have you come here now«
Jo looks all round the confined court looks at his questioner no higher
than the knees and finally answers
»I dont know how to do nothink and I cant get nothink to do Im wery
poor and ill and I thought Id come back here when there warnt nobody about
and lay down and hide somewheres as I knows on till arter dark and then go and
beg a trifle of Mr Sangsby He wos allus willin fur to give me somethink he
wos though Mrs Sangsby she was allus a chivying on me like everybody
everywheres«
»Where have you come from«
Jo looks all round the court again looks at his questioners knees again
and concludes by laying his profile against the hoarding in a sort of
resignation
»Did you hear me ask you where you have come from«
»Tramp then« says Jo
»Now tell me« proceeds Allan making a strong effort to overcome his
repugnance going very near to him and leaning over him with an expression of
confidence »tell me how it came about that you left that house when the good
young lady had been so unfortunate as to pity you and take you home«
Jo suddenly comes out of his resignation and excitedly declares addressing
the woman that he never known about the young lady that he never heern about
it that he never went fur to hurt her that he would sooner have hurt his own
self that hed sooner have had his unfortnet ed chopped off than ever gone
anigh her and that she wos wery good to him she wos Conducting himself
throughout as if in his poor fashion he really meant it and winding up with
some very miserable sobs
Allan Woodcourt sees that this is not a sham He constrains himself to touch
him »Come Jo Tell me«
»No I dustnt« says Jo relapsing into the profile state »I dustnt or I
would«
»But I must know« returns the other »all the same Come Jo«
After two or three such adjurations Jo lifts up his head again looks round
the court again and says in a low voice »Well Ill tell you something I was
took away There«
»Took away In the night«
»Ah« Very apprehensive of being overheard Jo looks about him and even
glances up some ten feet at the top of the hoarding and through the cracks in
it lest the object of his distrust should be looking over or hidden on the
other side
»Who took you away«
»I dustnt name him« says Jo »I dustnt do it sir«
»But I want in the young ladys name to know You may trust me No one
else shall hear«
»Ah but I dont know« replies Jo shaking his head fearfully »as he dont
hear«
»Why he is not in this place«
»Oh aint he though« says Jo »Hes in all manner of places all at
wanst«
Allan looks at him in perplexity but discovers some real meaning and good
faith at the bottom of this bewildering reply He patiently awaits an explicit
answer and Jo more baffled by his patience than by anything else at last
desperately whispers a name in his ear
»Aye« says Allan »Why what had you been doing«
»Nothink sir Never done nothink to get myself into no trouble sept in
not moving on and the Inkwhich But Im amoving on now Im amoving on to the
berryin ground thats the move as Im up to«
»No no we will try to prevent that But what did he do with you«
»Put me in a horsepittle« replied Jo whispering »till I was discharged
then giv me a little money four half bulls wot you may call halfcrowns and
ses Hook it Nobody wants you here he ses You hook it You go and tramp he
ses You move on he ses Dont let me ever see you nowheres within forty mile
of London or youll repent it So I shall if ever he doos see me and hell
see me if Im above ground« concludes Jo nervously repeating all his former
precautions and investigations
Allan considers a little then remarks turning to the woman but keeping an
encouraging eye on Jo »He is not so ungrateful as you supposed He had a reason
for going away though it was an insufficient one«
»Thankee sir thankee« exclaims Jo »There now See how hard you wos
upon me But ony you tell the young lady wot the genlmn ses and its all right
For you wos wery good to me too and I knows it«
»Now Jo« says Allan keeping his eye upon him »come with me and I will
find you a better place than this to lie down and hide in If I take one side of
the way and you the other to avoid observation you will not run away I know
very well if you make me a promise«
»I wont not unless I wos to see him acoming sir«
»Very well I take your word Half the town is getting up by this time and
the whole town will be broad awake in another hour Come along Good day again
my good woman«
»Good day again sir and I thank you kindly many times again«
She has been sitting on her bag deeply attentive and now rises and takes
it up Jo repeating »Ony you tell the young lady as I never went fur to hurt
her and wot the genlmn ses« nods and shambles and shivers and smears and
blinks and half laughs and half cries a farewell to her and takes his
creeping way along after Allan Woodcourt close to the houses on the opposite
side of the street In this order the two come up out of TomallAlones into
the broad rays of the sunlight and the purer air
Chapter XLVII
Jos Will
As Allan Woodcourt and Jo proceed along the streets where the high church
spires and the distances are so near and clear in the morning light that the
city itself seems renewed by rest Allan revolves in his mind how and where he
shall bestow his companion »It surely is a strange fact« he considers »that
in the heart of a civilised world this creature in human form should be more
difficult to dispose of than an unowned dog« But it is none the less a fact
because of its strangeness and the difficulty remains
At first he looks behind him often to assure himself that Jo is still
really following But look where he will he still beholds him close to the
opposite houses making his way with his wary hand from brick to brick and from
door to door and often as he creeps along glancing over at him watchfully
Soon satisfied that the last thing in his thoughts is to give him the slip
Allan goes on considering with a less divided attention what he shall do
A breakfaststall at a street corner suggests the first thing to be done He
stops there looks round and beckons Jo Jo crosses and comes halting and
shuffling up slowly scooping the knuckles of his right hand round and round in
the hollowed palm of his left kneading dirt with a natural pestle and mortar
What is a dainty repast to Jo is then set before him and he begins to gulp the
coffee and to gnaw the breadandbutter looking anxiously about him in all
directions as he eats and drinks like a scared animal
But he is so sick and miserable that even hunger has abandoned him »I
thought I was amost astarvin sir« says Jo soon putting down his food »but I
dont know nothink not even that I dont care for eating wittles nor yet for
drinking on em« And Jo stands shivering and looking at the breakfast
wonderingly
Allan Woodcourt lays his hand upon his pulse and on his chest »Draw
breath Jo« »It draws« says Jo »as heavy as a cart« He might add »and
rattles like it« but he only mutters »Im amoving on sir«
Allan looks about for an apothecarys shop There is none at hand but a
tavern does as well or better He obtains a little measure of wine and gives
the lad a portion of it very carefully He begins to revive almost as soon as
it passes his lips »We may repeat that dose Jo« observes Allan after
watching him with his attentive face »So Now we will take five minutes rest
and then go on again«
Leaving the boy sitting on the bench of the breakfaststall with his back
against an iron railing Allan Woodcourt paces up and down in the early
sunshine casting an occasional look towards him without appearing to watch him
It requires no discernment to perceive that he is warmed and refreshed If a
face so shaded can brighten his face brightens somewhat and by little and
little he eats the slice of bread he had so hopelessly laid down Observant of
these signs of improvement Allan engages him in conversation and elicits to
his no small wonder the adventure of the lady in the veil with all its
consequences Jo slowly munches as he slowly tells it When he has finished his
story and his bread they go on again
Intending to refer his difficulty in finding a temporary place of refuge for
the boy to his old patient zealous little Miss Flite Allan leads the way to
the court where he and Jo first foregathered But all is changed at the rag and
bottle shop Miss Flite no longer lodges there it is shut up and a
hardfeatured female much obscured by dust whose age is a problem but who is
indeed no other than the interesting Judy is tart and spare in her replies
These sufficing however to inform the visitor that Miss Flite and her birds
are domiciled with a Mrs Blinder in Bell Yard he repairs to that neighbouring
place where Miss Flite who rises early that she may be punctual at the Divan
of justice held by her excellent friend the Chancellor comes running
downstairs with tears of welcome and with open arms
»My dear physician« cries Miss Flite »My meritorious distinguished
honourable officer« She uses some odd expressions but is as cordial and full
of heart as sanity itself can be more so than it often is Allan very patient
with her waits until she has no more raptures to express then points out Jo
trembling in a doorway and tells her how he comes there
»Where can I lodge him hereabouts for the present Now you have a fund of
knowledge and good sense and can advise me«
Miss Flite mighty proud of the compliment sets herself to consider but it
is long before a bright thought occurs to her Mrs Blinder is entirely let and
she herself occupies poor Gridleys room »Gridley« exclaims Miss Flite
clapping her hands after a twentieth repetition of this remark »Gridley To be
sure of course My dear physician General George will help us out«
It is hopeless to ask for any information about General George and would
be though Miss Flite had not already run upstairs to put on her pinched bonnet
and her poor little shawl and to arm herself with her reticule of documents
But as she informs her physician in her disjointed manner on coming down in
full array that General George whom she often calls upon knows her dear
FitzJarndyce and takes a great interest in all connected with her Allan is
induced to think that they may be in the right way So he tells Jo for his
encouragement that this walking about will soon be over now and they repair to
the Generals Fortunately it is not far
From the exterior of Georges Shooting Gallery and the long entry and the
bare perspective beyond it Allan Woodcourt augurs well He also descries
promise in the figure of Mr George himself striding towards them in his
morning exercise with his pipe in his mouth no stock on and his muscular arms
developed by broadsword and dumbbell weightily asserting themselves through
his light shirtsleeves
»Your servant sir« says Mr George with a military salute
Goodhumouredly smiling all over his broad forehead up into his crisp hair he
then defers to Miss Flite as with great stateliness and at some length she
performs the courtly ceremony of presentation He winds it up with another »Your
servant sir« and another salute
»Excuse me sir A sailor I believe« says Mr George
»I am proud to find I have the air of one« returns Allan »but I am only a
seagoing doctor«
»Indeed sir I should have thought you was a regular bluejacket myself«
Allan hopes Mr George will forgive his intrusion the more readily on that
account and particularly that he will not lay aside his pipe which in his
politeness he has testified some intention of doing »You are very good sir«
returns the trooper »As I know by experience that its not disagreeable to
Miss Flite and since its equally agreeable to yourself « and finishes the
sentence by putting it between his lips again Allan proceeds to tell him all he
knows about Jo unto which the trooper listens with a grave face
»And thats the lad sir is it« he inquires looking along the entry to
where Jo stands staring up at the great letters on the whitewashed front which
have no meaning in his eyes
»Thats he« says Allan »And Mr George I am in this difficulty about
him I am unwilling to place him in a hospital even if I could procure him
immediate admission because I foresee that he would not stay there many hours
if he could be so much as got there The same objection applies to a workhouse
supposing I had the patience to be evaded and shirked and handed about from
post to pillar in trying to get him into one which is a system that I dont
take kindly to«
»No man does sir« returns Mr George
»I am convinced that he would not remain in either place because he is
possessed by an extraordinary terror of this person who ordered him to keep out
of the way in his ignorance he believes this person to be everywhere and
cognisant of everything«
»I ask your pardon sir« says Mr George »But you have not mentioned that
partys name Is it a secret sir«
»The boy makes it one But his name is Bucket«
»Bucket the Detective sir«
»The same man«
»The man is known to me sir« returns the trooper after blowing out a
cloud of smoke and squaring his chest »and the boy is so far correct that he
undoubtedly is a rum customer« Mr George smokes with a profound meaning
after this and surveys Miss Flite in silence
»Now I wish Mr Jarndyce and Miss Summerson at least to know that this Jo
who tells so strange a story has reappeared and to have it in their power to
speak with him if they should desire to do so Therefore I want to get him for
the present moment into any poor lodging kept by decent people where he would
be admitted Decent people and Jo Mr George« says Allan following the
direction of the troopers eyes along the entry »have not been much acquainted
as you see Hence the difficulty Do you happen to know any one in this
neighbourhood who would receive him for a while on my paying for him
beforehand«
As he puts the question he becomes aware of a dirtyfaced little man
standing at the troopers elbow and looking up with an oddly twisted figure
and countenance into the troopers face After a fey more puffs at his pipe
the trooper looks down askant at the little man and the little man winks up at
the trooper
»Well sir« says Mr George »I can assure you that I would willingly be
knocked on the head at any time if it would be at all agreeable to Miss
Summerson and consequently I esteem it a privilege to do that young lady any
service however small We are naturally in the vagabond way here sir both
myself and Phil You see what the place is You are welcome to a quiet corner of
it for the boy if the same would meet your views No charge made except for
rations We are not in a flourishing state of circumstances here sir We are
liable to be tumbled out neck and crop at a moments notice However sir such
as the place is and so long as it lasts here it is at your service«
With a comprehensive wave of his pipe Mr George places the whole building
at his visitors disposal
»I take it for granted sir« he adds »you being one of the medical staff
that there is no present infection about this unfortunate subject«
Allan is quite sure of it
»Because sir« says Mr George shaking his head sorrowfully »we have had
enough of that«
His tone is no less sorrowfully echoed by his new acquaintance »Still I am
bound to tell you« observes Allan after repeating his former assurance »that
the boy is deplorably low and reduced and that he may be I do not say that he
is too far gone to recover«
»Do you consider him in present danger sir« inquires the trooper
»Yes I fear so«
»Then sir« returns the trooper in a decisive manner »it appears to me
being naturally in the vagabond way myself that the sooner he comes out of the
street the better You Phil Bring him in«
Mr Squod tacks out all on one side to execute the word of command and
the trooper having smoked his pipe lays it by Jo is brought in He is not one
of Mrs Pardiggles Tockahoopo Indians he is not one of Mrs Jellybys lambs
being wholly unconnected with BorrioboolaGha he is not softened by distance
and unfamiliarity he is not a genuine foreigngrown savage he is the ordinary
homemade article Dirty ugly disagreeable to all the senses, in body a common
creature of the common streets only in soul a heathen Homely filth begrimes
him homely parasites devour him homely sores are in him homely rags are on
him native ignorance the growth of English soil and climate sinks his
immortal nature lower than the beasts that perish Stand forth Jo in
uncompromising colours From the sole of thy foot to the crown of thy head
there is nothing interesting about thee
He shuffles slowly into Mr Georges gallery and stands huddled together in
a bundle looking all about the floor He seems to know that they have an
inclination to shrink from him partly for what he is and partly for what he
has caused He too shrinks from them He is not of the same order of things
not of the same place in creation He is of no order and no place neither of
the beasts nor of humanity
»Look here Jo« says Allan »This is Mr George«
Jo searches the floor for some time longer then looks up for a moment and
then down again
»He is a kind friend to you for he is going to give you lodging room here«
Jo makes a scoop with one hand which is supposed to be a bow After a
little more consideration and some backing and changing of the foot on which he
rests he mutters that he is »wery thankful«
»You are quite safe here All you have to do at present is to be obedient
and to get strong And mind you tell us the truth here whatever you do Jo«
»Wishermaydie if I dont sir« says Jo reverting to his favourite
declaration »I never done nothink yit but wot you knows on to get myself into
no trouble I never was in no other trouble at all sir sept not knowin
nothink and starwation«
»I believe it Now attend to Mr George I see he is going to speak to you«
»My intention merely was sir« observes Mr George amazingly broad and
upright »to point out to him where he can lie down and get a thorough good
dose of sleep Now look here« As the trooper speaks he conducts them to the
other end of the gallery and opens one of the little cabins »There you are
you see Here is a mattress and here you may rest on good behaviour as long
as Mr I ask your pardon sir« he refers apologetically to the card Allan has
given him »Mr Woodcourt pleases Dont you be alarmed if you hear shots
theyll be aimed at the target and not you Now theres another thing I would
recommend sir« says the trooper turning to his visitor »Phil come here«
Phil bears down upon them according to his usual tactics
»Here is a man sir who was found when a baby in the gutter
Consequently it is to be expected that he takes a natural interest in this poor
creature You do dont you Phil«
»Certainly and surely I do guvner« is Phils reply
»Now I was thinking sir« says Mr George in a martial sort of confidence
as if he were giving his opinion in a council of war at a drumhead »that if
this man was to take him to a bath and was to lay out a few shillings in
getting him one or two coarse articles «
»Mr George my considerate friend« returns Allan taking out his purse
»it is the very favour I would have asked«
Phil Squod and Jo are sent out immediately on this work of improvement Miss
Flite quite enraptured by her success makes the best of her way to Court
having great fears that otherwise her friend the Chancellor may be uneasy about
her or may give the judgment she has so long expected in her absence and
observing »which you know my dear physician and general after so many years
would be too absurdly unfortunate« Allan takes the opportunity of going out to
procure some restorative medicines and obtaining them near at hand soon
returns to find the trooper walking up and down the gallery and to fall into
step and walk with him
»I take it sir« says Mr George »that you know Miss Summerson pretty
well«
Yes it appears
»Not related to her sir«
No it appears
»Excuse the apparent curiosity« says Mr George »It seemed to me probable
that you might take more than a common interest in this poor creature because
Miss Summerson had taken that unfortunate interest in him Tis my case sir I
assure you«
»And mine Mr George«
The trooper looks sideways at Allans sunburnt cheek and bright dark eye
rapidly measures his height and build and seems to approve of him
»Since you have been out sir I have been thinking that I unquestionably
know the rooms in Lincolns Inn Fields where Bucket took the lad according to
his account Though he is not acquainted with the name I can help you to it
Its Tulkinghorn Thats what it is«
Allan looks at him inquiringly repeating the name
»Tulkinghorn Thats the name sir I know the man and know him to have
been in communication with Bucket before respecting a deceased person who had
given him offence I know the man sir To my sorrow«
Allan naturally asks what kind of man he is
»What kind of man Do you mean to look at«
»I think I know that much of him I mean to deal with Generally what kind
of man«
»Why then Ill tell you sir« returns the trooper stopping short and
folding his arms on his square chest so angrily that his face fires and
flushes all over »he is a confoundedly bad kind of man He is a slowtorturing
kind of man He is no more like flesh and blood than a rusty old carbine is He
is a kind of man by George that has caused me more restlessness and more
uneasiness and more dissatisfaction with myself than all other men put
together Thats the kind of man Mr Tulkinghorn is«
»I am sorry« says Allan »to have touched so sore a place«
»Sore« The trooper plants his legs wider apart wets the palm of his broad
right hand and lays it on the imaginary moustache »Its no fault of yours
sir but you shall judge He has got a power over me He is the man I spoke of
just now as being able to tumble me out of this place neck and crop He keeps
me on a constant seesaw He wont hold off and he wont come on If I have a
payment to make him or time to ask him for or anything to go to him about he
dont see me dont hear me passes me on to Melchisedechs in Cliffords Inn
Melchisedechs in Cliffords Inn passes me back again to him he keeps me
prowling and dangling about him as if I was made of the same stone as himself
Why I spend half my life now pretty well loitering and dodging about his
door What does he care Nothing Just as much as the rusty old carbine I have
compared him to He chafes and goads me till Bah nonsense I am forgetting
myself Mr Woodcourt« the trooper resumes his march »all I say is he is an
old man but I am glad I shall never have the chance of setting spurs to my
horse and riding at him in a fair field For if I had that chance in one of
the humours he drives me into hed go down sir«
Mr George has been so excited that he finds it necessary to wipe his
forehead on his shirtsleeve Even while he whistles his impetuosity away with
the National Anthem some involuntary shakings of his head and heavings of his
chest still linger behind not to mention an occasional hasty adjustment with
both hands of his open shirtcollar as if it were scarcely open enough to
prevent his being troubled by a choking sensation In short Allan Woodcourt has
not much doubt about the going down of Mr Tulkinghorn on the field referred to
Jo and his conductor presently return and Jo is assisted to his mattress by
the careful Phil to whom after due administration of medicine by his own
hands Allan confides all needful means and instructions The morning is by this
time getting on apace He repairs to his lodgings to dress and breakfast and
then without seeking rest goes away to Mr Jarndyce to communicate his
discovery
With him Mr Jarndyce returns alone confidentially telling him that there
are reasons for keeping this matter very quiet indeed and showing a serious
interest in it To Mr Jarndyce Jo repeats in substance what he said in the
morning without any material variation Only that cart of his is heavier to
draw and draws with a hollower sound
»Let me lay here quiet and not be chivied no more« falters Jo »and be so
kind any person as is apassin nigh where I used fur to sweep as jist to say
to Mr Sangsby that Jo wot he known once is amoving on right forards with his
duty and Ill be wery thankful Id be more thankful than I am aready if it
wos any ways possible for an unfortnet to be it«
He makes so many of these references to the lawstationer in the course of a
day or two that Allan after conferring with Mr Jarndyce goodnaturedly
resolves to call in Cooks Court the rather as the cart seems to be breaking
down
To Cooks Court therefore he repairs Mr Snagsby is behind his counter in
his grey coat and sleeves inspecting an Indenture of several skins which has
just come in from the engrossers an immense desert of lawhand and parchment
with here and there a restingplace of a few large letters to break the awful
monotony and save the traveller from despair Mr Snagsby puts up at one of
these inky wells and greets the stranger with his cough of general preparation
for business
»You dont remember me Mr Snagsby«
The stationers heart begins to thump heavily for his old apprehensions
have never abated It is as much as he can do to answer »No sir I cant say I
do I should have considered not to put too fine a point upon it that I
never saw you before sir«
»Twice before« says Allan Woodcourt »Once at a poor bedside and once «
»Its come at last« thinks the afflicted stationer as recollection breaks
upon him »Its got to a head now and is going to burst« But he has
sufficient presence of mind to conduct his visitor into the little
countinghouse and to shut the door
»Are you a married man sir«
»No I am not«
»Would you make the attempt though single« says Mr Snagsby in a
melancholy whisper »to speak as low as you can For my little woman is
alistening somewheres or Ill forfeit the business and five hundred pound«
In deep dejection Mr Snagsby sits down on his stool with his back against
his desk protesting
»I never had a secret of my own sir I cant charge my memory with ever
having once attempted to deceive my little woman on my own account since she
named the day I wouldnt have done it sir Not to put too fine a point upon
it I couldnt have done I dursnt have done it Whereas and nevertheless I
find myself wrapped round with secrecy and mystery till my life is a burden to
me«
His visitor professes his regret to hear it and asks him does he remember
Jo Mr Snagsby answers with a suppressed groan O dont he
»You couldnt name an individual human being except myself that my
little woman is more set and determined against than Jo« says Mr Snagsby
Allan asks why
»Why« repeats Mr Snagsby in his desperation clutching at the clump of
hair at the back of his bald head »How should I know why But you are a single
person sir and may you long be spared to ask a married person such a
question«
With this beneficent wish Mr Snagsby coughs a cough of dismal resignation
and submits himself to hear what the visitor has to communicate
»There again« says Mr Snagsby who between the earnestness of his
feelings and the suppressed tones of his voice is discoloured in the face »At
it again in a new direction A certain person charges me in the solemnest way
not to talk of Jo to any one even my little woman Then comes another certain
person in the person of yourself and charges me in an equally solemn way not
to mention Jo to that other certain person above all other persons Why this is
a private asylum Why not to put too fine a point upon it this is Bedlam
sir« says Mr Snagsby
But it is better than he expected after all being no explosion of the mine
below him or deepening of the pit into which he has fallen And being
tenderhearted and affected by the account he hears of Jos condition he
readily engages to look round as early in the evening as he can manage it
quietly He looks round very quietly when the evening comes but it may turn
out that Mrs Snagsby is as quiet a manager as he
Jo is very glad to see his old friend and says when they are left alone
that he takes it uncommon kind as Mr Sangsby should come so far out of his way
on accounts of sich as him Mr Snagsby touched by the spectacle before him
immediately lays upon the table halfacrown that magic balsam of his for all
kinds of wounds
»And how do you find yourself my poor lad« inquires the stationer with
his cough of sympathy
»I am in luck Mr Sangsby I am« returns Jo »and dont want for nothink
Im more cumfbler nor you cant think Mr Sangsby Im wery sorry that I done
it but I didnt go fur to do it sir«
The stationer softly lays down another halfcrown and asks him what it is
that he is sorry for having done
»Mr Sangsby« says Jo »I went and giv a illness to the lady as wos and yit
as warnt the tother lady and none of em never says nothink to me for having
done it on accounts of their being ser good and my having been sunfortnet The
lady come herself and see me yesday and she ses Ah Jo she ses We thought
wed lost you Jo she ses And she sits down asmilin so quiet and dont pass
a word nor yit a look upon me for having done it she dont and I turns agin
the wall I doos Mr Sangsby And Mr Jarnders I see him aforced to turn away
his own self And Mr Woodcot he come fur to giv me somethink fur to ease me
wot hes allus adoin on day and night and wen he come abendin over me and
aspeakin up so bold I see his tears afallin Mr Sangsby«
The softened stationer deposits another halfcrown on the table Nothing
less than a repetition of that infallible remedy will relieve his feelings
»Wot I wos athinkin on Mr Sangsby« proceeds Jo »wos as you wos able to
write wery large praps«
»Yes Jo please God« returns the stationer
»Uncommon precious large praps« says Jo with eagerness
»Yes my poor boy«
Jo laughs with pleasure »Wot I wos athinking on then Mr Sangsby wos
that when I was moved on as fur as ever I could go and couldnt be moved no
furder whether you might be so good praps as to write out wery large so that
any one could see it anywheres as that I wos wery truly hearty sorry that I
done it and that I never went fur to do it and that though I didnt know
nothink at all I knowd as Mr Woodcot once cried over it and wos allus grieved
over it and that I hoped as hed be able to forgive me in his mind If the
writin could be made to say it wery large he might«
»It shall say it Jo Very large«
Jo laughs again »Thankee Mr Sangsby Its wery kind of you sir and it
makes me more cumfbler nor I was afore«
The meek little stationer with a broken and unfinished cough slips down
his fourth halfcrown he has never been so close to a case requiring so many
and is fain to depart And Jo and he upon this little earth shall meet no
more No more
For the cart so hard to draw is near its journeys end and drags over
stony ground All round the clock it labours up the broken steps shattered and
worn Not many times can the sun rise and behold it still upon its weary road
Phil Squod with his smoky gunpowder visage at once acts as nurse and works
as armourer at his little table in a corner often looking round and saying
with a nod of his green baize cap and an encouraging elevation of his one
eyebrow »Hold up my boy Hold up« There too is Mr Jarndyce many a time
and Allan Woodcourt almost always both thinking much how strangely Fate has
entangled this rough outcast in the web of very different lives There too the
trooper is a frequent visitor filling the doorway with his athletic figure
and from his superfluity of life and strength seeming to shed down temporary
vigour upon Jo who never fails to speak more robustly in answer to his cheerful
words
Jo is in a sleep or in a stupor today and Allan Woodcourt newly arrived
stands by him looking down upon his wasted form After a while he softly seats
himself upon the bedside with his face towards him just as he sat in the
lawwriters room and touches his chest and heart The cart had very nearly
given up but labours on a little more
The trooper stands in the doorway still and silent Phil has stopped in a
low clinking noise with his little hammer in his hand Mr Woodcourt looks
round with that grave professional interest and attention on his face and
glancing significantly at the trooper signs to Phil to carry his table out
When the little hammer is next used there will be a speck of rust upon it
»Well Jo What is the matter Dont be frightened«
»I thought« says Jo who has started and is looking round »I thought I
was in TomallAlones agin Aint there nobody here but you Mr Woodcot«
»Nobody«
»And I aint took back to TomallAlones Am I sir«
»No« Jo closes his eyes muttering »Im wery thankful«
After watching him closely a little while Allan puts his mouth very near
his ear and says to him in a low distinct voice
»Jo Did you ever know a prayer«
»Never knowd nothink sir«
»Not so much as one short prayer«
»No sir Nothink at all Mr Chadbands he wos aprayin wunst at Mr
Sangsbys and I heerd him but he sounded as if he wos aspeakin to hisself
and not to me He prayed a lot but I couldnt make out nothink on it Different
times there was other genlmen come down TomallAlones aprayin but they all
mostly sed as the tother wuns prayed wrong and all mostly sounded to be
atalking to theirselves or apassing blame on the tothers and not atalkin
to us We never knowd nothink I never knowd what it wos all about«
It takes him a long time to say this and few but an experienced and
attentive listener could hear or hearing understand him After a short
relapse into sleep or stupor he makes of a sudden a strong effort to get out
of bed
»Stay Jo What now«
»Its time for me to go to that there berryin ground sir« he returns with
a wild look
»Lie down and tell me What burying ground Jo«
»Where they laid him as wos wery good to me wery good to me indeed he wos
Its time fur me to go down to that there berryin ground sir and ask to be put
along with him I wants to go there and be berried He used fur to say to me I
am as poor as you today Jo he ses I wants to tell him that I am as poor as
him now and have come there to be laid along with him«
»Byandby Jo Byandby«
»Ah Praps they wouldnt do it if I wos to go myself But will you promise
to have me took there sir and laid along with him«
»I will indeed«
»Thankee sir Thankee sir Theyll have to get the key of the gate afore
they can take me in for its allus locked And theres a step there as I used
for to clean with my broom Its turned wery dark sir Is there any light
acomin«
»It is coming fast Jo«
Fast The cart is shaken all to pieces and the rugged road is very near its
end
»Jo my poor fellow«
»I hear you sir in the dark but Im agropin agropin let me catch
hold of your hand«
»Jo can you say what I say«
»Ill say anythink as you say sir for I knows its good«
»OUR FATHER«
»Our Father yes thats wery good sir«
»WHICH ART IN HEAVEN«
»Art in Heaven is the light acomin sir«
»It is close at hand HALLOWED BE THY NAME«
»Hallowed be thy «
The light is come upon the dark benighted way Dead
Dead your Majesty Dead my lords and gentlemen Dead Right Reverends and
Wrong Reverends of every order Dead men and women born with Heavenly
compassion in your hearts And dying thus around us every day
Chapter XLVIII
Closing In
The place in Lincolnshire has shut its many eyes again and the house in town is
awake In Lincolnshire the Dedlocks of the past doze in their pictureframes
and the low wind murmurs through the long drawingroom as if they were breathing
pretty regularly In town the Dedlocks of the present rattle in their fireeyed
carriages through the darkness of the night and the Dedlock Mercuries with
ashes or hairpowder on their heads symptomatic of their great humility loll
away the drowsy mornings in the little windows of the hall The fashionable
world tremendous orb nearly five miles round is in full swing and the
solar system works respectfully at its appointed distances
Where the throng is thickest where the lights are brightest where all the
senses are ministered to with the greatest delicacy and refinement Lady Dedlock
is From the shining heights she has scaled and taken she is never absent
Though the belief she of old reposed in herself as one able to reserve
whatsoever she would under her mantle of pride is beaten down though she has
no assurance that what she is to those around her she will remain another day
it is not in her nature when envious eyes are looking on to yield or to droop
They say of her that she has lately grown more handsome and more haughty The
debilitated cousin says of her that shes beauty nough tsetup Shopofwomen
but rather larming kind remindingmanfact inconvenient woman who will
getoutofbedandbawthstablishment Shakspeare
Mr Tulkinghorn says nothing looks nothing Now as heretofore he is to be
found in doorways of rooms with his limp white cravat loosely twisted into its
oldfashioned tie receiving patronage from the Peerage and making no sign Of
all men he is still the last who might be supposed to have any influence upon my
Lady Of all women she is still the last who might be supposed to have any dread
of him
One thing has been much on her mind since their late interview in his
turretroom at Chesney Wold She is now decided and prepared to throw it off
It is morning in the great world afternoon according to the little sun The
Mercuries exhausted by looking out of window are reposing in the hall and
hang their heavy heads the gorgeous creatures like overblown sunflowers Like
them too they seem to run to a deal of seed in their tags and trimmings Sir
Leicester in the library has fallen asleep for the good of the country over
the report of a Parliamentary committee My Lady sits in the room in which she
gave audience to the young man of the name of Guppy Rosa is with her and has
been writing for her and reading to her Rosa is now at work upon embroidery or
some such pretty thing and as she bends her head over it my Lady watches her
in silence Not for the first time today
»Rosa«
The pretty village face looks brightly up Then seeing how serious my Lady
is looks puzzled and surprised
»See to the door Is it shut«
Yes She goes to it and returns and looks yet more surprised
»I am about to place confidence in you child for I know I may trust your
attachment if not your judgment In what I am going to do I will not disguise
myself to you at least But I confide in you Say nothing to any one of what
passes between us«
The timid little beauty promises in all earnestness to be trustworthy
»Do you know« Lady Dedlock asks her signing to her to bring her chair
nearer »do you know Rosa that I am different to you from what I am to any
one«
»Yes my Lady Much kinder But then I often think I know you as you really
are«
»You often think you know me as I really am Poor child poor child«
She says it with a kind of scorn though not of Rosa and sits brooding
looking dreamily at her
»Do you think Rosa you are any relief or comfort to me Do you suppose
your being young and natural and fond of me and grateful to me makes it any
pleasure to me to have you near me«
»I dont know my Lady I can scarcely hope so But with all my heart I
wish it was so«
»It is so little one«
The pretty face is checked in its flush of pleasure by the dark expression
on the handsome face before it It looks timidly for an explanation
»And if I were to say today Go Leave me I should say what would give me
great pain and disquiet child and what would leave me very solitary«
»My Lady Have I offended you«
»In nothing Come here«
Rosa bends down on the footstool at my Ladys feet My Lady with that
motherly touch of the famous Ironmaster night lays her hand upon her dark hair
and gently keeps it there
»I told you Rosa that I wished you to be happy and that I would make you
so if I could make anybody happy on this earth I can not There are reasons now
known to me reasons in which you have no part rendering it far better for you
that you should not remain here You must not remain here I have determined
that you shall not I have written to the father of your lover and he will be
here today All this I have done for your sake«
The weeping girl covers her hand with kisses and says what shall she do
what shall she do when they are separated Her mistress kisses her on the
cheek and makes no other answer
»Now be happy child under better circumstances Be beloved and happy«
»Ah my Lady I have sometimes thought forgive my being so free that you
are not happy«
»I«
»Will you be more so when you have sent me away Pray pray think again
Let me stay a little while«
»I have said my child that what I do I do for your sake not my own It
is done What I am towards you Rosa is what I am now not what I shall be a
little while hence Remember this and keep my confidence Do so much for my
sake and thus all ends between us«
She detaches herself from her simplehearted companion and leaves the room
Late in the afternoon when she next appears upon the staircase she is in her
haughtiest and coldest state As indifferent as if all passion feeling and
interest had been worn out in the earlier ages of the world and had perished
from its surface with its other departed monsters
Mercury has announced Mr Rouncewell which is the cause of her appearance
Mr Rouncewell is not in the library but she repairs to the library Sir
Leicester is there and she wishes to speak to him first
»Sir Leicester I am desirous but you are engaged«
O dear no Not at all Only Mr Tulkinghorn
Always at hand Haunting every place No relief or security from him for a
moment
»I beg your pardon Lady Dedlock Will you allow me to retire«
With a look that plainly says »You know you have the power to remain if you
will« she tells him it is not necessary and moves towards a chair Mr
Tulkinghorn brings it a little forward for her with his clumsy bow and retires
into a window opposite Interposed between her and the fading light of day in
the now quiet street his shadow falls upon her and he darkens all before her
Even so does he darken her life
It is a dull street under the best conditions where the two long rows of
houses stare at each other with that severity that halfadozen of its greatest
mansions seem to have been slowly stared into stone rather than originally
built in that material It is a street of such dismal grandeur so determined
not to condescend to liveliness that the doors and windows hold a gloomy state
of their own in black paint and dust and the echoing mews behind have a dry and
massive appearance as if they were reserved to stable the stone chargers of
noble statues Complicated garnish of ironwork entwines itself over the flights
of steps in this awful street and from these petrified bowers extinguishers
for obsolete flambeaux gasp at the upstart gas Here and there a weak little
iron hoop through which bold boys aspire to throw their friends caps its only
present use retains its place among the rusty foliage sacred to the memory of
departed oil Nay even oil itself yet lingering at long intervals in a little
absurd glass pot with a knob in the bottom like an oyster blinks and sulks at
newer lights every night like its high and dry master in the House of Lords
Therefore there is not much that Lady Dedlock seated in her chair could
wish to see through the window in which Mr Tulkinghorn stands And yet and
yet she sends a look in that direction as if it were her hearts desire to
have that figure moved out of the way
Sir Leicester begs his Ladys pardon She was about to say
»Only that Mr Rouncewell is here he has called by my appointment and
that we had better make an end of the question of that girl I am tired to death
of the matter«
»What can I do to assist« demands Sir Leicester in some considerable
doubt
»Let us see him here and have done with it Will you tell them to send him
up«
»Mr Tulkinghorn be so good as to ring Thank you Request« says Sir
Leicester to Mercury not immediately remembering the business term »request
the iron gentleman to walk this way«
Mercury departs in search of the iron gentleman finds and produces him
Sir Leicester receives that ferruginous person graciously
»I hope you are well Mr Rouncewell Be seated My solicitor Mr
Tulkinghorn My Lady was desirous Mr Rouncewell« Sir Leicester skilfully
transfers him with a solemn wave of his hand »was desirous to speak with you
Hem«
»I shall be very happy« returns the iron gentleman »to give my best
attention to anything Lady Dedlock does me the honour to say«
As he turns towards her he finds that the impression she makes upon him is
less agreeable than on the former occasion A distant supercilious air makes a
cold atmosphere about her and there is nothing in her bearing as there was
before to encourage openness
»Pray sir« says Lady Dedlock listlessly »may I be allowed to inquire
whether anything has passed between you and your son respecting your sons
fancy«
It is almost too troublesome to her languid eyes to bestow a look upon him
as she asks this question
»If my memory serves me Lady Dedlock I said when I had the pleasure of
seeing you before that I should seriously advise my son to conquer that
fancy« The ironmaster repeats her expression with a little emphasis
»And did you«
»O of course I did«
Sir Leicester gives a nod approving and confirmatory Very proper The iron
gentleman having said that he would do it was bound to do it No difference in
this respect between the base metals and the precious Highly proper
»And pray has he done so«
»Really Lady Dedlock I cannot make you a definite reply I fear not
Probably not yet In our condition of life we sometimes couple an intention
with our our fancies which renders them not altogether easy to throw off I
think it is rather our way to be in earnest«
Sir Leicester has a misgiving that there may be a hidden Wat Tylerish
meaning in this expression and fumes a little Mr Rouncewell is perfectly
goodhumoured and polite but within such limits evidently adapts his tone to
his reception
»Because« proceeds my Lady »I have been thinking of the subject which is
tiresome to me«
»I am very sorry I am sure«
»And also of what Sir Leicester said upon it in which I quite concur« Sir
Leicester flattered »and if you cannot give us the assurance that this fancy is
at an end I have come to the conclusion that the girl had better leave me«
»I can give no such assurance Lady Dedlock Nothing of the kind«
»Then she had better go«
»Excuse me my Lady« Sir Leicester considerately interposes »but perhaps
this may be doing an injury to the young woman which she has not merited Here
is a young woman« says Sir Leicester magnificently laying out the matter with
his right hand like a service of plate »whose good fortune it is to have
attracted the notice and favour of an eminent lady and to live under the
protection of that eminent lady surrounded by the various advantages which such
a position confers and which are unquestionably very great I believe
unquestionably very great sir for a young woman in that station of life The
question then arises should that young woman be deprived of these many
advantages and that good fortune simply because she has« Sir Leicester with
an apologetic but dignified inclination of his head towards the ironmaster
winds up his sentence »has attracted the notice of Mr Rouncewells son Now
has she deserved this punishment Is this just towards her Is this our previous
understanding«
»I beg your pardon« interposes Mr Rouncewells sons father »Sir
Leicester will you allow me I think I may shorten the subject Pray dismiss
that from your consideration If you remember anything so unimportant which is
not to be expected you would recollect that my first thought in the affair was
directly opposed to her remaining here«
Dismiss the Dedlock patronage from consideration O Sir Leicester is bound
to believe a pair of ears that have been handed down to him through such a
family or he really might have mistrusted their report of the iron gentlemans
observations
»It is not necessary« observes my Lady in her coldest manner before he
can do anything but breathe amazedly »to enter into these matters on either
side The girl is a very good girl I have nothing whatever to say against her
but she is so far insensible to her many advantages and her good fortune that
she is in love or supposes she is poor little fool and unable to appreciate
them«
Sir Leicester begs to observe that wholly alters the case He might have
been sure that my Lady had the best grounds and reasons in support of her view
He entirely agrees with my Lady The young woman had better go
»As Sir Leicester observed Mr Rouncewell on the last occasion when we
were fatigued by this business« Lady Dedlock languidly proceeds »we cannot
make conditions with you Without conditions and under present circumstances
the girl is quite misplaced here and had better go I have told her so Would
you wish to have her sent back to the village or would you like to take her
with you or what would you prefer«
»Lady Dedlock if I may speak plainly «
»By all means«
» I should prefer the course which will the soonest relieve you of the
incumbrance and remove her from her present position«
»And to speak as plainly« she returns with the same studied carelessness
»so should I Do I understand that you will take her with you«
The iron gentleman makes an iron bow
»Sir Leicester will you ring« Mr Tulkinghorn steps forward from his
window and pulls the bell »I had forgotten you Thank you« He makes his usual
bow and goes quietly back again Mercury swiftresponsive appears receives
instructions whom to produce skims away produces the aforesaid and departs
Rosa has been crying and is yet in distress On her coming in the
ironmaster leaves his chair takes her arm in his and remains with her near the
door ready to depart
»You are taken charge of you see« says my Lady in her weary manner »and
are going away well protected I have mentioned that you are a very good girl
and you have nothing to cry for«
»She seems after all« observes Mr Tulkinghorn loitering a little forward
with his hands behind him »as if she were crying at going away«
»Why she is not wellbred you see« returns Mr Rouncewell with some
quickness in his manner as if he were glad to have the lawyer to retort upon
»and she is an inexperienced little thing and knows no better If she had
remained here sir she would have improved no doubt«
»No doubt« is Mr Tulkinghorns composed reply
Rosa sobs out that she is very sorry to leave my Lady and that she was
happy at Chesney Wold and has been happy with my Lady and that she thanks my
Lady over and over again »Out you silly little puss« says the ironmaster
checking her in a low voice though not angrily »have a spirit if youre fond
of Wat« My Lady merely waves her off with indifference saying »There there
child You are a good girl Go away« Sir Leicester has magnificently disengaged
himself from the subject and retired into the sanctuary of his blue coat Mr
Tulkinghorn an indistinct form against the dark street now dotted with lamps
looms in my Ladys view bigger and blacker than before
»Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock« says Mr Rouncewell after a pause of a
few moments »I beg to take my leave with an apology for having again troubled
you though not of my own act on this tiresome subject I can very well
understand I assure you how tiresome so small a matter must have become to
Lady Dedlock If I am doubtful of my dealing with it it is only because I did
not at first quietly exert my influence to take my young friend here away
without troubling you at all But it appeared to me I dare say magnifying the
importance of the thing that it was respectful to explain to you how the
matter stood and candid to consult your wishes and convenience I hope you will
excuse my want of acquaintance with the polite world«
Sir Leicester considers himself evoked out of the sanctuary by these
remarks »Mr Rouncewell« he returns »do not mention it Justifications are
unnecessary I hope on either side«
»I am glad to hear it Sir Leicester and if I may by way of a last word
revert to what I said before of my mothers long connexion with the family and
the worth it bespeaks on both sides I would point out this little instance here
on my arm who shows herself so affectionate and faithful in parting and in
whom my mother I dare say has done something to awaken such feelings though
of course Lady Dedlock by her heartfelt interest and her genial condescension
has done much more«
If he mean this ironically it may be truer than he thinks He points it
however by no deviation from his straightforward manner of speech though in
saying it he turns towards that part of the dim room where my Lady sits Sir
Leicester stands to return his parting salutation Mr Tulkinghorn again rings
Mercury takes another flight and Mr Rouncewell and Rosa leave the house
Then lights are brought in discovering Mr Tulkinghorn still standing in
his window with his hands behind him and my Lady still sitting with his figure
before her closing up her view of the night as well as of the day She is very
pale Mr Tulkinghorn observing it as she rises to retire thinks »Well she may
be The power of this woman is astonishing She has been acting a part the whole
time« But he can act a part too his one unchanging character and as he
holds the door open for this woman fifty pairs of eyes each fifty times
sharper than Sir Leicesters pair should find no flaw in him
Lady Dedlock dines alone in her own room today Sir Leicester is whipped in
to the rescue of the Doodle Party and the discomfiture of the Coodle Faction
Lady Dedlock asks on sitting down to dinner still deadly pale and quite an
illustration of the debilitated cousins text whether he is gone out Yes
Whether Mr Tulkinghorn is gone yet No Presently she asks again is he gone
yet No What is he doing Mercury thinks he is writing letters in the library
Would my Lady wish to see him Anything but that
But he wishes to see my Lady Within a few more minutes he is reported as
sending his respects and could my Lady please to receive him for a word or two
after her dinner My Lady will receive him now He comes now apologising for
intruding even by her permission while she is at table When they are alone
my Lady waves her hand to dispense with such mockeries
»What do you want sir«
»Why Lady Dedlock« says the lawyer taking a chair at a little distance
from her and slowly rubbing his rusty legs up and down up and down up and
down »I am rather surprised by the course you have taken«
»Indeed«
»Yes decidedly I was not prepared for it I consider it a departure from
our agreement and your promise It puts us in a new position Lady Dedlock I
feel myself under the necessity of saying that I dont approve of it«
He stops in his rubbing and looks at her with his hands on his knees
Imperturbable and unchangeable as he is there is still an indefinable freedom
in his manner which is new and which does not escape this womans observation
»I do not quite understand you«
»O yes you do I think I think you do Come come Lady Dedlock we must
not fence and parry now You know you like this girl«
»Well sir«
»And you know and I know that you have not sent her away for the reasons
you have assigned but for the purpose of separating her as much as possible
from excuse my mentioning it as a matter of business any reproach and
exposure that impend over yourself«
»Well sir«
»Well Lady Dedlock« returns the lawyer crossing his legs and nursing the
uppermost knee »I object to that I consider that a dangerous proceeding I
know it to be unnecessary and calculated to awaken speculation doubt rumour
I dont know what in the house Besides it is a violation of our agreement
You were to be exactly what you were before Whereas it must be evident to
yourself as it is to me that you have been this evening very different from
what you were before Why bless my soul Lady Dedlock transparently so«
»If sir« she begins »in my knowledge of my secret « But he interrupts
her
»Now Lady Dedlock this is a matter of business and in a matter of
business the ground cannot be kept too clear It is no longer your secret
Excuse me That is just the mistake It is my secret in trust for Sir Leicester
and the family If it were your secret Lady Dedlock we should not be here
holding this conversation«
»That is very true If in my knowledge of the secret I do what I can to
spare an innocent girl especially remembering your own reference to her when
you told my story to the assembled guests at Chesney Wold from the taint of my
impending shame I act upon a resolution I have taken Nothing in the world and
no one in the world could shake it or could move me« This she says with great
deliberation and distinctness and with no more outward passion than himself As
for him he methodically discusses his matter of business as if she were any
insensible instrument used in business
»Really Then you see Lady Dedlock« he returns »you are not to be
trusted You have put the case in a perfectly plain way and according to the
literal fact and that being the case you are not to be trusted«
»Perhaps you may remember that I expressed some anxiety on this same point
when we spoke at night at Chesney Wold«
»Yes« says Mr Tulkinghorn coolly getting up and standing on the hearth
»Yes I recollect Lady Dedlock that you certainly referred to the girl but
that was before we came to our arrangement and both the letter and the spirit
of our arrangement altogether precluded any action on your part founded upon my
discovery There can be no doubt about that As to sparing the girl of what
importance or value is she Spare Lady Dedlock here is a family name
compromised One might have supposed that the course was straight on over
everything neither to the right nor to the left regardless of all
considerations in the way sparing nothing treading everything under foot«
She has been looking at the table She lifts up her eyes and looks at him
There is a stern expression on her face and a part of her lower lip is
compressed under her teeth »This woman understands me« Mr Tulkinghorn thinks
as she lets her glance fall again »She cannot be spared Why should she spare
others«
For a little while they are silent Lady Dedlock has eaten no dinner but
has twice or thrice poured out water with a steady hand and drunk it She rises
from table takes a loungingchair and reclines in it shading her face There
is nothing in her manner to express weakness or excite compassion It is
thoughtful gloomy concentrated »This woman« thinks Mr Tulkinghorn standing
on the hearth again a dark object closing up her view »is a study«
He studies her at his leisure not speaking for a time She too studies
something at her leisure She is not the first to speak appearing indeed so
unlikely to be so though he stood there until midnight that even he is driven
upon breaking silence
»Lady Dedlock the most disagreeable part of this business interview
remains but it is business Our agreement is broken A lady of your sense and
strength of character will be prepared for my now declaring it void and taking
my own course«
»I am quite prepared«
Mr Tulkinghorn inclines his head »That is all I have to trouble you with
Lady Dedlock«
She stops him as he is moving out of the room by asking »This is the
notice I was to receive I wish not to misapprehend you«
»Not exactly the notice you were to receive Lady Dedlock because the
contemplated notice supposed the agreement to have been observed But virtually
the same virtually the same The difference is merely in a lawyers mind«
»You intend to give me no other notice«
»You are right No«
»Do you contemplate undeceiving Sir Leicester tonight«
»A home question« says Mr Tulkinghorn with a slight smile and cautiously
shaking his head at the shaded face »No not tonight«
»Tomorrow«
»All things considered I had better decline answering that question Lady
Dedlock If I were to say I dont know when exactly you would not believe me
and it would answer no purpose It may be tomorrow I would rather say no more
You are prepared and I hold out no expectations which circumstances might fail
to justify I wish you good evening«
She removes her hand turns her pale face towards him as he walks silently
to the door and stops him once again as he is about to open it
»Do you intend to remain in the house any time I heard you were writing in
the library Are you going to return there«
»Only for my hat I am going home«
She bows her eyes rather than her head the movement is so slight and
curious and he withdraws Clear of the room he looks at his watch but is
inclined to doubt it by a minute or thereabouts There is a splendid clock upon
the staircase famous as splendid clocks not often are for its accuracy »And
what do you say« Mr Tulkinghorn inquires referring to it »What do you say«
If it said now »Dont go home« What a famous clock hereafter if it said
tonight of all the nights that it has counted off to this old man of all the
young and old men who have ever stood before it »Dont go home« With its sharp
clear bell it strikes threequarters after seven and ticks on again »Why you
are worse than I thought you« says Mr Tulkinghorn muttering reproof to his
watch »Two minutes wrong At this rate you wont last my time« What a watch to
return good for evil if it ticked in answer »Dont go home«
He passes out into the streets and walks on with his hands behind him
under the shadow of the lofty houses many of whose mysteries difficulties
mortgages delicate affairs of all kinds are treasured up within his old black
satin waistcoat He is in the confidence of the very bricks and mortar The high
chimneystacks telegraph family secrets to him Yet there is not a voice in a
mile of them to whisper »Dont go home«
Through the stir and motion of the commoner streets through the roar and
jar of many vehicles many feet many voices with the blazing shoplights
lighting him on the west wind blowing him on and the crowd pressing him on he
is pitilessly urged upon his way and nothing meets him murmuring »Dont go
home« Arrived at last in his dull room to light his candles and look round
and up and see the Roman pointing from the ceiling there is no new
significance in the Romans hand tonight or in the flutter of the attendant
groups to give him the late warning »Dont come here«
It is a moonlight night but the moon being past the full is only now
rising over the great wilderness of London The stars are shining as they shone
above the turretleads at Chesney Wold This woman as he has of late been so
accustomed to call her looks out upon them Her soul is turbulent within her
she is sick at heart and restless The large rooms are too cramped and close
She cannot endure their restraint and will walk alone in a neighbouring garden
Too capricious and imperious in all she does to be the cause of much
surprise in those about her as to anything she does this woman loosely
muffled goes out into the moonlight Mercury attends with the key Having
opened the gardengate he delivers the key into his Ladys hands at her
request and is bidden to go back She will walk there some time to ease her
aching head She may be an hour she may be more She needs no further escort
The gate shuts upon its spring with a clash and he leaves her passing on into
the dark shade of some trees
A fine night and a bright large moon and multitudes of stars Mr
Tulkinghorn in repairing to his cellar and in opening and shutting those
resounding doors has to cross a little prisonlike yard He looks up casually
thinking what a fine night what a bright large moon what multitudes of stars
A quiet night too
A very quiet night When the moon shines very brilliantly a solitude and
stillness seem to proceed from her that influence even crowded places full of
life Not only is it a still night on dusty high roads and on hillsummits
whence a wide expanse of country may be seen in repose quieter and quieter as
it spreads away into a fringe of trees against the sky with the grey ghost of a
bloom upon them not only is it a still night in gardens and in woods and on
the river where the watermeadows are fresh and green and the stream sparkles
on among pleasant islands murmuring weirs and whispering rushes not only does
the stillness attend it as it flows where houses cluster thick where many
bridges are reflected in it where wharves and shipping make it black and awful
where it winds from these disfigurements through marshes whose grim beacons
stand like skeletons washed ashore where it expands through the bolder region
of rising grounds rich in cornfield windmill and steeple and where it
mingles with the everheaving sea not only is it a still night on the deep and
on the shore where the watcher stands to see the ship with her spread wings
cross the path of light that appears to be presented to only him but even on
this strangers wilderness of London there is some rest Its steeples and
towers and its one great dome grow more ethereal its smoky housetops lose
their grossness in the pale effulgence the noises that arise from the streets
are fewer and are softened and the footsteps on the pavements pass more
tranquilly away In these fields of Mr Tulkinghorns inhabiting where the
shepherds play on Chancery pipes that have no stop and keep their sheep in the
fold by hook and by crook until they have shorn them exceeding close every
noise is merged this moonlight night into a distant ringing hum as if the
city were a vast glass vibrating
Whats that Who fired a gun or pistol Where was it
The few footpassengers start stop and stare about them Some windows and
doors are opened and people come out to look It was a loud report and echoed
and rattled heavily It shook one house or so a man says who was passing It
has aroused all the dogs in the neighbourhood who bark vehemently Terrified
cats scamper across the road While the dogs are yet barking and howling there
is one dog howling like a demon the churchclocks as if they were startled
too begin to strike The hum from the streets likewise seems to swell into a
shout But it is soon over Before the last clock begins to strike ten there is
a lull When it has ceased the fine night the bright large moon and
multitudes of stars are left at peace again
Has Mr Tulkinghorn been disturbed His windows are dark and quiet and his
door is shut It must be something unusual indeed to bring him out of his
shell Nothing is heard of him nothing is seen of him What power of cannon
might it take to shake that rusty old man out of his immovable composure
For many years the persistent Roman has been pointing with no particular
meaning from that ceiling It is not likely that he has any new meaning in him
tonight Once pointing always pointing like any Roman or even Briton with
a single idea There he is no doubt in his impossible attitude pointing
unavailingly all night long Moonlight darkness dawn sunrise day There he
is still eagerly pointing and no one minds him
But a little after the coming of the day come people to clean the rooms
And either the Roman has some new meaning in him not expressed before or the
foremost of them goes wild for looking up at his outstretched hand and
looking down at what is below it that person shrieks and flies The others
looking in as the first one looked shriek and fly too and there is an alarm in
the street
What does it mean No light is admitted into the darkened chamber and
people unaccustomed to it enter and treading softly but heavily carry a
weight into the bedroom and lay it down There is whispering and wondering all
day strict search of every corner careful tracing of steps and careful noting
of the disposition of every article of furniture All eyes look up at the Roman
and all voices murmur »If he could only tell what he saw«
He is pointing at a table with a bottle nearly full of wine and a glass
upon it and two candles that were blown out suddenly soon after being lighted
He is pointing at an empty chair and at a stain upon the ground before it that
might be almost covered with a hand These objects lie directly within his
range An excited imagination might suppose that there was something in them so
terrific as to drive the rest of the composition not only the attendant
biglegged boys but the clouds and flowers and pillars too in short the very
body and soul of Allegory and all the brains it has stark mad It happens
surely that every one who comes into the darkened room and looks at these
things looks up at the Roman and that he is invested in all eyes with mystery
and awe as if he were a paralysed dumb witness
So it shall happen surely through many years to come that ghostly stories
shall be told of the stain upon the floor so easy to be covered so hard to be
got out and that the Roman pointing from the ceiling shall point so long as
dust and damp and spiders spare him with far greater significance than he ever
had in Mr Tulkinghorns time and with a deadly meaning For Mr Tulkinghorns
time is over for evermore and the Roman pointed at the murderous hand uplifted
against his life and pointed helplessly at him from night to morning lying
face downward on the floor shot through the heart
Chapter XLIX
Dutiful Friendship
A great annual occasion has come round in the establishment of Mr Joseph
Bagnet otherwise Lignum Vitæ exartilleryman and present bassoonplayer An
occasion of feasting and festival The celebration of a birthday in the family
It is not Mr Bagnets birthday Mr Bagnet merely distinguishes that epoch
in the musical instrument business by kissing the children with an extra smack
before breakfast smoking an additional pipe after dinner and wondering towards
evening what his poor old mother is thinking about it a subject of infinite
speculation and rendered so by his mother having departed this life twenty
years Some men rarely revert to their father but seem in the bankbooks of
their remembrance to have transferred all the stock of filial affection into
their mothers name Mr Bagnet is one of these Perhaps his exalted
appreciation of the merits of the old girl causes him usually to make the
nounsubstantive Goodness of the feminine gender
It is not the birthday of one of the three children Those occasions are
kept with some marks of distinction but they rarely overleap the bounds of
happy returns and a pudding On young Woolwichs last birthday Mr Bagnet
certainly did after observing on his growth and general advancement proceed
in a moment of profound reflection on the changes wrought by time to examine
him in the catechism accomplishing with extreme accuracy the questions number
one and two What is your name and Who gave you that name but there failing in
the exact precision of his memory and substituting for number three the
question And how do you like that name which he propounded with a sense of its
importance in itself so edifying and improving as to give it quite an orthodox
air This however was a speciality on that particular birthday and not a
general solemnity
It is the old girls birthday and that is the greatest holiday and
reddestletter day in Mr Bagnets calendar The auspicious event is always
commemorated according to certain forms settled and prescribed by Mr Bagnet
some years since Mr Bagnet being deeply convinced that to have a pair of fowls
for dinner is to attain the highest pitch of imperial luxury invariably goes
forth himself very early in the morning of this day to buy a pair he is as
invariably taken in by the vendor and installed in the possession of the
oldest inhabitants of any coop in Europe Returning with these triumphs of
toughness tied up in a clean blue and white cotton handkerchief essential to
the arrangements he in a casual manner invites Mrs Bagnet to declare at
breakfast what she would like for dinner Mrs Bagnet by a coincidence never
known to fail replying Fowls Mr Bagnet instantly produces his bundle from a
place of concealment amidst general amazement and rejoicing He further
requires that the old girl shall do nothing all day long but sit in her very
best gown and be served by himself and the young people As he is not
illustrious for his cookery this may be supposed to be a matter of state rather
than enjoyment on the old girls part but she keeps her state with all
imaginable cheerfulness
On this present birthday Mr Bagnet has accomplished the usual
preliminaries He has bought two specimens of poultry which if there be any
truth in adages were certainly not caught with chaff to be prepared for the
spit he has amazed and rejoiced the family by their unlookedfor production he
is himself directing the roasting of the poultry and Mrs Bagnet with her
wholesome brown fingers itching to prevent what she sees going wrong sits in
her gown of ceremony an honoured guest
Quebec and Malta lay the cloth for dinner while Woolwich serving as
beseems him under his father keeps the fowls revolving To these young
scullions Mrs Bagnet occasionally imparts a wink or a shake of the head or a
crooked face as they make mistakes
»At halfafter one« Says Mr Bagnet »To the minute Theyll be done«
Mrs Bagnet with anguish beholds one of them at a standstill before the
fire and beginning to burn
»You shall have a dinner old girl« says Mr Bagnet »Fit for a queen«
Mrs Bagnet shows her white teeth cheerfully but to the perception of her
son betrays so much uneasiness of spirit that he is impelled by the dictates
of affection to ask her with his eyes what is the matter thus standing
with his eyes wide open more oblivious of the fowls than before and not
affording the least hope of a return to consciousness Fortunately his elder
sister perceives the cause of the agitation in Mrs Bagnets breast and with an
admonitory poke recalls him The stopped fowls going round again Mrs Bagnet
closes her eyes in the intensity of her relief
»George will look us up« says Mr Bagnet »At halfafter four To the
moment How many years old girl Has George looked us up This afternoon«
»Ah Lignum Lignum as many as make an old woman of a young one I begin to
think Just about that and no less« returns Mrs Bagnet laughing and shaking
her head
»Old girl« says Mr Bagnet »Never mind Youd be as young as ever you was
If you wasnt younger Which you are As everybody knows«
Quebec and Malta here exclaim with clapping of hands that Bluffy is sure
to bring mother something and begin to speculate on what it will be
»Do you know Lignum« says Mrs Bagnet casting a glance on the
tablecloth and winking »salt« at Malta with her right eye and shaking the
pepper away from Quebec with her head »I begin to think George is in the roving
way again«
»George« returns Mr Bagnet »will never desert And leave his old comrade
In the lurch Dont be afraid of it«
»No Lignum No I dont say he will I dont think he will But if he could
get over this moneytrouble of his I believe he would be off«
Mr Bagnet asks why
»Well« returns his wife considering »George seems to me to be getting not
a little impatient and restless I dont say but what hes as free as ever Of
course he must be free or he wouldnt be George but he smarts and seems put
out«
»Hes extradrilled« says Mr Bagnet »By a lawyer Who would put the devil
out«
»Theres something in that« his wife assents »but so it is Lignum«
Further conversation is prevented for the time by the necessity under
which Mr Bagnet finds himself of directing the whole force of his mind to the
dinner which is a little endangered by the dry humour of the fowls in not
yielding any gravy and also by the madegravy acquiring no flavour and turning
out of a flaxen complexion With a similar perverseness the potatoes crumble
off forks in the process of peeling upheaving from their centres in every
direction as if they were subject to earthquakes The legs of the fowls too
are longer than could be desired and extremely scaly Overcoming these
disadvantages to the best of his ability Mr Bagnet at last dishes and they
sit down at table Mrs Bagnet occupying the guests place at his right hand
It is well for the old girl that she has but one birthday in a year for two
such indulgences in poultry might be injurious Every kind of finer tendon and
ligament that is in the nature of poultry to possess is developed in these
specimens in the singular form of guitarstrings Their limbs appear to have
struck roots into their breasts and bodies as aged trees strike roots into the
earth Their legs are so hard as to encourage the idea that they must have
devoted the greater part of their long and arduous lives to pedestrian
exercises and the walking of matches But Mr Bagnet unconscious of these
little defects sets his heart on Mrs Bagnet eating a most severe quantity of
the delicacies before her and as that good old girl would not cause him a
moments disappointment on any day least of all on such a day for any
consideration she imperils her digestion fearfully How young Woolwich cleans
the drumsticks without being of ostrich descent his anxious mother is at a
loss to understand
The old girl has another trial to undergo after the conclusion of the
repast in sitting in state to see the room cleared the hearth swept and the
dinnerservice washed up and polished in the back yard The great delight and
energy with which the two young ladies apply themselves to these duties turning
up their skirts in imitation of their mother and skating in and out on little
scaffolds of pattens inspire the highest hopes for the future but some anxiety
for the present The same causes lead to confusion of tongues a clattering of
crockery a rattling of tin mugs a whisking of brooms and an expenditure of
water all in excess while the saturation of the young ladies themselves is
almost too moving a spectacle for Mrs Bagnet to look upon with the calmness
proper to her position At last the various cleansing processes are triumphantly
completed Quebec and Malta appear in fresh attire smiling and dry pipes
tobacco and something to drink are placed upon the table and the old girl
enjoys the first peace of mind she ever knows on the day of this delightful
entertainment
When Mr Bagnet takes his usual seat the hands of the clock are very near
to halfpast four as they mark it accurately Mr Bagnet announces
»George Military time«
It is George and he has hearty congratulations for the old girl whom he
kisses on the great occasion and for the children and for Mr Bagnet »Happy
returns to all« says Mr George
»But George old man« cries Mrs Bagnet looking at him curiously »Whats
come to you«
»Come to me«
»Ah you are so white George for you and look so shocked Now dont he
Lignum«
»George« says Mr Bagnet »tell the old girl Whats the matter«
»I didnt know I looked white« says the trooper passing his hand over his
brow »and I didnt know I looked shocked and Im sorry I do But the truth is
that boy who was taken in at my place died yesterday afternoon and it has
rather knocked me over«
»Poor creetur« says Mrs Bagnet with a mothers pity »Is he gone Dear
dear«
»I didnt mean to say anything about it for its not birthday talk but you
have got it out of me you see before I sit down I should have roused up in a
minute« says the trooper making himself speak more gaily »but youre so
quick Mrs Bagnet«
»Youre right The old girl« says Mr Bagnet »Is as quick As powder«
»And whats more shes the subject of the day and well stick to her«
cries Mr George »See here I have brought a little brooch along with me Its
a poor thing you know but its a keepsake Thats all the good it is Mrs
Bagnet«
Mr George produces his present which is greeted with admiring leapings and
clappings by the young family and with a species of reverential admiration by
Mr Bagnet »Old girl« says Mr Bagnet »Tell him my opinion of it«
»Why its a wonder George« Mrs Bagnet exclaims »Its the beautifullest
thing that ever was seen«
»Good« says Mr Bagnet »My opinion«
»Its so pretty George« cries Mrs Bagnet turning it on all sides and
holding it out at arms length »that it seems too choice for me«
»Bad« says Mr Bagnet »Not my opinion«
»But whatever it is a hundred thousand thanks old fellow« says Mrs
Bagnet her eyes sparkling with pleasure and her hand stretched out to him
»and though I have been a crossgrained soldiers wife to you sometimes George
we are as strong friends I am sure in reality, as ever can be Now you shall
fasten it on yourself for good luck if you will George«
The children close up to see it done and Mr Bagnet looks over young
Woolwichs head to see it done with an interest so maturely wooden yet
pleasantly childish that Mrs Bagnet cannot help laughing in her airy way and
saying »O Lignum Lignum what a precious old chap you are« But the trooper
fails to fasten the brooch His hand shakes he is nervous and it falls off
»Would any one believe this« says he catching it as it drops and looking
round »I am so out of sorts that I bungle at an easy job like this«
Mrs Bagnet concludes that for such a case there is no remedy like a pipe
and fastening the brooch herself in a twinkling causes the trooper to be
inducted into his usual snug place and the pipes to be got into action »If
that dont bring you round George« says she »just throw your eye across here
at your present now and then and the two together must do it«
»You ought to do it of yourself« George answers »I know that very well
Mrs Bagnet Ill tell you how one way and another the blues have got to be
too many for me Here was this poor lad Twas dull work to see him dying as he
did and not be able to help him«
»What do you mean George You did help him You took him under your roof«
»I helped him so far but thats little I mean Mrs Bagnet there he was
dying without ever having been taught much more than to know his right hand from
his left And he was too far gone to be helped out of that«
»Ah poor creetur« says Mrs Bagnet
»Then« says the trooper not yet lighting his pipe and passing his heavy
hand over his hair »that brought up Gridley in a mans mind His was a bad case
too in a different way Then the two got mixed up in a mans mind with a flinty
old rascal who had to do with both And to think of that rusty carbine stock
and barrel standing up on end in his corner hard indifferent taking
everything so evenly it made flesh and blood tingle I do assure you«
»My advice to you« returns Mrs Bagnet »is to light your pipe and tingle
that way Its wholesomer and comfortabler and better for the health
altogether«
»Youre right« says the trooper »and Ill do it«
So he does it though still with an indignant gravity that impresses the
young Bagnets and even causes Mr Bagnet to defer the ceremony of drinking Mrs
Bagnets health always given by himself on these occasions in a speech of
exemplary terseness But the young ladies having composed what Mr Bagnet is in
the habit of calling the mixtur and Georges pipe being now in a glow Mr
Bagnet considers it his duty to proceed to the toast of the evening He
addresses the assembled company in the following terms
»George Woolwich Quebec Malta This is her birthday Take a days march
And you wont find such another Heres towards her«
The toast having been drunk with enthusiasm Mrs Bagnet returns thanks in a
neat address of corresponding brevity This model composition is limited to the
three words »And wishing yours« which the old girl follows up with a nod at
everybody in succession and a wellregulated swig of the mixture This she
again follows up on the present occasion by the wholly unexpected exclamation
»Heres a man«
Here is a man much to the astonishment of the little company looking in at
the parlourdoor He is a sharpeyed man a quick keen man and he takes in
everybodys look at him all at once individually and collectively in a manner
that stamps him a remarkable man
»George« says the man nodding »how do you find yourself«
»Why its Bucket« cries Mr George
»Yes« says the man coming in and closing the door »I was going down the
street here when I happened to stop and look in at the musical instruments in
the shopwindow a friend of mine is in want of a secondhand wiolinceller of
a good tone and I saw a party enjoying themselves and I thought it was you in
the corner I thought I couldnt be mistaken How goes the world with you
George at the present moment Pretty smooth And with you maam And with you
governor And Lord« says Mr Bucket opening his arms »heres children too
You may do anything with me if you only show me children Give us a kiss my
pets No occasion to inquire who your father and mother is Never saw such a
likeness in my life«
Mr Bucket not unwelcome has sat himself down next to Mr George and
taken Quebec and Malta on his knees »You pretty dears« says Mr Bucket »give
us another kiss its the only thing Im greedy in Lord bless you how healthy
you look And what may be the ages of these two maam I should put em down at
the figures of about eight and ten«
»Youre very near sir« says Mrs Bagnet
»I generally am near« returns Mr Bucket »being so fond of children A
friend of mine has had nineteen of em maam all by one mother and shes
still as fresh and rosy as the morning Not so much so as yourself but upon my
soul she comes near you And what do you call these my darling« pursues Mr
Bucket pinching Maltas cheeks »These are peaches these are Bless your
heart And what do you think about father Do you think father could recommend a
secondhand wiolinceller of a good tone for Mr Buckets friend my dear My
names Bucket Aint that a funny name«
These blandishments have entirely won the family heart Mrs Bagnet forgets
the day to the extent of filling a pipe and a glass for Mr Bucket and waiting
upon him hospitably She would be glad to receive so pleasant a character under
any circumstances but she tells him that as a friend of Georges she is
particularly glad to see him this evening for George has not been in his usual
spirits
»Not in his usual spirits« exclaims Mr Bucket »Why I never heard of such
a thing Whats the matter George You dont intend to tell me youve been out
of spirits What should you be out of spirits for You havent got anything on
your mind you know«
»Nothing particular« returns the trooper
»I should think not« rejoins Mr Bucket »What could you have on your mind
you know And have these pets got anything on their minds eh Not they but
theyll be upon the minds of some of the young fellows some of these days and
make em precious lowspirited I aint much of a prophet but I can tell you
that maam«
Mrs Bagnet quite charmed hopes Mr Bucket has a family of his own
»There maam« says Mr Bucket »Would you believe it No I havent My
wife and a lodger constitute my family Mrs Bucket is as fond of children as
myself and as wishful to have em but no So it is Worldly goods are divided
unequally and man must not repine What a very nice back yard maam Any way
out of that yard now«
There is no way out of that yard
»Aint there really« says Mr Bucket »I should have thought there might
have been Well I dont know as I ever saw a back yard that took my fancy more
Would you allow me to look at it Thank you No I see theres no way out But
what a very goodproportioned yard it is«
Having cast his sharp eye all about it Mr Bucket returns to his chair next
his friend Mr George and pats Mr George affectionately on the shoulder
»How are your spirits now George«
»All right now« returns the trooper
»Thats your sort« says Mr Bucket »Why should you ever have been
otherwise A man of your fine figure and constitution has no right to be out of
spirits That aint a chest to be out of spirits is it maam And you havent
got anything on your mind you know George what could you have on your mind«
Somewhat harping on this phrase considering the extent and variety of his
conversational powers Mr Bucket twice or thrice repeats it to the pipe he
lights and with a listening face that is particularly his own But the sun of
his sociality soon recovers from this brief eclipse and shines again
»And this is brother is it my dears« says Mr Bucket referring to Quebec
and Malta for information on the subject of young Woolwich »And a nice brother
he is half brother I mean to say For hes too old to be your boy maam«
»I can certify at all events that he is not anybody elses« returns Mrs
Bagnet laughing
»Well you do surprise me Yet hes like you theres no denying Lord hes
wonderfully like you But about what you may call the brow you know there his
father comes out« Mr Bucket compares the faces with one eye shut up while Mr
Bagnet smokes in stolid satisfaction
This is an opportunity for Mrs Bagnet to inform him that the boy is
Georges godson
»Georges godson is he« rejoins Mr Bucket with extreme cordiality »I
must shake hands over again with Georges godson Godfather and godson do credit
to one another. And what do you intend to make of him maam Does he show any
turn for any musical instrument«
Mr Bagnet suddenly interposes »Plays the Fife Beautiful«
»Would you believe it governor« says Mr Bucket struck by the
coincidence »that when I was a boy I played the fife myself Not in a
scientific way as I expect he does but by ear Lord bless you British
Grenadiers theres a tune to warm an Englishman up Could you give us British
Grenadiers my fine fellow«
Nothing could be more acceptable to the little circle than this call upon
young Woolwich who immediately fetches his fife and performs the stirring
melody during which performance Mr Bucket much enlivened beats time and
never fails to come in sharp with the burden »Brit Ish Graaanadeers« In
short he shows so much musical taste that Mr Bagnet actually takes his pipe
from his lips to express his conviction that he is a singer Mr Bucket receives
the harmonious impeachment so modestly confessing how that he did once chaunt a
little for the expression of the feelings of his own bosom and with no
presumptuous idea of entertaining his friends that he is asked to sing Not to
be behindhand in the sociality of the evening he complies and gives them
»Believe me if all those endearing young charms« This ballad he informs Mrs
Bagnet he considers to have been his most powerful ally in moving the heart of
Mrs Bucket when a maiden and inducing her to approach the altar Mr Buckets
own words are to come up to the scratch
This sparkling stranger is such a new and agreeable feature in the evening
that Mr George who testified no great emotions of pleasure on his entrance
begins in spite of himself to be rather proud of him He is so friendly is a
man of so many resources and so easy to get on with that it is something to
have made him known there Mr Bagnet becomes after another pipe so sensible
of the value of his acquaintance that he solicits the honour of his company on
the old girls next birthday If anything can more closely cement and
consolidate the esteem which Mr Bucket has formed for the family it is the
discovery of the nature of the occasion He drinks to Mrs Bagnet with a warmth
approaching to rapture engages himself for that day twelvemonth more than
thankfully makes a memorandum of the day in a large black pocketbook with a
girdle to it and breathes a hope that Mrs Bucket and Mrs Bagnet may before
then become in a manner sisters As he says himself what is public life
without private ties He is in his humble way a public man but it is not in
that sphere that he finds happiness No it must be sought within the confines
of domestic bliss
It is natural under these circumstances that he in his turn should
remember the friend to whom he is indebted for so promising an acquaintance And
he does He keeps very close to him Whatever the subject of the conversation
he keeps a tender eye upon him He waits to walk home with him He is interested
in his very boots and observes even them attentively as Mr George sits
smoking crosslegged in the chimneycorner
At length Mr George rises to depart At the same moment Mr Bucket with
the secret sympathy of friendship also rises He dotes upon the children to the
last and remembers the commission he has undertaken for an absent friend
»Respecting that secondhand wiolinceller governor could you recommend me
such a thing«
»Scores« says Mr Bagnet
»I am obliged to you« returns Mr Bucket squeezing his hand »Youre a
friend in need A good tone mind you My friend is a regular dab at it Ecod
he saws away at Mozart and Handel and the rest of the bigwigs like a
thorough workman And you neednt« says Mr Bucket in a considerate and
private voice »you neednt commit yourself to too low a figure governor I
dont want to pay too large a price for my friend but I want you to have your
proper percentage and be remunerated for your loss of time That is but fair
Every man must live and ought to it«
Mr Bagnet shakes his head at the old girl to the effect that they have
found a jewel of price
»Suppose I was to give you a look in say at halfarter ten tomorrow
morning Perhaps you could name the figures of a few wiolincellers of a good
tone« says Mr Bucket
Nothing easier Mr and Mrs Bagnet both engage to have the requisite
information ready and even hint to each other at the practicability of having a
small stock collected there for approval
»Thank you« says Mr Bucket »thank you Good night maam Good night
governor Good night darlings I am much obliged to you for one of the
pleasantest evenings I ever spent in my life«
They on the contrary are much obliged to him for the pleasure he has given
them in his company and so they part with many expressions of goodwill on both
sides »Now George old boy« says Mr Bucket taking his arm at the shopdoor
»come along« As they go down the little street and the Bagnets pause for a
minute looking after them Mrs Bagnet remarks to the worthy Lignum that Mr
Bucket almost clings to George like and seems to be really fond of him
The neighbouring streets being narrow and illpaved it is a little
inconvenient to walk there two abreast and arm in arm Mr George therefore soon
proposes to walk singly But Mr Bucket who cannot make up his mind to
relinquish his friendly hold replies »Wait half a minute George I should
wish to speak to you first« Immediately afterwards he twists him into a
publichouse and into a parlour where he confronts him and claps his own back
against the door
»Now George« says Mr Bucket »Duty is duty and friendship is friendship
I never want the two to clash if I can help it I have endeavoured to make
things pleasant tonight and I put it to you whether I have done it or not You
must consider yourself in custody George«
»Custody What for« returns the trooper thunderstruck
»Now George« says Mr Bucket urging a sensible view of the case upon him
with his fat forefinger »duty as you know very well is one thing and
conversation is another Its my duty to inform you that any observations you
may make will be liable to be used against you Therefore George be careful
what you say You dont happen to have heard of a murder«
»Murder«
»Now George« says Mr Bucket keeping his forefinger in an impressive
state of action »bear in mind what Ive said to you I ask you nothing Youve
been in low spirits this afternoon I say you dont happen to have heard of a
murder«
»No Where has there been a murder«
»Now George« says Mr Bucket »dont you go and commit yourself Im
agoing to tell you what I want you for There has been a murder in Lincolns
Inn Fields gentleman of the name of Tulkinghorn He was shot last night I
want you for that«
The trooper sinks upon a seat behind him and great drops start out upon his
forehead and a deadly pallor overspreads his face
»Bucket Its not possible that Mr Tulkinghorn has been killed and that
you suspect me«
»George« returns Mr Bucket keeping his forefinger going »it is certainly
possible because its the case This deed was done last night at ten oclock
Now you know where you were last night at ten oclock and youll be able to
prove it no doubt«
»Last night Last night« repeats the trooper thoughtfully Then it flashes
upon him »Why great Heaven I was there last night«
»So I have understood George« returns Mr Bucket with great deliberation
»So I have understood Likewise youve been very often there Youve been seen
hanging about the place and youve been heard more than once in a wrangle with
him and its possible I dont say its certainly so mind you but its
possible that he may have been heard to call you a threatening murdering
dangerous fellow«
The trooper gasps as if he would admit it all if he could speak
»Now George« continues Mr Bucket putting his hat upon the table with an
air of business rather in the upholstery way than otherwise »my wish is as it
has been all the evening to make things pleasant I tell you plainly theres a
reward out of a hundred guineas offered by Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet You
and me have always been pleasant together but I have got a duty to discharge
and if that hundred guineas is to be made it may as well be made by me as any
other man On all of which accounts I should hope it was clear to you that I
must have you and that Im damned if I dont have you Am I to call in any
assistance or is the trick done«
Mr George has recovered himself and stands up like a soldier »Come« he
says »I am ready«
»George« continues Mr Bucket »wait a bit« With his upholsterer manner as
if the trooper were a window to be fitted up he takes from his pocket a pair of
handcuffs »This is a serious charge George and such is my duty«
The trooper flushes angrily and hesitates a moment but holds out his two
hands clasped together and says »There Put them on«
Mr Bucket adjusts them in a moment »How do you find them Are they
comfortable If not say so for I wish to make things as pleasant as is
consistent with my duty and Ive got another pair in my pocket« This remark he
offers like a most respectable tradesman anxious to execute an order neatly
and to the perfect satisfaction of his customer »Theyll do as they are Very
well Now you see George« he takes a cloak from a corner and begins
adjusting it about the troopers neck »I was mindful of your feelings when I
come out and brought this on purpose There Whos the wiser«
»Only I« returns the trooper »but as I know it do me one more good turn
and pull my hat over my eyes«
»Really though Do you mean it Aint it a pity It looks so«
»I cant look chance men in the face with these things on« Mr George
hurriedly replies »Do for Gods sake pull my hat forward«
So strongly entreated Mr Bucket complies puts his own hat on and
conducts his prize into the streets the trooper marching on as steadily as
usual though with his head less erect and Mr Bucket steering him with his
elbow over the crossings and up the turnings
Chapter L
Esthers Narrative
It happened that when I came home from Deal I found a note from Caddy Jellyby
as we always continued to call her informing me that her health which had
been for some time very delicate was worse and that she would be more glad
than she could tell me if I would go to see her It was a note of a few lines
written from the couch on which she lay and enclosed to me in another from her
husband in which he seconded her entreaty with much solicitude Caddy was now
the mother and I the godmother of such a poor little baby such a tiny
oldfaced mite with a countenance that seemed to be scarcely anything but
capborder and a little lean longfingered hand always clenched under its
chin It would lie in this attitude all day with its bright specks of eyes
open wondering as I used to imagine how it came to be so small and weak
Whenever it was moved it cried but at all other times it was so patient that
the sole desire of its life appeared to be to lie quiet and think It had
curious little dark veins in its face and curious little dark marks under its
eyes like faint remembrances of poor Caddys inky days and altogether to
those who were not used to it it was quite a piteous little sight
But it was enough for Caddy that she was used to it The projects with which
she beguiled her illness for little Esthers education and little Esthers
marriage and even for her own old age as the grandmother of little Esthers
little Esthers was so prettily expressive of devotion to this pride of her
life that I should be tempted to recall some of them but for the timely
remembrance that I am getting on irregularly as it is
To return to the letter Caddy had a superstition about me which had been
strengthening in her mind ever since that night long ago when she had lain
asleep with her head in my lap She almost I think I must say quite believed
that I did her good whenever I was near her Now although this was such a fancy
of the affectionate girls that I am almost ashamed to mention it still it
might have all the force of a fact when she was really ill Therefore I set off
to Caddy with my guardians consent posthaste and she and Prince made so
much of me that there never was anything like it
Next day I went again to sit with her and next day I went again It was a
very easy journey for I had only to rise a little earlier in the morning and
keep my accounts and attend to housekeeping matters before leaving home But
when I had made these three visits my guardian said to me on my return at
night
»Now little woman little woman this will never do Constant dropping will
wear away a stone and constant coaching will wear out a Dame Durden We will go
to London for a while and take possession of our old lodgings«
»Not for me dear Guardian« said I »for I never feel tired« which was
strictly true I was only too happy to be in such request
»For me then« returned my guardian »or for Ada or for both of us It is
somebodys birthday tomorrow I think«
»Truly I think it is« said I kissing my darling who would be twentyone
tomorrow
»Well« observed my guardian half pleasantly half seriously »thats a
great occasion and will give my fair cousin some necessary business to transact
in assertion of her independence and will make London a more convenient place
for all of us So to London we will go That being settled there is another
thing how have you left Caddy«
»Very unwell Guardian I fear it will be some time before she regains her
health and strength«
»What do you call some time now« asked my guardian thoughtfully
»Some weeks I am afraid«
»Ah« He began to walk about the room with his hands in his pockets showing
that he had been thinking as much »Now what do you say about her doctor Is he
a good doctor my love«
I felt obliged to confess that I knew nothing to the contrary but that
Prince and I had agreed only that evening that we would like his opinion to be
confirmed by some one
»Well you know« returned my guardian quickly »theres Woodcourt«
I had not meant that and was rather taken by surprise For a moment all
that I had had in my mind in connexion with Mr Woodcourt seemed to come back
and confuse me
»You dont object to him little woman«
»Object to him Guardian Oh no«
»And you dont think the patient would object to him«
So far from that I had no doubt of her being prepared to have a great
reliance on him and to like him very much I said that he was no stranger to
her personally for she had seen him often in his kind attendance on Miss Flite
»Very good« said my guardian »He has been here today my dear and I will
see him about it tomorrow«
I felt in this short conversation though I did not know how for she was
quiet and we interchanged no look that my dear girl well remembered how
merrily she had clasped me round the waist when no other hands than Caddys had
brought me the little parting token This caused me to feel that I ought to tell
her and Caddy too that I was going to be the mistress of Bleak House and that
if I avoided that disclosure any longer I might become less worthy in my own
eyes of its masters love Therefore when we went upstairs and had waited
listening until the clock struck twelve in order that only I might be the first
to wish my darling all good wishes on her birthday and to take her to my heart
I set before her just as I had set before myself the goodness and honour of
her cousin John and the happy life that was in store for me If ever my darling
were fonder of me at one time than another in all our intercourse she was
surely fondest of me that night And I was so rejoiced to know it and so
comforted by the sense of having done right in casting this last idle
reservation away that I was ten times happier than I had been before I had
scarcely thought it a reservation a few hours ago but now that it was gone I
felt as if I understood its nature better
Next day we went to London We found our old lodging vacant and in half an
hour were quietly established there as if we had never gone away Mr Woodcourt
dined with us to celebrate my darlings birthday and we were as pleasant as we
could be with the great blank among us that Richards absence naturally made on
such an occasion After that day I was for some weeks eight or nine as I
remember very much with Caddy and thus it fell out that I saw less of Ada at
this time than any other since we had first come together except the time of my
own illness She often came to Caddys but our function there was to amuse and
cheer her and we did not talk in our usual confidential manner Whenever I went
home at night we were together but Caddys rest was broken by pain and I
often remained to nurse her
With her husband and her poor little mite of a baby to love and their home
to strive for what a good creature Caddy was So selfdenying so
uncomplaining so anxious to get well on their account so afraid of giving
trouble and so thoughtful of the unassisted labours of her husband and the
comforts of old Mr Turveydrop I had never known the best of her until now And
it seemed so curious that her pale face and helpless figure should be lying
there day after day where dancing was the business of life where the kit and
the apprentices began early every morning in the ballroom and where the untidy
little boy waltzed by himself in the kitchen all the afternoon
At Caddys request I took the supreme direction of her apartment trimmed
it up and pushed her couch and all into a lighter and more airy and more
cheerful corner than she had yet occupied then every day when we were in our
neatest array I used to lay my small small namesake in her arms and sit down
to chat or work or read to her It was at one of the first of these quiet times
that I told Caddy about Bleak House
We had other visitors besides Ada First of all we had Prince who in his
hurried intervals of teaching used to come softly in and sit softly down with a
face of loving anxiety for Caddy and the very little child Whatever Caddys
condition really was she never failed to declare to Prince that she was all but
well which I Heaven forgive me never failed to confirm This would put
Prince in such good spirits that he would sometimes take the kit from his
pocket and play a chord or two to astonish the baby which I never knew it to
do in the least degree for my tiny namesake never noticed it at all
Then there was Mrs Jellyby She would come occasionally with her usual
distraught manner and sit calmly looking miles beyond her grandchild as if her
attention were absorbed by a young Borrioboolan on its native shores As
brighteyed as ever as serene and as untidy she would say »Well Caddy
child and how do you do today« And then would sit amiably smiling and taking
no notice of the reply or would sweetly glide off into a calculation of the
number of letters she had lately received and answered or of the coffeebearing
power of BorrioboolaGha This she would always do with a serene contempt for
our limited sphere of action not to be disguised
Then there was old Mr Turveydrop who was from morning to night and from
night to morning the subject of innumerable precautions If the baby cried it
was nearly stifled lest the noise should make him uncomfortable If the fire
wanted stirring in the night it was surreptitiously done lest his rest should
be broken If Caddy required any little comfort that the house contained she
first carefully discussed whether he was likely to require it too In return for
this consideration he would come into the room once a day all but blessing it
showing a condescension and a patronage and a grace of manner in dispensing
the light of his highshouldered presence from which I might have supposed him
if I had not known better to have been the benefactor of Caddys life
»My Caroline« he would say making the nearest approach that he could to
bending over her »Tell me that you are better today«
»O much better thank you Mr Turveydrop« Caddy would reply
»Delighted Enchanted And our dear Miss Summerson She is not quite
prostrated by fatigue« Here he would crease up his eyelids and kiss his
fingers to me though I am happy to say he had ceased to be particular in his
attentions since I had been so altered
»Not at all« I would assure him
»Charming We must take care of our dear Caroline Miss Summerson We must
spare nothing that will restore her We must nourish her My dear Caroline« he
would turn to his daughterinlaw with infinite generosity and protection »want
for nothing my love Frame a wish and gratify it my daughter Everything this
house contains everything my room contains is at your service my dear Do
not« he would sometimes add in a burst of Deportment »even allow my simple
requirements to be considered if they should at any time interfere with your
own my Caroline Your necessities are greater than mine«
He had established such a long prescriptive right to this Deportment his
sons inheritance from his mother that I several times knew both Caddy and her
husband to be melted to tears by these affectionate selfsacrifices
»Nay my dears« he would remonstrate and when I saw Caddys thin arm about
his fat neck as he said it I would be melted too though not by the same
process »Nay nay I have promised never to leave ye Be dutiful and
affectionate towards me and I ask no other return Now bless ye I am going to
the Park«
He would take the air there presently and get an appetite for his hotel
dinner I hope I do old Mr Turveydrop no wrong but I never saw any better
traits in him than these I faithfully record except that he certainly conceived
a liking for Peepy and would take the child out walking with great pomp
always on those occasions sending him home before he went to dinner himself
and occasionally with a halfpenny in his pocket But even this
disinterestedness was attended with no inconsiderable cost to my knowledge for
before Peepy was sufficiently decorated to walk hand in hand with the professor
of Deportment he had to be newly dressed at the expense of Caddy and her
husband from top to toe
Last of our visitors there was Mr Jellyby Really when he used to come in
of an evening and ask Caddy in his meek voice how she was and then sit down
with his head against the wall and make no attempt to say anything more I
liked him very much If he found me bustling about doing any little thing he
sometimes half took his coat off as if with an intention of helping by a great
exertion but he never got any further His sole occupation was to sit with his
head against the wall looking hard at the thoughtful baby and I could not
quite divest my mind of a fancy that they understood one another.
I have not counted Mr Woodcourt among our visitors because he was now
Caddys regular attendant She soon began to improve under his care but he was
so gentle so skilful so unwearying in the pains he took that it is not to be
wondered at I am sure I saw a good deal of Mr Woodcourt during this time
though not so much as might be supposed for knowing Caddy to be safe in his
hands I often slipped home at about the hours when he was expected We
frequently met notwithstanding I was quite reconciled to myself now but I
still felt glad to think that he was sorry for me and he still was sorry for me
I believed He helped Mr Badger in his professional engagements which were
numerous and had as yet no settled projects for the future
It was when Caddy began to recover that I began to notice a change in my
dear girl I cannot say how it first presented itself to me because I observed
it in many slight particulars which were nothing in themselves, and only became
something when they were pieced together But I made it out by putting them
together that Ada was not so frankly cheerful with me as she used to be Her
tenderness for me was as loving and true as ever I did not for a moment doubt
that but there was a quiet sorrow about her which she did not confide to me
and in which I traced some hidden regret
Now I could not understand this and I was so anxious for the happiness of
my own pet that it caused me some uneasiness and set me thinking often At
length feeling sure that Ada suppressed this something from me lest it should
make me unhappy too it came into my head that she was a little grieved for me
by what I had told her about Bleak House
How I persuaded myself that this was likely I dont know I had no idea
that there was any selfish reference in my doing so I was not grieved for
myself I was quite contented and quite happy Still that Ada might be thinking
for me though I had abandoned all such thoughts of what once was but was
now all changed seemed so easy to believe that I believed it
What could I do to reassure my darling I considered then and show her that
I had no such feelings Well I could only be as brisk and busy as possible and
that I had tried to be all along However as Caddys illness had certainly
interfered more or less with my home duties though I had always been there
in the morning to make my guardians breakfast and he had a hundred times
laughed and said there must be two little women for his little woman was never
missing I resolved to be doubly diligent and gay So I went about the house
humming all the tunes I knew and I sat working and working in a desperate
manner and I talked and talked morning noon and night
And still there was the same shade between me and my darling
»So Dame Trot« observed my guardian shutting up his book one night when
we were all three together »so Woodcourt has restored Caddy Jellyby to the full
enjoyment of life again«
»Yes« I said »and to be repaid by such gratitude as hers is to be made
rich Guardian«
»I wish it was« he returned »with all my heart«
So I did too for that matter I said so
»Aye We would make him as rich as a Jew if we knew how Would we not
little woman«
I laughed as I worked and replied that I was not sure about that for it
might spoil him and he might not be so useful and there might be many who
could ill spare him As Miss Flite and Caddy herself and many others
»True« said my guardian »I had forgotten that But we would agree to make
him rich enough to live I suppose Rich enough to work with tolerable peace of
mind Rich enough to have his own happy home and his own household gods and
household goddess too perhaps«
That was quite another thing I said We must all agree in that
»To be sure« said my guardian »All of us I have a great regard for
Woodcourt a high esteem for him and I have been sounding him delicately about
his plans It is difficult to offer aid to an independent man with that just
kind of pride which he possesses And yet I would be glad to do it if I might
or if I knew how He seems half inclined for another voyage But that appears
like casting such a man away«
»It might open a new world to him« said I
»So it might little woman« my guardian assented »I doubt if he expects
much of the old world Do you know I have fancied that he sometimes feels some
particular disappointment or misfortune encountered in it You never heard of
anything of that sort«
I shook my head
»Humph« said my guardian »I am mistaken I dare say«
As there was a little pause here which I thought for my dear girls
satisfaction had better be filled up I hummed an air as I worked which was a
favourite with my guardian
»And do you think Mr Woodcourt will make another voyage« I asked him when
I had hummed it quietly all through
»I dont quite know what to think my dear but I should say it was likely
at present that he will give a long trial to another country«
»I am sure he will take the best wishes of all our hearts with him wherever
he goes« said I »and though they are not riches he will never be the poorer
for them Guardian at least«
»Never little woman« he replied
I was sitting in my usual place which was now beside my guardians chair
That had not been my usual place before the letter but it was now I looked up
to Ada who was sitting opposite and I saw as she looked at me that her eyes
were filled with tears and that tears were falling down her face I felt that I
had only to be placid and merry once for all to undeceive my dear and set her
loving heart at rest I really was so and I had nothing to do but to be myself
So I made my sweet girl lean upon my shoulder how little thinking what was
heavy on her mind and I said she was not quite well and put my arm about
her and took her upstairs When we were in our own room and when she might
perhaps have told me what I was so unprepared to hear I gave her no
encouragement to confide in me I never thought she stood in need of it
»O my dear good Esther« said Ada »if I could only make up my mind to speak
to you and my cousin John when you are together«
»Why my love« I remonstrated »Ada why should you not speak to us«
Ada only dropped her head and pressed me closer to her heart
»You surely dont forget my beauty« said I smiling »what quiet
oldfashioned people we are and how I have settled down to be the discreetest
of dames You dont forget how happily and peacefully my life is all marked out
for me and by whom I am certain that you dont forget by what a noble
character Ada That can never be«
»No never Esther«
»Why then my dear« said I »there can be nothing amiss and why should
you not speak to us«
»Nothing amiss Esther« returned Ada »O when I think of all these years
and of his fatherly care and kindness and of the old relations among us and of
you what shall I do what shall I do«
I looked at my child in some wonder but I thought it better not to answer
otherwise than by cheering her and so I turned off into many little
recollections of our life together and prevented her from saying more When she
lay down to sleep and not before I returned to my guardian to say good night
and then I came back to Ada and sat near her for a little while
She was asleep and I thought as I looked at her that she was a little
changed I had thought so more than once lately I could not decide even
looking at her while she was unconscious how she was changed but something in
the familiar beauty of her face looked different to me My guardians old hopes
of her and Richard arose sorrowfully in my mind and I said to myself she has
been anxious about him and I wondered how that love would end
When I had come home from Caddys while she was ill I had often found Ada
at work and she had always put her work away and I had never known what it
was Some of it now lay in a drawer near her which was not quite closed I did
not open the drawer but I still rather wondered what the work could be for it
was evidently nothing for herself
And I noticed as I kissed my dear that she lay with one hand under her
pillow so that it was hidden
How much less amiable I must have been than they thought me how much less
amiable than I thought myself to be so preoccupied with my own cheerfulness
and contentment as to think that it only rested with me to put my dear girl
right and set her mind at peace
But I lay down selfdeceived in that belief And I awoke in it next day
to find that there was still the same shade between me and my darling
Chapter LI
Enlightened
When Mr Woodcourt arrived in London he went that very same day to Mr
Vholess in Symonds Inn For he never once from the moment when I entreated
him to be a friend to Richard neglected or forgot his promise He had told me
that he accepted the charge as a sacred trust and he was ever true to it in
that spirit
He found Mr Vholes in his office and informed Mr Vholes of his agreement
with Richard that he should call there to learn his address
»Just so sir« said Mr Vholes »Mr Cs address is not a hundred miles
from here sir Mr Cs address is not a hundred miles from here Would you
take a seat sir«
Mr Woodcourt thanked Mr Vholes but he had no business with him beyond
what he had mentioned
»Just so sir I believe sir« said Mr Vholes still quietly insisting on
the seat by not giving the address »that you have influence with Mr C Indeed
I am aware that you have«
»I was not aware of it myself« returned Mr Woodcourt »but I suppose you
know best«
»Sir« rejoined Mr Vholes selfcontained as usual voice and all »it is
a part of my professional duty to know best It is a part of my professional
duty to study and to understand a gentleman who confides his interests to me In
my professional duty I shall not be wanting sir if I know it I may with the
best intentions be wanting in it without knowing it but not if I know it
sir«
Mr Woodcourt again mentioned the address
»Give me leave sir« said Mr Vholes »Bear with me for a moment Sir Mr
C. is playing for a considerable stake and cannot play without need I say
what«
»Money I presume«
»Sir« said Mr Vholes »to be honest with you honesty being my golden
rule whether I gain by it or lose and I find that I generally lose money is
the word Now sir upon the chances of Mr Cs game I express to you no
opinion no opinion It might be highly impolitic in Mr C after playing so
long and so high to leave off it might be the reverse I say nothing No
sir« said Mr Vholes bringing his hand flat down upon his desk in a positive
manner »nothing«
»You seem to forget« returned Mr Woodcourt »that I ask you to say
nothing and have no interest in anything you say«
»Pardon me sir« retorted Mr Vholes »you do yourself an injustice No
sir Pardon me You shall not shall not in my office if I know it do
yourself an injustice You are interested in anything and in everything that
relates to your friend I know human nature much better sir than to admit for
an instant that a gentleman of your appearance is not interested in whatever
concerns his friend«
»Well« replied Mr Woodcourt »that may be I am particularly interested in
his address«
»The number sir« said Mr Vholes parenthetically »I believe I have
already mentioned If Mr C. is to continue to play for this considerable
stake sir he must have funds Understand me There are funds in hand at
present I ask for nothing there are funds in hand But for the onward play
more funds must be provided unless Mr C. is to throw away what he has already
ventured which is wholly and solely a point for his consideration This sir
I take the opportunity of stating openly to you as the friend of Mr C Without
funds I shall always be happy to appear and act for Mr C to the extent of
all such costs as are safe to be allowed out of the estate not beyond that I
could not go beyond that sir without wronging some one I must either wrong my
three dear girls or my venerable father who is entirely dependent on me in
the Vale of Taunton or some one Whereas sir my resolution is call it
weakness or folly if you please to wrong no one«
Mr Woodcourt rather sternly rejoined that he was glad to hear it
»I wish sir« said Mr Vholes »to leave a good name behind me Therefore
I take every opportunity of openly stating to a friend of Mr C how Mr C. is
situated As to myself sir the labourer is worthy of his hire If I undertake
to put my shoulder to the wheel I do it and I earn what I get I am here for
that purpose My name is painted on the door outside with that object«
»And Mr Carstones address Mr Vholes«
»Sir« returned Mr Vholes »as I believe I have already mentioned it is
next door On the second story you will find Mr Cs apartments Mr C desires
to be near his professional adviser and I am far from objecting for I court
inquiry«
Upon this Mr Woodcourt wished Mr Vholes good day and went in search of
Richard the change in whose appearance he began to understand now but too well
He found him in a dull room fadedly furnished much as I had found him in
his barrackroom but a little while before except that he was not writing but
was sitting with a book before him from which his eyes and thoughts were far
astray As the door chanced to be standing open Mr Woodcourt was in his
presence for some moments without being perceived and he told me that he never
could forget the haggardness of his face and the dejection of his manner
before he was aroused from his dream
»Woodcourt my dear fellow« cried Richard starting up with extended hands
»you come upon my vision like a ghost«
»A friendly one« he replied »and only waiting as they say ghosts do to
be addressed How does the mortal world go« They were seated now near
together
»Badly enough and slowly enough« said Richard »speaking at least for my
part of it«
»What part is that«
»The Chancery part«
»I never heard« returned Mr Woodcourt shaking his head »of its going
well yet«
»Nor I« said Richard moodily »Who ever did«
He brightened again in a moment and said with his natural openness
»Woodcourt I should be sorry to be misunderstood by you even if I gained
by it in your estimation You must know that I have done no good this long time
I have not intended to do much harm but I seem to have been capable of nothing
else It may be that I should have done better by keeping out of the net into
which my destiny has worked me but I think not though I dare say you will soon
hear if you have not already heard a very different opinion To make short of
a long story I am afraid I have wanted an object; but I have an object now or
it has me and it is too late to discuss it Take me as I am and make the best
of me«
»A bargain« said Mr Woodcourt »Do as much by me in return«
»Oh You« returned Richard »you can pursue your art for its own sake and
can put your hand upon the plough and never turn and can strike a purpose out
of anything You and I are very different creatures«
He spoke regretfully and lapsed for a moment into his weary condition
»Well well« he cried shaking it off »everything has an end We shall
see So you will take me as I am and make the best of me«
»Aye indeed I will« They shook hands upon it laughingly but in deep
earnestness I can answer for one of them with my heart of hearts
»You come as a godsend« said Richard »for I have seen nobody here yet but
Vholes Woodcourt there is one subject I should like to mention for once and
for all in the beginning of our treaty You can hardly make the best of me if I
dont You know I dare say that I have an attachment to my cousin Ada«
Mr Woodcourt replied that I had hinted as much to him
»Now pray« returned Richard »dont think me a heap of selfishness Dont
suppose that I am splitting my head and half breaking my heart over this
miserable Chancery suit for my own rights and interests alone Adas are bound
up with mine they cant be separated Vholes works for both of us Do think of
that«
He was so very solicitous on this head that Mr Woodcourt gave him the
strongest assurances that he did him no injustice
»You see« said Richard with something pathetic in his manner of lingering
on the point though it was offhand and unstudied »to an upright fellow like
you bringing a friendly face like yours here I cannot bear the thought of
appearing selfish and mean I want to see Ada righted Woodcourt as well as
myself I want to do my utmost to right her as well as myself I venture what I
can scrape together to extricate her as well as myself Do I beseech you
think of that«
Afterwards when Mr Woodcourt came to reflect on what had passed he was so
very much impressed by the strength of Richards anxiety on this point that in
telling me generally of his first visit to Symonds Inn he particularly dwelt
upon it It revived a fear I had had before that my dear girls little property
would be absorbed by Mr Vholes and that Richards justification to himself
would be sincerely this It was just as I began to take care of Caddy that the
interview took place and I now return to the time when Caddy had recovered and
the shade was still between me and my darling
I proposed to Ada that morning that we should go and see Richard It a
little surprised me to find that she hesitated and was not so radiantly willing
as I had expected
»My dear« said I »you have not had any difference with Richard since I
have been so much away«
»No Esther«
»Not heard of him perhaps« said I
»Yes I have heard of him« said Ada
Such tears in her eyes and such love in her face I could not make my
darling out Should I go to Richards by myself I said No Ada thought I had
better not go by myself Would she go with me Yes Ada thought she had better
go with me Should we go now Yes let us go now Well I could not understand
my darling with the tears in her eyes and the love in her face
We were soon equipped and went out It was a sombre day and drops of chill
rain fell at intervals It was one of those colourless days when everything
looks heavy and harsh The houses frowned at us the dust rose at us the smoke
swooped at us nothing made any compromise about itself, or wore a softened
aspect I fancied my beautiful girl quite out of place in the rugged streets
and I thought there were more funerals passing along the dismal pavements than
I had ever seen before
We had first to find out Symonds Inn We were going to inquire in a shop
when Ada said she thought it was near Chancery Lane »We are not likely to be
far out my love if we go in that direction« said I So to Chancery Lane we
went and there sure enough we saw it written up Symonds Inn
We had next to find out the number »Or Mr Vholess office will do« I
recollected »for Mr Vholess office is next door« Upon which Ada said
perhaps that was Mr Vholess office in the corner there And it really was
Then came the question which of the two next doors I was going for the
one and my darling was going for the other and my darling was right again So
up we went to the second story when we came to Richards name in great white
letters on a hearselike panel
I should have knocked but Ada said perhaps we had better turn the handle
and go in Thus we came to Richard poring over a table covered with dusty
bundles of papers which seemed to me like dusty mirrors reflecting his own mind
Wherever I looked I saw the ominous words that ran in it repeated Jarndyce
and Jarndyce
He received us very affectionately and we sat down »If you had come a
little earlier« he said »you would have found Woodcourt here There never was
such a good fellow as Woodcourt is He finds time to look in between whiles
when anybody else with half his work to do would be thinking about not being
able to come And he is so cheery so fresh so sensible so earnest so
everything that I am not that the place brightens whenever he comes and
darkens whenever he goes again«
»God bless him« I thought »for his truth to me«
»He is not so sanguine Ada« continued Richard casting his dejected look
over the bundles of papers »as Vholes and I are usually but he is only an
outsider and is not in the mysteries We have gone into them and he has not
He cant be expected to know much of such a labyrinth«
As his look wandered over the papers again and he passed his two hands over
his head I noticed how sunken and how large his eyes appeared how dry his lips
were and how his fingernails were all bitten away
»Is this a healthy place to live in Richard do you think« said I
»Why my dear Minerva« answered Richard with his old gay laugh »it is
neither a rural nor a cheerful place and when the sun shines here you may lay
a pretty heavy wager that it is shining brightly in an open spot But its well
enough for the time Its near the offices and near Vholes«
»Perhaps« I hinted »a change from both «
» Might do me good« said Richard forcing a laugh as he finished the
sentence »I shouldnt wonder But it can only come in one way now in one of
two ways I should rather say Either the suit must be ended Esther or the
suitor But it shall be the suit my dear girl the suit my dear girl«
These latter words were addressed to Ada who was sitting nearest to him
Her face being turned away from me and towards him I could not see it
»We are doing very well« pursued Richard »Vholes will tell you so We are
really spinning along Ask Vholes We are giving them no rest Vholes knows all
their windings and turnings and we are upon them everywhere We have astonished
them already We shall rouse up that nest of sleepers mark my words«
His hopefulness had long been more painful to me than his despondency it
was so unlike hopefulness had something so fierce in its determination to be
it was so hungry and eager and yet so conscious of being forced and
unsustainable that it had long touched me to the heart But the commentary upon
it now indelibly written in his handsome face made it far more distressing than
it used to be I say indelibly for I felt persuaded that if the fatal cause
could have been for ever terminated according to its brightest visions in that
same hour the traces of the premature anxiety selfreproach and
disappointment it had occasioned him would have remained upon his features to
the hour of his death
»The sight of our dear little woman« said Richard Ada still remaining
silent and quiet »is so natural to me and her compassionate face is so like
the face of old days «
Ah No no I smiled and shook my head
» So exactly like the face of old days« said Richard in his cordial voice
and taking my hand with the brotherly regard which nothing ever changed »that I
cant make pretences with her I fluctuate a little thats the truth Sometimes
I hope my dear and sometimes I dont quite despair but nearly I get« said
Richard relinquishing my hand gently and walking across the room »so tired«
He took a few turns up and down and sunk upon the sofa »I get« he
repeated gloomily »so tired It is such weary weary work«
He was leaning on his arm saying these words in a meditative voice and
looking at the ground when my darling rose put off her bonnet kneeled down
beside him with her golden hair falling like sunlight on his head clasped her
two arms round his neck and turned her face to me O what a loving and devoted
face I saw
»Esther dear« she said very quietly »I am not going home again«
A light shone in upon me all at once
»Never any more I am going to stay with my dear husband We have been
married above two months Go home without me my own Esther I shall never go
home any more« With those words my darling drew his head down on her breast
and held it there And if ever in my life I saw a love that nothing but death
could change I saw it then before me
»Speak to Esther my dearest« said Richard breaking the silence presently
»Tell her how it was«
I met her before she could come to me and folded her in my arms We neither
of us spoke but with her cheek against my own I wanted to hear nothing »My
pet« said I »My love My poor poor girl« I pitied her so much I was very
fond of Richard but the impulse that I had upon me was to pity her so much
»Esther will you forgive me Will my cousin John forgive me«
»My dear« said I »to doubt for a moment is to do him a great wrong And as
to me« why as to me what had I to forgive
I dried my sobbing darlings eyes and sat beside her on the sofa and
Richard sat on my other side and while I was reminded of that so different
night when they had first taken me into their confidence and had gone on in
their own wild happy way they told me between them how it was
»All I had was Richards« Ada said »and Richard would not take it
Esther and what could I do but be his wife when I loved him dearly«
»And you were so fully and so kindly occupied excellent Dame Durden« said
Richard »that how could we speak to you at such a time And besides it was not
a longconsidered step We went out one morning and were married«
»And when it was done Esther« said my darling »I was always thinking how
to tell you and what to do for the best And sometimes I thought you ought to
know it directly and sometimes I thought you ought not to know it and keep it
from my cousin John and I could not tell what to do and I fretted very much«
How selfish I must have been not to have thought of this before I dont
know what I said now I was so sorry and yet I was so fond of them and so glad
that they were fond of me I pitied them so much and yet I felt a kind of pride
in their loving one another. I never had experienced such painful and
pleasurable emotion at one time and in my own heart I did not know which
predominated But I was not there to darken their way I did not do that
When I was less foolish and more composed my darling took her weddingring
from her bosom and kissed it and put it on Then I remembered last night and
told Richard that ever since her marriage she had worn it at night when there
was no one to see Then Ada blushingly asked me how did I know that my dear
Then I told Ada how I had seen her hand concealed under her pillow and had
little thought why my dear Then they began telling me how it was all over
again and I began to be sorry and glad again and foolish again and to hide my
plain old face as much as I could lest I should put them out of heart
Thus the time went on until it became necessary for me to think of
returning When that time arrived it was the worst of all for then my darling
completely broke down She clung round my neck calling me by every dear name
she could think of and saying what should she do without me Nor was Richard
much better and as for me I should have been the worst of the three if I had
not severely said to myself »Now Esther if you do Ill never speak to you
again«
»Why I declare« said I »I never saw such a wife I dont think she loves
her husband at all Here Richard take my child for goodness sake« But I
held her tight all the while and could have wept over her I dont know how
long
»I give this dear young couple notice« said I »that I am only going away
to come back tomorrow and that I shall be always coming backwards and
forwards until Symonds Inn is tired of the sight of me So I shall not say
goodbye Richard For what would be the use of that you know when I am coming
back so soon«
I had given my darling to him now and I meant to go but I lingered for one
more look of the precious face which it seemed to rive my heart to turn from
So I said in a merry bustling manner that unless they gave me some
encouragement to come back I was not sure that I could take that liberty upon
which my dear girl looked up faintly smiling through her tears and I folded
her lovely face between my hands and gave it one last kiss and laughed and
ran away
And when I got downstairs O how I cried It almost seemed to me that I had
lost my Ada for ever I was so lonely and so blank without her and it was so
desolate to be going home with no hope of seeing her there that I could get no
comfort for a little while as I walked up and down in a dim corner sobbing and
crying
I came to myself byandby after a little scolding and took a coach home
The poor boy whom I had found at St Albans had reappeared a short time before
and was lying at the point of death indeed was then dead though I did not
know it My guardian had gone out to inquire about him and did not return to
dinner Being quite alone I cried a little again though on the whole I dont
think I behaved so very very ill
It was only natural that I should not be quite accustomed to the loss of my
darling yet Three or four hours were not a long time after years But my mind
dwelt so much upon the uncongenial scene in which I had left her and I pictured
it as such an overshadowed stonyhearted one and I so longed to be near her
and taking some sort of care of her that I determined to go back in the
evening only to look up at her windows
It was foolish I dare say but it did not then seem at all so to me and it
does not seem quite so even now I took Charley into my confidence and we went
out at dusk It was dark when we came to the new strange home of my dear girl
and there was a light behind the yellow blinds We walked past cautiously three
or four times looking up and narrowly missed encountering Mr Vholes who came
out of his office while we were there and turned his head to look up too
before going home The sight of his lank black figure and the lonesome air of
that nook in the dark were favourable to the state of my mind I thought of the
youth and love and beauty of my dear girl shut up in such an illassorted
refuge almost as if it were a cruel place
It was very solitary and very dull and I did not doubt that I might safely
steal upstairs I left Charley below and went up with a light foot not
distressed by any glare from the feeble oil lanterns on the way I listened for
a few moments and in the musty rotting silence of the house believed that I
could hear the murmur of their young voices I put my lips to the hearselike
panel of the door as a kiss for my dear and came quietly down again thinking
that one of these days I would confess to the visit
And it really did me good for though nobody but Charley and I knew
anything about it I somehow felt as if it had diminished the separation between
Ada and me and had brought us together again for those moments I went back
not quite accustomed yet to the change but all the better for that hovering
about my darling
My guardian had come home and was standing thoughtfully by the dark window
When I went in his face cleared and he came to his seat but he caught the
light upon my face as I took mine
»Little woman« said he »You have been crying«
»Why yes Guardian« said I »I am afraid I have been a little Ada has
been in such distress and is so very sorry Guardian«
I put my arm on the back of his chair and I saw in his glance that my
words and my look at her empty place had prepared him
»Is she married my dear«
I told him all about it and how her first entreaties had referred to his
forgiveness
»She has no need of it« said he »Heaven bless her and her husband« But
just as my first impulse had been to pity her so was his »Poor girl poor
girl Poor Rick Poor Ada«
Neither of us spoke after that until he said with a sigh »Well well my
dear Bleak House is thinning fast«
»But its mistress remains Guardian« Though I was timid about saying it I
ventured because of the sorrowful tone in which he had spoken »She will do all
she can to make it happy« said I
»She will succeed my love«
The letter had made no difference between us except that the seat by his
side had come to be mine it made none now He turned his old bright fatherly
look upon me laid his hand on my hand in his old way and said again »She will
succeed my dear Nevertheless Bleak House is thinning fast O little woman«
I was sorry presently that this was all we said about that I was rather
disappointed I feared I might not quite have been all I had meant to be since
the letter and the answer
Chapter LII
Obstinacy
But one other day had intervened when early in the morning as we were going to
breakfast Mr Woodcourt came in haste with the astounding news that a terrible
murder had been committed for which Mr George had been apprehended and was in
custody When he told us that a large reward was offered by Sir Leicester
Dedlock for the murderers apprehension I did not in my first consternation
understand why but a few more words explained to me that the murdered person
was Sir Leicesters lawyer and immediately my mothers dread of him rushed into
my remembrance
This unforeseen and violent removal of one whom she had long watched and
distrusted and who had long watched and distrusted her one for whom she could
have had few intervals of kindness always dreading in him a dangerous and
secret enemy appeared so awful that my first thoughts were of her How
appalling to hear of such a death and be able to feel no pity How dreadful to
remember perhaps that she had sometimes even wished the old man away who was
so swiftly hurried out of life
Such crowding reflections increasing the distress and fear I always felt
when the name was mentioned made me so agitated that I could scarcely hold my
place at the table I was quite unable to follow the conversation until I had
had a little time to recover But when I came to myself and saw how shocked my
guardian was and found that they were earnestly speaking of the suspected man
and recalling every favourable impression we had formed of him out of the good
we had known of him my interest and my fears were so strongly aroused in his
behalf that I was quite set up again
»Guardian you dont think it possible that he is justly accused«
»My dear I cant think so This man whom we have seen so openhearted and
compassionate who with the might of a giant has the gentleness of a child
who looks as brave a fellow as ever lived and is so simple and quiet with it
this man justly accused of such a crime I cant believe it Its not that I
dont or I wont I cant«
»And I cant« said Mr Woodcourt »Still whatever we believe or know of
him we had better not forget that some appearances are against him He bore an
animosity towards the deceased gentleman He has openly mentioned it in many
places He is said to have expressed himself violently towards him and he
certainly did about him to my knowledge He admits that he was alone on the
scene of the murder within a few minutes of its commission I sincerely believe
him to be as innocent of any participation in it as I am but these are all
reasons for suspicion falling upon him«
»True« said my guardian and he added turning to me »it would be doing
him a very bad service my dear to shut our eyes to the truth in any of these
respects«
I felt of course that we must admit not only to ourselves but to others
the full force of the circumstances against him Yet I knew withal I could not
help saying that their weight would not induce us to desert him in his need
»Heaven forbid« returned my guardian »We will stand by him as he himself
stood by the two poor creatures who are gone« He meant Mr Gridley and the boy
to both of whom Mr George had given shelter
Mr Woodcourt then told us that the troopers man had been with him before
day after wandering about the streets all night like a distracted creature
That one of the troopers first anxieties was that we should not suppose him
guilty That he had charged his messenger to represent his perfect innocence
with every solemn assurance he could send us That Mr Woodcourt had only
quieted the man by undertaking to come to our house very early in the morning
with these representations He added that he was now upon his way to see the
prisoner himself
My guardian said directly he would go too Now besides that I liked the
retired soldier very much and that he liked me I had that secret interest in
what had happened which was only known to my guardian I felt as if it came
close and near to me It seemed to become personally important to myself that
the truth should be discovered and that no innocent people should be suspected
for suspicion once run wild might run wilder
In a word I felt as if it were my duty and obligation to go with them My
guardian did not seek to dissuade me and I went
It was a large prison with many courts and passages so like one another,
and so uniformly paved that I seemed to gain a new comprehension as I passed
along of the fondness that solitary prisoners shut up among the same staring
walls from year to year have had as I have read for a weed or a stray
blade of grass In an arched room by himself like a cellar upstairs with
walls so glaringly white that they made the massive iron windowbars and
ironbound door even more profoundly black than they were we found the trooper
standing in a corner He had been sitting on a bench there and had risen when
he heard the locks and bolts turn
When he saw us he came forward a step with his usual heavy tread and there
stopped and made a slight bow But as I still advanced putting out my hand to
him he understood us in a moment
»This is a load off my mind I do assure you miss and gentlemen« said he
saluting us with great heartiness and drawing a long breath »And now I dont so
much care how it ends«
He scarcely seemed to be the prisoner What with his coolness and his
soldierly bearing he looked far more like the prison guard
»This is even a rougher place than my gallery to receive a lady in« said
Mr George »but I know Miss Summerson will make the best of it« As he handed
me to the bench on which he had been sitting I sat down which seemed to give
him great satisfaction
»I thank you miss« said he
»Now George« observed my guardian »as we require no new assurances on
your part so I believe we need give you none on ours«
»Not at all sir I thank you with all my heart If I was not innocent of
this crime I couldnt look at you and keep my secret to myself under the
condescension of the present visit I feel the present visit very much I am not
one of the eloquent sort but I feel it Miss Summerson and gentlemen deeply«
He laid his hand for a moment on his broad chest and bent his head to us
Although he squared himself again directly he expressed a great amount of
natural emotion by these simple means
»First« said my guardian »can we do anything for your personal comfort
George«
»For which sir« he inquired clearing his throat
»For your personal comfort Is there anything you want that would lessen
the hardship of this confinement«
»Well sir« replied Mr George after a little cogitation »I am equally
obliged to you but tobacco being against the rules I cant say that there is«
»You will think of many little things perhaps byandby Whenever you do
George let us know«
»Thank you sir Howsoever« observed Mr George with one of his sunburnt
smiles »a man who has been knocking about the world in a vagabond kind of a way
as long as I have gets on well enough in a place like the present so far as
that goes«
»Next as to your case« observed my guardian
»Exactly so sir« returned Mr George folding his arms upon his breast
with perfect selfpossession and a little curiosity
»How does it stand now«
»Why sir it is under remand at present Bucket gives me to understand that
he will probably apply for a series of remands from time to time until the case
is more complete How it is to be made more complete I dont myself see but I
dare say Bucket will manage it somehow«
»Why Heaven save us man« exclaimed my guardian surprised into his old
oddity and vehemence »you talk of yourself as if you were somebody else«
»No offence sir« said Mr George »I am very sensible of your kindness
But I dont see how an innocent man is to make up his mind to this kind of thing
without knocking his head against the walls unless he takes it in that point of
view«
»That is true enough to a certain extent« returned my guardian softened
»But my good fellow even an innocent man must take ordinary precautions to
defend himself«
»Certainly sir And I have done so I have stated to the magistrates
Gentlemen I am as innocent of this charge as yourselves what has been stated
against me in the way of facts is perfectly true I know no more about it I
intend to continue stating that sir What more can I do Its the truth«
»But the mere truth wont do« rejoined my guardian
»Wont it indeed sir Rather a bad lookout for me« Mr George
goodhumouredly observed
»You must have a lawyer« pursued my guardian »We must engage a good one
for you«
»I ask your pardon sir« said Mr George with a step backward »I am
equally obliged But I must decidedly beg to be excused from anything of that
sort«
»You wont have a lawyer«
»No sir« Mr George shook his head in the most emphatic manner »I thank
you all the same sir but no lawyer«
»Why not«
»I dont take kindly to the breed« said Mr George »Gridley didnt And
if youll excuse my saying so much I should hardly have thought you did
yourself sir«
»Thats Equity« my guardian explained a little at a loss »thats Equity
George«
»Is it indeed sir« returned the trooper in his offhand manner »I am
not acquainted with those shades of names myself but in a general way I object
to the breed«
Unfolding his arms and changing his position he stood with one massive
hand upon the table and the other on his hip as complete a picture of a man
who was not to be moved from a fixed purpose as ever I saw It was in vain that
we all three talked to him and endeavoured to persuade him he listened with
that gentleness which went so well with his bluff bearing but was evidently no
more shaken by our representations than his place of confinement was
»Pray think once more Mr George« said I »Have you no wish in reference
to your case«
»I certainly could wish it to be tried miss« he returned »by
courtmartial but that is out of the question as I am well aware If you will
be so good as to favour me with your attention for a couple of minutes miss
not more Ill endeavour to explain myself as clearly as I can«
He looked at us all three in turn shook his head a little as if he were
adjusting it in the stock and collar of a tight uniform and after a moments
reflection went on
»You see miss I have been handcuffed and taken into custody and brought
here I am a marked and disgraced man and here I am My shootinggallery is
rummaged high and low by Bucket such property as I have tis small is
turned this way and that till it dont know itself; and as aforesaid here I
am I dont particular complain of that Though I am in these present quarters
through no immediately preceding fault of mine I can very well understand that
if I hadnt gone into the vagabond way in my youth this wouldnt have happened
It has happened Then comes the question how to meet it«
He rubbed his swarthy forehead for a moment with a goodhumoured look and
said apologetically »I am such a shortwinded talker that I must think a bit«
Having thought a bit he looked up again and resumed
»How to meet it Now the unfortunate deceased was himself a lawyer and had
a pretty tight hold of me I dont wish to rake up his ashes but he had what I
should call if he was living a Devil of a tight hold of me I dont like his
trade the better for that If I had kept clear of his trade I should have kept
outside this place But thats not what I mean Now suppose I had killed him
Suppose I really had discharged into his body any one of those pistols recently
fired off that Bucket has found at my place and dear me might have found
there any day since it has been my place What should I have done as soon as I
was hard and fast here Got a lawyer«
He stopped on hearing some one at the locks and bolts and did not resume
until the door had been opened and was shut again For what purpose opened I
will mention presently
»I should have got a lawyer and he would have said as I have often read in
the newspapers my client says nothing my client reserves his defence my
client this that and tother Well tis not the custom of that breed to go
straight according to my opinion or to think that other men do Say I am
innocent and I get a lawyer He would be as likely to believe me guilty as not
perhaps more What would he do whether or not Act as if I was shut my mouth
up tell me not to commit myself keep circumstances back chop the evidence
small quibble and get me off perhaps But Miss Summerson do I care for
getting off in that way or would I rather be hanged in my own way if youll
excuse my mentioning anything so disagreeable to a lady«
He had warmed into his subject now and was under no further necessity to
wait a bit
»I would rather be hanged in my own way And I mean to be I dont intend to
say« looking round upon us with his powerful arms akimbo and his dark eyebrows
raised »that I am more partial to being hanged than another man What I say is
I must come off clear and full or not at all Therefore when I hear stated
against me what is true I say its true and when they tell me whatever you
say will be used I tell them I dont mind that I mean it to be used If they
cant make me innocent out of the whole truth they are not likely to do it out
of anything less or anything else And if they are its worth nothing to me«
Taking a pace or two over the stone floor he came back to the table and
finished what he had to say
»I thank you miss and gentlemen both many times for your attention and
many times more for your interest Thats the plain state of the matter as it
points itself out to a mere trooper with a blunt broadsword kind of a mind I
have never done well in life beyond my duty as a soldier and if the worst
comes after all I shall reap pretty much as I have sown When I got over the
first crash of being seized as a murderer it dont take a rover who has
knocked about so much as myself so very long to recover from a crash I worked
my way round to what you find me now As such I shall remain No relations will
be disgraced by me or made unhappy for me and and thats all Ive got to
say«
The door had been opened to admit another soldierlooking man of less
prepossessing appearance at first sight and a weathertanned brighteyed
wholesome woman with a basket who from her entrance had been exceedingly
attentive to all Mr George had said Mr George had received them with a
familiar nod and a friendly look but without any more particular greeting in
the midst of his address He now shook them cordially by the hand and said
»Miss Summerson and gentlemen this is an old comrade of mine Joseph Bagnet
And this is his wife Mrs Bagnet«
Mr Bagnet made us a stiff military bow and Mrs Bagnet dropped us a
curtsey
»Real good friends of mine they are« said Mr George »It was at their
house I was taken«
»With a secondhand wiolinceller« Mr Bagnet put in twitching his head
angrily »Of a good tone For a friend That money was no object to«
»Mat« said Mr George »you have heard pretty well all I have been saying
to this lady and these two gentlemen I know it meets your approval«
Mr Bagnet after considering referred the point to his wife »Old girl«
said he »Tell him Whether or not It meets my approval«
»Why George« exclaimed Mrs Bagnet who had been unpacking her basket in
which there was a piece of cold pickled pork a little tea and sugar and a
brown loaf »you ought to know it dont You ought to know its enough to drive
a person wild to hear you You wont be got off this way and you wont be got
off that way what do you mean by such picking and choosing Its stuff and
nonsense George«
»Dont be severe upon me in my misfortunes Mrs Bagnet« said the trooper
lightly
»Oh Bother your misfortunes« cried Mrs Bagnet »if they dont make you
more reasonable than that comes to I never was so ashamed in my life to hear a
man talk folly as I have been to hear you talk this day to the present company
Lawyers Why what but too many cooks should hinder you from having a dozen
lawyers if the gentleman recommended them to you«
»This is a very sensible woman« said my guardian »I hope you will persuade
him Mrs Bagnet«
»Persuade him sir« she returned »Lord bless you no You dont know
George Now there« Mrs Bagnet left her basket to point him out with both her
bare brown hands »There he stands As selfwilled and as determined a man in
the wrong way as ever put a human creature under Heaven out of patience You
could as soon take up and shoulder an eightandforty pounder by your own
strength as turn that man when he has got a thing into his head and fixed it
there Why dont I know him« cried Mrs Bagnet »Dont I know you George You
dont mean to set up for a new character with me after all these years I
hope«
Her friendly indignation had an exemplary effect upon her husband who shook
his head at the trooper several times as a silent recommendation to him to
yield Between whiles Mrs Bagnet looked at me and I understood from the play
of her eyes that she wished me to do something though I did not comprehend
what
»But I have given up talking to you old fellow years and years« said Mrs
Bagnet as she blew a little dust off the pickled pork looking at me again
»and when ladies and gentlemen know you as well as I do theyll give up talking
to you too If you are not too headstrong to accept of a bit of dinner here it
is«
»I accept it with many thanks« returned the trooper
»Do you though indeed« said Mrs Bagnet continuing to grumble on
goodhumouredly »Im sure Im surprised at that I wonder you dont starve in
your own way also It would only be like you Perhaps youll set your mind upon
that next« Here she again looked at me and I now perceived from her glances
at the door and at me by turns that she wished us to retire and to await her
following us outside the prison Communicating this by similar means to my
guardian and Mr Woodcourt I rose
»We hope you will think better of it Mr George« said I »and we shall
come to see you again trusting to find you more reasonable«
»More grateful Miss Summerson you cant find me« he returned
»But more persuadable we can I hope« said I »And let me entreat you to
consider that the clearing up of this mystery and the discovery of the real
perpetrator of this deed may be of the last importance to others besides
yourself«
He heard me respectfully but without much heeding these words which I
spoke a little turned from him already on my way to the door he was observing
this they afterwards told me my height and figure which seemed to catch his
attention all at once
»Tis curious« said he »And yet I thought so at the time«
My guardian asked him what he meant
»Why sir« he answered »when my illfortune took me to the dead mans
staircase on the night of his murder I saw a shape so like Miss Summersons go
by me in the dark that I had half a mind to speak to it«
For an instant I felt such a shudder as I never felt before or since and
hope I shall never feel again
»It came downstairs as I went up« said the trooper »and crossed the
moonlighted window with a loose black mantle on I noticed a deep fringe to it
However it has nothing to do with the present subject excepting that Miss
Summerson looked so like it at the moment that it came into my head«
I cannot separate and define the feelings that arose in me after this it is
enough that the vague duty and obligation I had felt upon me from the first of
following the investigation was without my distinctly daring to ask myself any
question increased and that I was indignantly sure of there being no
possibility of a reason for my being afraid
We three went out of the prison and walked up and down at some short
distance from the gate which was in a retired place We had not waited long
when Mr and Mrs Bagnet came out too and quickly joined us
There was a tear in each of Mrs Bagnets eyes and her face was flushed and
hurried »I didnt let George see what I thought about it you know miss« was
her first remark when she came up »but hes in a bad way poor old fellow«
»Not with care and prudence and good help« said my guardian
»A gentleman like you ought to know best sir« returned Mrs Bagnet
hurriedly drying her eyes on the hem of her grey cloak »but I am uneasy for
him He has been so careless and said so much that he never meant The
gentlemen of the juries might not understand him as Lignum and me do And then
such a number of circumstances have happened bad for him and such a number of
people will be brought forward to speak against him and Bucket is so deep«
»With a secondhand wiolinceller And said he played the fife When a boy«
Mr Bagnet added with great solemnity
»Now I tell you miss« said Mrs Bagnet »and when I say miss I mean all
Just come into the corner of the wall and Ill tell you«
Mrs Bagnet hurried us into a more secluded place and was at first too
breathless to proceed occasioning Mr Bagnet to say »Old girl Tell em«
»Why then miss« the old girl proceeded untying the strings of her bonnet
for more air »you could as soon move Dover Castle as move George on this point
unless you had got a new power to move him with And I have got it«
»You are a jewel of a woman« said my guardian »Go on«
»Now I tell you miss« she proceeded clapping her hands in her hurry and
agitation a dozen times in every sentence »that what he says concerning no
relations is all bosh They dont know of him but he does know of them He has
said more to me at odd times than to anybody else and it warnt for nothing
that he once spoke to my Woolwich about whitening and wrinkling mothers heads
For fifty pounds he had seen his mother that day Shes alive and must be
brought here straight«
Instantly Mrs Bagnet put some pins into her mouth and began pinning up her
skirts all round a little higher than the level of her grey cloak which she
accomplished with surpassing despatch and dexterity
»Lignum« said Mrs Bagnet »you take care of the children old man and
give me the umbrella Im away to Lincolnshire to bring that old lady here«
»But bless the woman« cried my guardian with his hand in his pocket »how
is she going What money has she got«
Mrs Bagnet made another application to her skirts and brought forth a
leathern purse in which she hastily counted over a few shillings and which she
then shut up with perfect satisfaction
»Never you mind for me miss Im a soldiers wife and accustomed to travel
my own way Lignum old boy« kissing him »one for yourself three for the
children Now Im away into Lincolnshire after Georges mother«
And she actually set off while we three stood looking at one another lost in
amazement She actually trudged away in her grey cloak at a sturdy pace and
turned the corner and was gone
»Mr Bagnet« said my guardian »Do you mean to let her go in that way«
»Cant help it« he returned »Made her way home once From another quarter
of the world With the same grey cloak And same umbrella Whatever the old girl
says do Do it Whenever the old girl says Ill do it She does it«
»Then she is as honest and genuine as she looks« rejoined my guardian »and
it is impossible to say more for her«
»Shes ColourSerjeant of the Nonpareil battalion« said Mr Bagnet looking
at us over his shoulder as he went his way also »And theres not such another
But I never own to it before her Discipline must be maintained«
Chapter LIII
The Track
Mr Bucket and his fat forefinger are much in consultation together under
existing circumstances When Mr Bucket has a matter of this pressing
interestunder his consideration the fat forefinger seems to rise to the
dignity of a familiar demon He puts it to his ears and it whispers
information he puts it to his lips and it enjoins him to secrecy he rubs it
over his nose and it sharpens his scent he shakes it before a guilty man and
it charms him to destruction The Augurs of the Detective Temple invariably
predict that when Mr Bucket and that finger are in much conference a terrible
avenger will be heard of before long
Otherwise mildly studious in his observation of human nature on the whole a
benignant philosopher not disposed to be severe upon the follies of mankind Mr
Bucket pervades a vast number of houses and strolls about an infinity of
streets to outward appearance rather languishing for want of an object. He is
in the friendliest condition towards his species and will drink with most of
them He is free with his money affable in his manners innocent in his
conversation but through the placid stream of his life there glides an
undercurrent of forefinger
Time and place cannot bind Mr Bucket Like man in the abstract, he is here
today and gone tomorrow but very unlike man indeed he is here again the
next day This evening he will be casually looking into the iron extinguishers
at the door of Sir Leicester Dedlocks house in town and tomorrow morning he
will be walking on the leads at Chesney Wold where erst the old man walked
whose ghost is propitiated with a hundred guineas Drawers desks pockets all
things belonging to him Mr Bucket examines A few hours afterwards he and the
Roman will be alone together comparing forefingers
It is likely that these occupations are irreconcilable with home enjoyment
but it is certain that Mr Bucket at present does not go home Though in general
he highly appreciates the society of Mrs Bucket a lady of a natural detective
genius which if it had been improved by professional exercise might have done
great things but which has paused at the level of a clever amateur he holds
himself aloof from that dear solace Mrs Bucket is dependent on their lodger
fortunately an amiable lady in whom she takes an interest for companionship
and conversation
A great crowd assembles in Lincolns Inn Fields on the day of the funeral
Sir Leicester Dedlock attends the ceremony in person strictly speaking there
are only three other human followers that is to say Lord Doodle William
Buffy and the debilitated cousin thrown in as a makeweight but the amount
of inconsolable carriages is immense The Peerage contributes more fourwheeled
affliction than has ever been seen in that neighbourhood Such is the assemblage
of armorial bearings on coach panels that the Heralds College might be
supposed to have lost its father and mother at a blow The Duke of Foodle sends
a splendid pile of dust and ashes with silver wheelboxes patent axles all
the last improvements and three bereaved worms six feet high holding on
behind in a bunch of woe All the state coachmen in London seem plunged into
mourning and if that dead old man of the rusty garb be hot beyond a taste in
horseflesh which appears impossible it must be highly gratified this day
Quiet among the undertakers and the equipages and the calves of so many
legs all steeped in grief Mr Bucket sits concealed in one of the inconsolable
carriages and at his ease surveys the crowd through the lattice blinds He has
a keen eye for a crowd as for what not and looking here and there now from
this side of the carriage now from the other now up at the house windows now
along the peoples heads nothing escapes him
»And there you are my partner eh« says Mr Bucket to himself
apostrophising Mrs Bucket stationed by his favour on the steps of the
deceaseds house »And so you are And so you are And very well indeed you are
looking Mrs Bucket«
The procession has not started yet but is waiting for the cause of its
assemblage to be brought out Mr Bucket in the foremost emblazoned carriage
uses his two fat forefingers to hold the lattice a hairs breadth open while he
looks
And it says a great deal for his attachment as a husband that he is still
occupied with Mrs B »There you are my partner eh« he murmuringly repeats
»And our lodger with you Im taking notice of you Mrs Bucket I hope youre
all right in your health my dear«
Not another word does Mr Bucket say but sits with most attentive eyes
until the sacked depository of noble secrets is brought down Where are all
those secrets now Does he keep them yet Did they fly with him on that sudden
journey and until the procession moves and Mr Buckets view is changed
After which he composes himself for an easy ride and takes note of the fittings
of the carriage in case he should ever find such knowledge useful
Contrast enough between Mr Tulkinghorn shut up in his dark carriage and
Mr Bucket shut up in his Between the immeasurable track of space beyond the
little wound that has thrown the one into the fixed sleep which jolts so heavily
over the stones of the streets and the narrow track of blood which keeps the
other in the watchful state expressed in every hair of his head But it is all
one to both neither is troubled about that
Mr Bucket sits out the procession in his own easy manner and glides from
the carriage when the opportunity he has settled with himself arrives He makes
for Sir Leicester Dedlocks which is at present a sort of home to him where he
comes and goes as he likes at all hours where he is always welcome and made
much of where he knows the whole establishment and walks in an atmosphere of
mysterious greatness
No knocking or ringing for Mr Bucket He has caused himself to be provided
with a key and can pass in at his pleasure As he is crossing the hall Mercury
informs him »Heres another letter for you Mr Bucket come by post« and
gives it him
»Another one eh« says Mr Bucket
If Mercury should chance to be possessed by any lingering curiosity as to
Mr Buckets letters that wary person is not the man to gratify it Mr Bucket
looks at him as if his face were a vista of some miles in length and he were
leisurely contemplating the same
»Do you happen to carry a box« says Mr Bucket
Unfortunately Mercury is no snufftaker
»Could you fetch me a pinch from anywheres« says Mr Bucket »Thankee It
dont matter what it is Im not particular as to the kind Thankee«
Having leisurely helped himself from a canister borrowed from somebody
downstairs for the purpose and having made a considerable show of tasting it
first with one side of his nose and then with the other Mr Bucket with much
deliberation pronounces it of the right sort and goes on letter in hand
Now although Mr Bucket walks upstairs to the little library within the
larger one with the face of a man who receives some scores of letters every
day it happens that much correspondence is not incidental to his life He is no
great scribe rather handling his pen like the pocketstaff he carries about
with him always convenient to his grasp and discourages correspondence with
himself in others as being too artless and direct a way of doing delicate
business Further he often sees damaging letters produced in evidence and has
occasion to reflect that it was a green thing to write them For these reasons
he has very little to do with letters either as sender or receiver And yet he
has received a round halfdozen within the last twentyfour hours
»And this« says Mr Bucket spreading it out on the table »is in the same
hand and consists of the same two words«
What two words
He turns the key in the door ungirdles his black pocketbook book of fate
to many lays another letter by it and reads boldly written in each LADY
DEDLOCK
»Yes yes« says Mr Bucket »But I could have made the money without this
anonymous information«
Having put the letters in his book of Fate and girdled it up again he
unlocks the door just in time to admit his dinner which is brought upon a
goodly tray with a decanter of sherry Mr Bucket frequently observes in
friendly circles where there is no restraint that he likes a toothful of your
fine old brown East Inder sherry better than anything you can offer him
Consequently he fills and empties his glass with a smack of his lips and is
proceeding with his refreshment when an idea enters his mind
Mr Bucket softly opens the door of communication between that room and the
next and looks in The library is deserted and the fire is sinking low Mr
Buckets eye after taking a pigeonflight round the room alights upon a table
where letters are usually put as they arrive Several letters for Sir Leicester
are upon it Mr Bucket draws near and examines the directions »No« he says
»theres none in that hand Its only me as is written to I can break it to Sir
Leicester Dedlock Baronet tomorrow«
With that he returns to finish his dinner with a good appetite and after a
light nap is summoned into the drawingroom Sir Leicester has received him
there these several evenings past to know whether he has anything to report
The debilitated cousin much exhausted by the funeral and Volumnia are in
attendance
Mr Bucket makes three distinctly different bows to these three people A
bow of homage to Sir Leicester a bow of gallantry to Volumnia and a bow of
recognition to the debilitated cousin to whom it airily says »You are a swell
about town and you know me and I know you« Having distributed these little
specimens of his tact Mr Bucket rubs his hands
»Have you anything new to communicate officer« inquires Sir Leicester »Do
you wish to hold any conversation with me in private«
»Why not tonight Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet«
»Because my time« pursues Sir Leicester »is wholly at your disposal with
a view to the vindication of the outraged majesty of the law«
Mr Bucket coughs and glances at Volumnia rouged and necklaced as though
he would respectfully observe »I do assure you youre a pretty creetur Ive
seen hundreds worselooking at your time of life I have indeed«
The fair Volumnia not quite unconscious perhaps of the humanising influence
of her charms pauses in the writing of cockedhat notes and meditatively
adjusts the pearl necklace Mr Bucket prices that decoration in his mind and
thinks it as likely as not that Volumnia is writing poetry
»If I have not« pursues Sir Leicester »in the most emphatic manner
adjured you officer to exercise your utmost skill in this atrocious case I
particularly desire to take the present opportunity of rectifying any omission I
may have made Let no expense be a consideration I am prepared to defray all
charges You can incur none in pursuit of the object you have undertaken that
I shall hesitate for a moment to bear«
Mr Bucket made Sir Leicesters bow again as a response to this liberality
»My mind« Sir Leicester adds with generous warmth »has not as may be
easily supposed recovered its tone since the late diabolical occurrence It is
not likely ever to recover its tone But it is full of indignation tonight
after undergoing the ordeal of consigning to the tomb the remains of a faithful
a zealous a devoted adherent«
Sir Leicesters voice trembles and his grey hair stirs upon his head Tears
are in his eyes the best part of his nature is aroused
»I declare« he says »I solemnly declare that until this crime is
discovered and in the course of justice punished I almost feel as if there
were a stain upon my name A gentleman who has devoted a large portion of his
life to me a gentleman who has devoted the last day of his life to me a
gentleman who has constantly sat at my table and slept under my roof goes from
my house to his own and is struck down within an hour of his leaving my house
I cannot say but that he may have been followed from my house watched at my
house even first marked because of his association with my house which may
have suggested his possessing greater wealth and being altogether of greater
importance than his own retiring demeanour would have indicated If I cannot
with my means and influence and my position bring all the perpetrators of such
a crime to light I fail in the assertion of my respect for that gentlemans
memory and of my fidelity towards one who was ever faithful to me«
While he makes this protestation with great emotion and earnestness looking
round the room as if he were addressing an assembly Mr Bucket glances at him
with an observant gravity in which there might be but for the audacity of the
thought a touch of compassion
»The ceremony of today« continues Sir Leicester »strikingly illustrative
of the respect in which my deceased friend« he lays a stress upon the word for
death levels all distinctions »was held by the flower of the land has I say
aggravated the shock I have received from this most horrible and audacious
crime If it were my brother who had committed it I would not spare him«
Mr Bucket looks very grave Volumnia remarks of the deceased that he was
the trustiest and dearest person
»You must feel it as a deprivation to you miss« replies Mr Bucket
soothingly »no doubt He was calculated to be a deprivation Im sure he was«
Volumnia gives Mr Bucket to understand in reply that her sensitive mind
is fully made up never to get the better of it as long as she lives that her
nerves are unstrung for ever and that she has not the least expectation of ever
smiling again Meanwhile she folds up a cocked hat for that redoubtable old
general at Bath descriptive of her melancholy condition
»It gives a start to a delicate female« says Mr Bucket sympathetically
»but itll wear off«
Volumnia wishes of all things to know what is doing Whether they are going
to convict or whatever it is that dreadful soldier Whether he had any
accomplices or whatever the thing is called in the law And a great deal more
to the like artless purpose
»Why you see miss« returns Mr Bucket bringing the finger into persuasive
action and such is his natural gallantry that he had almost said my dear
»it aint easy to answer those questions at the present moment Not at the
present moment Ive kept myself on this case Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet«
whom Mr Bucket takes into the conversation in right of his importance
»morning noon and night But for a glass or two of sherry I dont think I
could have had my mind so much upon the stretch as it has been I could answer
your questions miss but duty forbids it Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet will
very soon be made acquainted with all that has been traced And I hope that he
may find it« Mr Bucket again looks grave »to his satisfaction«
The debilitated cousin only hopes some flerll be executed zample Thinks
more interests wanted get man hanged presentime than get man place ten
thousand a year Hasnt a doubt zample far better hang wrong fler than no
fler
»You know life you know sir« says Mr Bucket with a complimentary
twinkle of his eye and crook of his finger »and you can confirm what Ive
mentioned to this lady You dont want to be told that from information I have
received I have gone to work Youre up to what a lady cant be expected to be
up to Lord especially in your elevated station of society miss« says Mr
Bucket quite reddening at another narrow escape from my dear
»The officer Volumnia« observes Sir Leicester »is faithful to his duty
and perfectly right«
Mr Bucket murmurs »Glad to have the honour of your approbation Sir
Leicester Dedlock Baronet«
»In fact Volumnia« proceeds Sir Leicester »it is not holding up a good
model for imitation to ask the officer any such questions as you have put to
him He is the best judge of his own responsibility he acts upon his
responsibility And it does not become us who assist in making the laws, to
impede or interfere with those who carry them into execution Or« says Sir
Leicester somewhat sternly for Volumnia was going to cut in before he had
rounded his sentence »or who vindicate their outraged majesty«
Volumnia with all humility explains that she has not merely the plea of
curiosity to urge in common with the giddy youth of her sex in general but
that she is perfectly dying with regret and interest for the darling man whose
loss they all deplore
»Very well Volumnia« returns Sir Leicester »Then you cannot be too
discreet«
Mr Bucket takes the opportunity of a pause to be heard again
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet I have no objections to telling this lady
with your leave and among ourselves that I look upon the case as pretty well
complete It is a beautiful case a beautiful case and what little is wanting
to complete it I expect to be able to supply in a few hours«
»I am very glad indeed to hear it« says Sir Leicester »Highly creditable
to you«
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet« returns Mr Bucket very seriously »I
hope it may at one and the same time do me credit and prove satisfactory to
all When I depict it as a beautiful case you see miss« Mr Bucket goes on
glancing gravely at Sir Leicester »I mean from my point of view As considered
from other points of view such cases will always involve more or less
unpleasantness Very strange things comes to our knowledge in families miss
bless your heart what you would think to be phenomenons quite«
Volumnia with her innocent little scream supposes so
»Aye and even in genteel families in high families in great families«
says Mr Bucket again gravely eyeing Sir Leicester aside »I have had the
honour of being employed in high families before and you have no idea come
Ill go so far as to say not even you have any idea sir« this to the
debilitated cousin »what games goes on«
The cousin who has been casting sofapillows on his head in a prostration
of boredom yawns Vayli being the usedup for very likely
Sir Leicester deeming it time to dismiss the officer here majestically
interposes with the words Very good Thank you and also with a wave of his
hand implying not only that there is an end of the discourse but that if high
families fall into low habits they must take the consequences »You will not
forget officer« he added with condescension »that I am at your disposal when
you please«
Mr Bucket still grave inquires if tomorrow morning now would suit in
case he should be as forard as he expects to be Sir Leicester replies »All
times are alike to me« Mr Bucket makes his three bows and is withdrawing
when a forgotten point occurs to him
»Might I ask bythebye« he says in a low voice cautiously returning
»who posted the Rewardbill on the staircase«
»I ordered it to be put up there« replies Sir Leicester
»Would it be considered a liberty Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet if I was
to ask you why«
»Not at all I chose it as a conspicuous part of the house I think it
cannot be too prominently kept before the whole establishment I wish my people
to be impressed with the enormity of the crime the determination to punish it
and the hopelessness of escape At the same time officer if you in your better
knowledge of the subject see any objection «
Mr Bucket sees none now the bill having been put up had better not be
taken down Repeating his three bows he withdraws closing the door on
Volumnias little scream which is a preliminary to her remarking that that
charmingly horrible person is a perfect Blue Chamber
In his fondness for society and his adaptability to all grades Mr Bucket
is presently standing before the hallfire bright and warm on the early winter
night admiring Mercury
»Why youre six foot two I suppose« says Mr Bucket
»Three« says Mercury
»Are you so much But then you see youre broad in proportion and dont
look it Youre not one of the weaklegged ones you aint Was you ever
modelled now« Mr Bucket asks conveying the expression of an artist into the
turn of his eye and head
Mercury never was modelled
»Then you ought to be you know« says Mr Bucket »and a friend of mine
that youll hear of one day as a Royal Academy Sculptor would stand something
handsome to make a drawing of your proportions for the marble My Ladys out
aint she«
»Out to dinner«
»Goes out pretty well every day dont she«
»Yes«
»Not to be wondered at« says Mr Bucket »Such a fine woman as her so
handsome and so graceful and so elegant is like a fresh lemon on a
dinnertable ornamental wherever she goes Was your father in the same way of
life as yourself«
Answer in the negative.
»Mine was« says Mr Bucket »My father was first a page then a footman
then a butler then a steward then an innkeeper Lived universally respected
and died lamented Said with his last breath that he considered service the most
honourable port of his career and so it was Ive a brother in service and a
brotherinlaw My Lady a good temper«
Mercury replies »As good as you can expect«
»Ah« says Mr Bucket »a little spoilt A little capricious Lord What can
you anticipate when theyre so handsome as that And we like em all the better
for it dont we«
Mercury with his hands in the pockets of his bright peachblossom
smallclothes stretches his symmetrical silk legs with the air of a man of
gallantry and cant deny it Come the roll of wheels and a violent ringing at
the bell »Talk of the angels« says Mr Bucket »Here she is«
The doors are thrown open and she passes through the hall Still very pale
she is dressed in slight mourning and wears two beautiful bracelets Either
their beauty or the beauty of her arms is particularly attractive to Mr
Bucket He looks at them with an eager eye and rattles something in his pocket
halfpence perhaps
Noticing him at his distance she turns an inquiring look on the other
Mercury who has brought her home
»Mr Bucket my Lady«
Mr Bucket makes a leg and comes forward passing his familiar demon over
the region of his mouth
»Are you waiting to see Sir Leicester«
»No my Lady Ive seen him«
»Have you anything to say to me«
»Not just at present my Lady«
»Have you made any new discoveries«
»A few my Lady«
This is merely in passing She scarcely makes a stop and sweeps upstairs
alone Mr Bucket moving towards the staircasefoot watches her as she goes up
the steps the old man came down to his grave past murderous groups of statuary
repeated with their shadowy weapons on the wall past the printed bill which
she looks at going by out of view
»Shes a lovely woman too she really is« says Mr Bucket coming back to
Mercury »Dont look quite healthy though«
Is not quite healthy Mercury informs him Suffers much from headaches
Really Thats a pity Walking Mr Bucket would recommend for that Well
she tries walking Mercury rejoins Walks sometimes for two hours when she has
them bad By night too
»Are you sure youre quite so much as six foot three« asks Mr Bucket
»begging your pardon for interrupting you a moment«
Not a doubt about it
»Youre so well put together that I shouldnt have thought it But the
household troops though considered fine men are built so straggling Walks
by night does she When its moonlight though«
O yes When its moonlight Of course O of course Conversational and
acquiescent on both sides
»I suppose you aint in the habit of walking yourself« says Mr Bucket
»Not much time for it I should say«
Besides which Mercury dont like it Prefers carriage exercise
»To be sure« says Mr Bucket »That makes a difference Now I think of it«
says Mr Bucket warming his hands and looking pleasantly at the blaze »she
went out walking the very night of this business«
»To be sure she did I let her into the garden over the way«
»And left her there Certainly you did I saw you doing it«
»I didnt see you« says Mercury
»I was rather in a hurry« returns Mr Bucket »for I was going to visit a
aunt of mine that lives at Chelsea next door but two to the old original Bun
House ninety year old the old lady is a single woman and got a little
property Yes I chanced to be passing at the time Lets see What time might
it be It wasnt ten«
»Halfpast nine«
»Youre right So it was And if I dont deceive myself my Lady was muffled
in a loose black mantle with a deep fringe to it«
»Of course she was«
Of course she was Mr Bucket must return to a little work he has to get on
with upstairs but he must shake hands with Mercury in acknowledgment of his
agreeable conversation and will he this is all he asks will he when he has
a leisure halfhour think of bestowing it on that Royal Academy sculptor for
the advantage of both parties
Chapter LIV
Springing a Mine
Refreshed by sleep Mr Bucket rises betimes in the morning and prepares for a
fieldday Smartened up by the aid of a clean shirt and a wet hairbrush with
which instrument on occasions of ceremony he lubricates such thin locks as
remain to him after his life of severe study Mr Bucket lays in a breakfast of
two mutton chops as a foundation to work upon together with tea eggs toast
and marmalade on a corresponding scale Having much enjoyed these strengthening
matters and having held subtle conference with his familiar demon he
confidently instructs Mercury »just to mention quietly to Sir Leicester Dedlock
Baronet that whenever hes ready for me Im ready for him« A gracious message
being returned that Sir Leicester will expedite his dressing and join Mr
Bucket in the library within ten minutes Mr Bucket repairs to that apartment
and stands before the fire with his finger on his chin looking at the blazing
coals
Thoughtful Mr Bucket is as a man may be with weighty work to do but
composed sure confident From the expression of his face he might be a famous
whistplayer for a large stake say a hundred guineas certain with the game
in his hand but with a high reputation involved in his playing his hand out to
the last card in a masterly way Not in the least anxious or disturbed is Mr
Bucket when Sir Leicester appears but he eyes the baronet aside as he comes
slowly to his easychair with that observant gravity of yesterday in which
there might have been yesterday but for the audacity of the idea a touch of
compassion
»I am sorry to have kept you waiting officer but I am rather later than my
usual hour this morning I am not well The agitation and the indignation from
which I have recently suffered have been too much for me I am subject to
gout« Sir Leicester was going to say indisposition and would have said it to
anybody else but Mr Bucket palpably knows all about it and recent
circumstances have brought it on
As he takes his seat with some difficulty and with an air of pain Mr
Bucket draws a little nearer standing with one of his large hands on the
librarytable
»I am not aware officer« Sir Leicester observes raising his eyes to his
face »whether you wish us to be alone but that is entirely as you please If
you do well and good If not Miss Dedlock would be interested «
»Why Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet« returns Mr Bucket with his head
persuasively on one side and his forefinger pendant at one ear like an
earring »we cant be too private just at present You will presently see that
we cant be too private A lady under the circumstances and especially in Miss
Dedlocks elevated station of society cant but be agreeable to me but
speaking without a view to myself I will take the liberty of assuring you that
I know we cant be too private«
»That is enough«
»So much so Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet« Mr Bucket resumes »that I
was on the point of asking your permission to turn the key in the door«
»By all means« Mr Bucket skilfully and softly takes that precaution
stooping on his knee for a moment from mere force of habit so to adjust the
key in the lock as that no one shall peep in from the outer side
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet I mentioned yesterday evening that I
wanted but a very little to complete this case I have now completed it and
collected proof against the person who did this crime«
»Against the soldier«
»No Sir Leicester Dedlock not the soldier«
Sir Leicester looks astounded and inquires »Is the man in custody«
Mr Bucket tells him after a pause »It was a woman«
Sir Leicester leans back in his chair and breathlessly ejaculates »Good
Heaven«
»Now Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet« Mr Bucket begins standing over him
with one hand spread out on the librarytable and the forefinger of the other
in impressive use »its my duty to prepare you for a train of circumstances
that may and I go so far as to say that will give you a shock But Sir
Leicester Dedlock Baronet you are a gentleman and I know what a gentleman is
and what a gentleman is capable of A gentleman can bear a shock when it must
come boldly and steadily A gentleman can make up his mind to stand up against
almost any blow Why take yourself Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet If theres
a blow to be inflicted on you you naturally think of your family You ask
yourself how would all them ancestors of yours away to Julius Caesar not to
go beyond him at present have borne that blow you remember scores of them
that would have borne it well and you bear it well on their accounts and to
maintain the family credit Thats the way you argue and thats the way you
act Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet«
Sir Leicester leaning back in his chair and grasping the elbows sits
looking at him with a stony face
»Now Sir Leicester Dedlock« proceeds Mr Bucket »thus preparing you let
me beg of you not to trouble your mind for a moment as to anything having come
to my knowledge I know so much about so many characters high and low that a
piece of information more or less dont signify a straw I dont suppose
theres a move on the board that would surprise me and as to this or that move
having taken place why my knowing it is no odds at all any possible move
whatever provided its in a wrong direction being a probable move according to
my experience Therefore what I say to you Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet is
dont you go and let yourself be put out of the way because of my knowing
anything of your family affairs«
»I thank you for your preparation« returns Sir Leicester after a silence
without moving hand foot or feature »which I hope is not necessary though I
give it credit for being well intended Be so good as to go on Also« Sir
Leicester seems to shrink in the shadow of his figure »also to take a seat if
you have no objection«
None at all Mr Bucket brings a chair and diminishes his shadow »Now Sir
Leicester Dedlock Baronet with this short preface I come to the point Lady
Dedlock «
Sir Leicester raises himself in his seat and stares at him fiercely Mr
Bucket brings the finger into play as an emollient
»Lady Dedlock you see shes universally admired Thats what her Ladyship
is shes universally admired« says Mr Bucket
»I would greatly prefer officer« Sir Leicester returns stiffly »my
Ladys name being entirely omitted from this discussion«
»So would I Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet but its impossible«
»Impossible«
Mr Bucket shakes his relentless head
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet its altogether impossible What I have got
to say is about her Ladyship She is the pivot it all turns on«
»Officer« retorts Sir Leicester with a fiery eye and a quivering lip
»you know your duty Do your duty but be careful not to overstep it I would
not suffer it I would not endure it You bring my Ladys name into this
communication upon your responsibility upon your responsibility My Ladys
name is not a name for common persons to trifle with«
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet I say what I must say and no more«
»I hope it may prove so Very well Go on Go on sir«
Glancing at the angry eyes which now avoid him and at the angry figure
trembling from head to foot yet striving to be still Mr Bucket feels his way
with his forefinger and in a low voice proceeds
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet it becomes my duty to tell you that the
deceased Mr Tulkinghorn long entertained mistrusts and suspicions of Lady
Dedlock«
»If he had dared to breathe them to me sir which he never did I would
have killed him myself« exclaims Sir Leicester striking his hand upon the
table But in the very heat and fury of the act he stops fixed by the knowing
eyes of Mr Bucket whose forefinger is slowly going and who with mingled
confidence and patience shakes his head
»Sir Leicester Dedlock the deceased Mr Tulkinghorn was deep and close and
what he fully had in his mind in the very beginning I cant quite take upon
myself to say But I know from his lips that he long ago suspected Lady Dedlock
of having discovered through the sight of some handwriting in this very
house and when you yourself Sir Leicester Dedlock were present the
existence, in great poverty of a certain person who had been her lover before
you courted her and who ought to have been her husband« Mr Bucket stops and
deliberately repeats »ought to have been her husband not a doubt about it I
know from his lips that when that person soon afterwards died he suspected
Lady Dedlock of visiting his wretched lodging and his wretched grave alone and
in secret I know from my own inquiries and through my eyes and ears that Lady
Dedlock did make such visit in the dress of her own maid for the deceased Mr
Tulkinghorn employed me to reckon up her Ladyship if youll excuse my making
use of the term we commonly employ and I reckoned her up so far completely
I confronted the maid in the chambers in Lincolns Inn Fields with a witness
who had been Lady Dedlocks guide and there couldnt be the shadow of a doubt
that she had worn the young womans dress unknown to her Sir Leicester
Dedlock Baronet I did endeavour to pave the way a little towards these
unpleasant disclosures yesterday by saying that very strange things happened
even in high families sometimes All this and more has happened in your own
family and to and through your own Lady Its my belief that the deceased Mr
Tulkinghorn followed up these inquiries to the hour of his death and that he
and Lady Dedlock even had bad blood between them upon the matter that very
night Now only you put that to Lady Dedlock Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet
and ask her Ladyship whether even after he had left here she didnt go down to
his chambers with the intention of saying something further to him dressed in a
loose black mantle with a deep fringe to it«
Sir Leicester sits like a statue gazing at the cruel finger that is probing
the lifeblood of his heart
»You put that to her Ladyship Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet from me
Inspector Bucket of the Detective And if her Ladyship makes any difficulty
about admitting of it you tell her that its no use that Inspector Bucket
knows it and knows that she passed the soldier as you called him though hes
not in the army now and knows that she knows she passed him on the staircase
Now Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet why do I relate all this«
Sir Leicester who has covered his face with his hands uttering a single
groan requests him to pause for a moment Byandby he takes his hands away
and so preserves his dignity and outward calmness though there is no more
colour in his face than in his white hair that Mr Bucket is a little awed by
him Something frozen and fixed is upon his manner over and above its usual
shell of haughtiness and Mr Bucket soon detects an unusual slowness in his
speech with now and then a curious trouble in beginning which occasions him to
utter inarticulate sounds With such sounds he now breaks silence soon
however controlling himself to say that he does not comprehend why a gentleman
so faithful and zealous as the late Mr Tulkinghorn should have communicated to
him nothing of this painful this distressing this unlookedfor this
overwhelming this incredible intelligence
»Again Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet« returns Mr Bucket »put it to her
Ladyship to clear that up Put it to her Ladyship if you think it right from
Inspector Bucket of the Detective Youll find or Im much mistaken that the
deceased Mr Tulkinghorn had the intention of communicating the whole to you as
soon as he considered it ripe and further that he had given her Ladyship so to
understand Why he might have been going to reveal it the very morning when I
examined the body You dont know what Im going to say and do five minutes
from this present time Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet and supposing I was to
be picked off now you might wonder why I hadnt done it dont you see«
True Sir Leicester avoiding with some trouble those obtrusive sounds
says »True« At this juncture a considerable noise of voices is heard in the
hall Mr Bucket after listening goes to the librarydoor softly unlocks and
opens it and listens again Then he draws in his head and whispers hurriedly
but composedly »Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet this unfortunate family affair
has taken air as I expected it might the deceased Mr Tulkinghorn being cut
down so sudden The chance to hush it is to let in these people now in a
wrangle with your footmen Would you mind sitting quiet on the family account
while I reckon em up And would you just throw in a nod when I seem to ask
you for it«
Sir Leicester indistinctly answers »Officer The best you can the best you
can« and Mr Bucket with a nod and a sagacious crook of the forefinger slips
down into the hall where the voices quickly die away He is not long in
returning a few paces ahead of Mercury and a brother deity also powdered and
in peachblossomed smalls who bear between them a chair in which is an
incapable old man Another man and two women come behind Directing the pitching
of the chair in an affable and easy manner Mr Bucket dismisses the Mercuries
and locks the door again Sir Leicester looks on at this invasion of the sacred
precincts with an icy stare
»Now perhaps you may know me ladies and gentlemen« says Mr Bucket in a
confidential voice »I am Inspector Bucket of the Detective I am and this«
producing the tip of his convenient little staff from his breastpocket »is my
authority Now you wanted to see Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet Well You do
see him and mind you it aint every one as is admitted to that honour Your
name old gentleman is Smallweed thats what your name is I know it well«
»Well and you never heard any harm of it« cries Mr Smallweed in a shrill
loud voice
»You dont happen to know why they killed the pig do you« retorts Mr
Bucket with a steadfast look but without loss of temper
»No«
»Why they killed him« says Mr Bucket »on account of his having so much
cheek Dont you get into the same position because it isnt worthy of you You
aint in the habit of conversing with a deaf person are you«
»Yes« snarls Mr Smallweed »my wifes deaf«
»That accounts for your pitching your voice so high But as she aint here
just pitch it an octave or two lower will you and Ill not only be obliged to
you but itll do you more credit« says Mr Bucket »This other gentleman is in
the preaching line I think«
»Name of Chadband« Mr Smallweed puts in speaking henceforth in a much
lower key
»Once had a friend and brother serjeant of the same name« says Mr Bucket
offering his hand »and consequently feel a liking for it Mrs Chadband no
doubt«
»And Mrs Snagsby« Mr Smallweed introduces
»Husband a law-stationer and a friend of my own« says Mr Bucket »Love
him like a brother Now whats up«
»Do you mean what business have we come upon« Mr Smallweed asks a little
dashed by the suddenness of this turn
»Ah You know what I mean Let us hear what its all about in presence of
Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet Come«
Mr Smallweed beckoning Mr Chadband takes a moments counsel with him in
a whisper Mr Chadband expressing a considerable amount of oil from the pores
of his forehead and the palms of his hands says aloud »Yes You first« and
retires to his former place
»I was the client and friend of Mr Tulkinghorn« pipes Grandfather
Smallweed then »I did business with him I was useful to him and he was
useful to me Krook dead and gone was my brotherinlaw He was own brother to
a brimstone magpie leastways Mrs Smallweed I come into Krooks property I
examined all his papers and all his effects They was all dug out under my eyes
There was a bundle of letters belonging to a dead and gone lodger as was hid
away at the back of a shelf in the side of Lady Janes bed his cats bed He
hid all manner of things away everywheres Mr Tulkinghorn wanted em and got
em but I looked em over first Im a man of business and I took a squint at
em They was letters from the lodgers sweetheart and she signed Honoria Dear
me thats not a common name Honoria is it Theres no lady in this house that
signs Honoria is there O no I dont think so O no I dont think so And not
in the same hand perhaps O no I dont think so«
Here Mr Smallweed seized with a fit of coughing in the midst of his
triumph breaks off to ejaculate »O dear me O Lord Im shaken all to pieces«
»Now when youre ready« says Mr Bucket after awaiting his recovery »to
come to anything that concerns Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet here the
gentleman sits you know«
»Havent I come to it Mr Bucket« cries Grandfather Smallweed »Isnt the
gentleman concerned yet Not with Captain Hawdon and his ever affectionate
Honoria and their child into the bargain Come then I want to know where
those letters are That concerns me if it dont concern Sir Leicester Dedlock
I will know where they are I wont have em disappear so quietly I handed em
over to my friend and solicitor Mr Tulkinghorn not to anybody else«
»Why he paid you for them you know and handsome too« says Mr Bucket
»I dont care for that I want to know whos got em And I tell you what we
want what we all here want Mr Bucket We want more painstaking and
searchmaking into this murder We know where the interest and the motive was
and you have not done enough If George the vagabond dragoon had any hand in it
he was only an accomplice and was set on You know what I mean as well as any
man«
»Now I tell you what« says Mr Bucket instantaneously altering his manner
coming close to him and communicating an extraordinary fascination to the
forefinger »I am damned if I am agoing to have my case spoilt or interfered
with or anticipated by so much as half a second of time by any human being in
creation You want more painstaking and searchmaking You do Do you see this
hand and do you think that I dont know the right time to stretch it out and
put it on the arm that fired that shot«
Such is the dread power of the man and so terribly evident it is that he
makes no idle boast that Mr Smallweed begins to apologise Mr Bucket
dismissing his sudden anger checks him
»The advice I give you is dont you trouble your head about the murder
Thats my affair You keep half an eye on the newspapers and I shouldnt wonder
if you was to read something about it before long if you look sharp I know my
business and thats all Ive got to say to you on that subject Now about those
letters You want to know whos got em I dont mind telling you I have got
em Is that the packet«
Mr Smallweed looks with greedy eyes at the little bundle Mr Bucket
produces from a mysterious part of his coat and identifies it as the same
»What have you got to say next« asks Mr Bucket »Now dont open your
mouth too wide because you dont look handsome when you do it«
»I want five hundred pound«
»No you dont you mean fifty« says Mr Bucket humorously
It appears however that Mr Smallweed means five hundred
»That is I am deputed by Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet to consider
without admitting or promising anything this bit of business« says Mr
Bucket Sir Leicester mechanically bows his head »and you ask me to consider a
proposal of five hundred pounds Why its an unreasonable proposal Two fifty
would be bad enough but better than that Hadnt you better say two fifty«
Mr Smallweed is quite clear that he had better not
»Then« says Mr Bucket »lets hear Mr Chadband Lord Many a time Ive
heard my old fellowserjeant of that name and a moderate man he was in all
respects as ever I come across«
Thus invited Mr Chadband steps forth and after a little sleek smiling
and a little oilgrinding with the palms of his hands delivers himself as
follows
»My friends we are now Rachael my wife and I in the mansions of the
rich and great Why are we now in the mansions of the rich and great my
friends Is it because we are invited Because we are bidden to feast with them
because we are bidden to rejoice with them because we are bidden to play the
lute with them because we are bidden to dance with them No Then why are we
here my friends Air we in possession of a sinful secret and doe we require
corn and wine and oil or what is much the same thing money for the
keeping thereof Probably so my friends«
»Youre a man of business you are« returns Mr Bucket very attentive
»and consequently youre going on to mention what the nature of your secret is
You are right You couldnt do better«
»Let us then my brother in a spirit of love« says Mr Chadband with a
cunning eye »proceed untoe it Rachael my wife advance«
Mrs Chadband more than ready so advances as to jostle her husband into
the background and confronts Mr Bucket with a hard frowning smile
»Since you want to know what we know« says she »Ill tell you I helped to
bring up Miss Hawdon her Ladyships daughter I was in the service of her
Ladyships sister who was very sensitive to the disgrace her Ladyship brought
upon her and gave out even to her Ladyship that the child was dead she was
very nearly so when she was born But shes alive and I know her« With these
words and a laugh and laying a bitter stress on the word Ladyship Mrs
Chadband folds her arms and looks implacably at Mr Bucket
»I suppose now« returns that officer »you will be expecting a twentypound
note or a present of about that figure«
Mrs Chadband merely laughs and contemptuously tells him he can offer
twenty pence
»My friend the lawstationers good lady over there« says Mr Bucket
luring Mrs Snagsby forward with the finger »What may your game be maam«
Mrs Snagsby is at first prevented by tears and lamentations from stating
the nature of her game but by degrees it confusedly comes to light that she is
a woman overwhelmed with injuries and wrongs whom Mr Snagsby has habitually
deceived abandoned and sought to keep in darkness and whose chief comfort
under her afflictions has been the sympathy of the late Mr Tulkinghorn who
showed so much commiseration for her on one occasion of his calling in Cooks
Court in the absence of her perjured husband that she has of late habitually
carried to him all her woes Everybody it appears the present company excepted
has plotted against Mrs Snagsbys peace There is Mr Guppy clerk to Kenge and
Carboy who was at first as open as the sun at noon but who suddenly shut up as
close as midnight under the influence no doubt of Mr Snagsbys suborning
and tampering There is Mr Weevle friend of Mr Guppy who lived mysteriously
up a court owing to the like coherent causes There was Krook deceased there
was Nimrod deceased and there was Jo deceased and they were all in it In
what Mrs Snagsby does not with particularity express but she knows that Jo
was Mr Snagsbys son as well as if a trumpet had spoken it and she followed
Mr Snagsby when he went on his last visit to the boy and if he was not his son
why did he go The one occupation of her life has been for some time back to
follow Mr Snagsby to and fro and up and down and to piece suspicious
circumstances together and every circumstance that has happened has been most
suspicious and in this way she has pursued her object of detecting and
confounding her false husband night and day Thus did it come to pass that she
brought the Chadbands and Mr Tulkinghorn together and conferred with Mr
Tulkinghorn on the change in Mr Guppy and helped to turn up the circumstances
in which the present company are interested casually by the wayside being
still and ever on the great high road that is to terminate in Mr Snagsbys
full exposure and a matrimonial separation All this Mrs Snagsby as an
injured woman and the friend of Mrs Chadband and the follower of Mr
Chadband and the mourner of the late Mr Tulkinghorn is here to certify under
the seal of confidence with every possible confusion and involvement possible
and impossible having no pecuniary motive whatever no scheme or project but
the one mentioned and bringing here and taking everywhere her own dense
atmosphere of dust arising from the ceaseless working of her mill of jealousy
While this exordium is in hand and it takes some time Mr Bucket who
has seen through the transparency of Mrs Snagsbys vinegar at a glance confers
with his familiar demon and bestows his shrewd attention on the Chadbands and
Mr Smallweed Sir Leicester Dedlock remains immovable with the same icy
surface upon him except that he once or twice looks towards Mr Bucket as
relying on that officer alone of all mankind
»Very good« says Mr Bucket »Now I understand you you know and being
deputed by Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet to look into this little matter«
again Sir Leicester mechanically bows in confirmation of the statement »can
give it my fair and full attention Now I wont allude to conspiring to extort
money or anything of that sort because we are men and women of the world here
and our object is to make things pleasant But I tell you what I do wonder at I
am surprised that you should think of making a noise below in the hall It was
so opposed to your interests Thats what I look at«
»We wanted to get in« pleads Mr Smallweed
»Why of course you wanted to get in« Mr Bucket asserts with
cheerfulness »but for a old gentleman at your time of life what I call truly
venerable mind you with his wits sharpened as I have no doubt they are by
the loss of the use of his limbs which occasions all his animation to mount up
into his head not to consider that if he dont keep such a business as the
present as close as possible it cant be worth a mag to him is so curious You
see your temper got the better of you thats where you lost ground« says Mr
Bucket in an argumentative and friendly way
»I only said I wouldnt go without one of the servants came up to Sir
Leicester Dedlock« returns Mr Smallweed
»Thats it Thats where your temper got the better of you Now you keep it
under another time and youll make money by it Shall I ring for them to carry
you down«
»When are we to hear more of this« Mrs Chadband sternly demands
»Bless your heart for a true woman Always curious your delightful sex is«
replies Mr Bucket with gallantry »I shall have the pleasure of giving you a
call tomorrow or next day not forgetting Mr Smallweed and his proposal of
two fifty«
»Five hundred« exclaims Mr Smallweed
»All right Nominally five hundred« Mr Bucket has his hand on the
bellrope »shall I wish you good day for the present on the part of myself and
the gentleman of the house« he asks in an insinuating tone
Nobody having the hardihood to object to his doing so he does it and the
party retire as they came up Mr Bucket follows them to the door and
returning says with an air of serious business
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet its for you to consider whether or not to
buy this up I should recommend on the whole its being bought up myself and
I think it may be bought pretty cheap You see that little pickled cowcumber of
a Mrs Snagsby has been used by all sides of the speculation and has done a
deal more harm in bringing odds and ends together than if she had meant it Mr
Tulkinghorn deceased he held all these horses in his hand and could have
drove em his own way I havent a doubt but he was fetched off the box
headforemost and now they have got their legs over the traces and are all
dragging and pulling their own ways So it is and such is life The cats away
and the mice they play the frost breaks up and the water runs Now with
regard to the party to be apprehended«
Sir Leicester seems to wake though his eyes have been wide open and he
looks intently at Mr Bucket as Mr Bucket refers to his watch
»The party to be apprehended is now in this house« proceeds Mr Bucket
putting up his watch with a steady hand and with rising spirits »and Im about
to take her into custody in your presence Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet dont
you say a word nor yet stir Therell be no noise and no disturbance at all
Ill come back in the course of the evening if agreeable to you and endeavour
to meet your wishes respecting this unfortunate family matter and the nobbiest
way of keeping it quiet Now Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet dont you be
nervous on account of the apprehension at present coming off You shall see the
whole case clear from first to last«
Mr Bucket rings goes to the door briefly whispers Mercury shuts the
door and stands behind it with his arms folded After a suspense of a minute or
two the door slowly opens and a French woman enters Mademoiselle Hortense
The moment she is in the room Mr Bucket claps the door to and puts his
back against it The suddenness of the noise occasions her to turn and then
for the first time she sees Sir Leicester Dedlock in his chair
»I ask you pardon« she mutters hurriedly »They tell me there was no one
here«
Her step towards the door brings her front to front with Mr Bucket
Suddenly a spasm shoots across her face and she turns deadly pale
»This is my lodger Sir Leicester Dedlock« says Mr Bucket nodding at her
»This foreign young woman has been my lodger for some weeks back«
»What do Sir Leicester care for that you think my angel« returns
Mademoiselle in a jocular strain
»Why my angel« returns Mr Bucket »we shall see«
Mademoiselle Hortense eyes him with a scowl upon her tight face which
gradually changes into a smile of scorn »You are very mysterieuse Are you
drunk«
»Tolerable sober my angel« returns Mr Bucket
»I come from arriving at this so detestable house with your wife Your wife
have left me since some minutes They tell me downstairs that your wife is
here I come here and your wife is not here What is the intention of this
fools play say then« Mademoiselle demands with her arms composedly crossed
but with something in her dark cheek beating like a clock
Mr Bucket merely shakes the finger at her
»Ah my God you are an unhappy idiot« cries Mademoiselle with a toss of
her head and a laugh »Leave me to pass downstairs great pig« With a stamp
of her foot and a menace
»Now Mademoiselle« says Mr Bucket in a cool determined way »you go and
sit down upon that sofy«
»I will not sit down upon nothing« she replies with a shower of nods
»Now Mademoiselle« repeats Mr Bucket making no demonstration except
with the finger »you sit down upon that sofy«
»Why«
»Because I take you into custody on a charge of murder and you dont need
to be told it Now I want to be polite to one of your sex and a foreigner if I
can If I cant I must be rough and theres rougher ones outside What I am to
be depends on you So I recommend you as a friend afore another half a
blessed moment has passed over your head to go and sit down upon that sofy«
Mademoiselle complies saying in a concentrated voice while that something
in her cheek beats fast and hard »You are a Devil«
»Now you see« Mr Bucket proceeds approvingly »youre comfortable and
conducting yourself as I should expect a foreign young woman of your sense to
do So Ill give you a piece of advice and its this Dont you talk too much
Youre not expected to say anything here and you cant keep too quiet a tongue
in your head In short the less you Parlay the better you know« Mr Bucket
is very complacent over this French explanation
Mademoiselle with that tigerish expansion of the mouth and her black eyes
darting fire upon him sits upright on the sofa in a rigid state with her hands
clenched and her feet too one might suppose muttering »O you Bucket you
are a Devil«
»Now Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet« says Mr Bucket and from this time
forth the finger never rests »this young woman my lodger was her Ladyships
maid at the time I have mentioned to you and this young woman besides being
extraordinary vehement and passionate against her Ladyship after being
discharged «
»Lie« cries Mademoiselle »I discharge myself«
»Now why dont you take my advice« returns Mr Bucket in an impressive
almost in an imploring tone »Im surprised at the indiscreetness you commit
Youll say something thatll be used against you you know Youre sure to come
to it Never you mind what I say till its given in evidence It is not
addressed to you«
»Discharge too« cries Mademoiselle furiously »by her Ladyship Eh my
faith a pretty Ladyship Why I rrrruin my character by remaining with a
Ladyship so infame«
»Upon my soul I wonder at you« Mr Bucket remonstrates »I thought the
French were a polite nation I did really Yet to hear a female going on like
that before Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet«
»He is a poor abused« cries Mademoiselle »I spit upon his house upon his
name upon his imbecility« all of which she makes the carpet represent »Oh
that he is a great man O yes superb O Heaven Bah«
»Well Sir Leicester Dedlock« proceeds Mr Bucket »this intemperate
foreigner also angrily took it into her head that she had established a claim
upon Mr Tulkinghorn deceased by attending on the occasion I told you of at
his chambers though she was liberally paid for her time and trouble«
»Lie« tries Mademoiselle »I refuse his money alltogezzer«
»If you will Parlay you know« says Mr Bucket parenthetically »you must
take the consequences Now whether she became my lodger Sir Leicester
Dedlock with any deliberate intention then of doing this deed and blinding me
I give no opinion on but she lived in my house in that capacity at the time
that she was hovering about the chambers of the deceased Mr Tulkinghorn with a
view to a wrangle and likewise persecuting and half frightening the life out of
an unfortunate stationer«
»Lie« cries Mademoiselle »All lie«
»The murder was committed Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet and you know
under what circumstances Now I beg of you to follow me close with your
attention for a minute or two I was sent for and the case was entrusted to me
I examined the place and the body and the papers and everything From
information I received from a clerk in the same house I took George into
custody as having been seen hanging about there on the night and at very nigh
the time of the murder also as having been overheard in high words with the
deceased on former occasions even threatening him as the witness made out If
you ask me Sir Leicester Dedlock whether from the first I believed George to
be the murderer I tell you candidly No but he might be notwithstanding and
there was enough against him to make it my duty to take him and get him kept
under remand Now observe«
As Mr Bucket bends forward in some excitement for him and inaugurates
what he is going to say with one ghostly beat of his forefinger in the air
Mademoiselle Hortense fixes her black eyes upon him with a dark frown and sets
her dry lips closely and firmly together
»I went home Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet at night and found this young
woman having supper with my wife Mrs Bucket She had made a mighty show of
being fond of Mrs Bucket from her first offering herself as our lodger but
that night she made more than ever in fact overdid it Likewise she overdid
her respect and all that for the lamented memory of the deceased Mr
Tulkinghorn By the living Lord it flashed upon me as I sat opposite to her at
the table and saw her with a knife in her hand that she had done it«
Mademoiselle is hardly audible in straining through her teeth and lips the
words You are a devil
»Now where« pursues Mr Bucket »had she been on the night of the murder
She had been to the theayter She really was there I have since found both
before the deed and after it I knew I had an artful customer to deal with and
that proof would be very difficult and I laid a trap for her such a trap as I
never laid yet and such a ventur as I never made yet I worked it out in my
mind while I was talking to her at supper When I went upstairs to bed our
house being small and this young womans ears sharp I stuffed the sheet into
Mrs Buckets mouth that she shouldnt say a word of surprise and told her all
about it My dear dont you give your mind to that again or I shall link
your feet together at the ankles« Mr Bucket breaking off has made a
noiseless descent upon Mademoiselle and laid his heavy hand upon her shoulder
»What is the matter with you now« she asks him
»Dont you think any more« returns Mr Bucket with admonitory finger »of
throwing yourself out of window Thats whats the matter with me Come Just
take my arm You neednt get up Ill sit down by you Now take my arm will
you Im a married man you know youre acquainted with my wife Just take my
arm«
Vainly endeavouring to moisten those dry lips with a painful sound she
struggles with herself and complies
»Now were all right again Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet this case could
never have been the case it is but for Mrs Bucket who is a woman in fifty
thousand in a hundred and fifty thousand To throw this young woman off her
guard I have never set foot in our house since though Ive communicated with
Mrs Bucket in the bakers loaves and in the milk as often as required My
whispered words to Mrs Bucket when she had the sheet in her mouth were My
dear can you throw her off continually with natural accounts of my suspicions
against George and this and that and tother Can you do without rest and
keep watch upon her night and day Can you undertake to say She shall do
nothing without my knowledge she shall be my prisoner without suspecting it
she shall no more escape from me than from death and her life shall be my life
and her soul my soul till I have got her if she did this murder Mrs Bucket
says to me as well as she could speak on account of the sheet Bucket I can
And she has acted up to it glorious«
»Lies« Mademoiselle interposes »All lies my friend«
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet how did my calculations come out under
these circumstances When I calculated that this impetuous young woman would
overdo it in new directions was I wrong or right I was right What does she
try to do Dont let it give you a turn To throw the murder on her Ladyship«
Sir Leicester rises from his chair and staggers down again
»And she got encouragement in it from hearing that I was always here which
was done a purpose Now open that pocketbook of mine Sir Leicester Dedlock
if I may take the liberty of throwing it towards you and look at the letters
sent to me each with the two words LADY DEDLOCK in it Open the one directed
to yourself which I stopped this very morning and read the three words LADY
DEDLOCK MURDERESS in it These letters have been falling about like a shower
of ladybirds What do you say now to Mrs Bucket from her spyplace having
seen them all written by this young woman What do you say to Mrs Bucket
having within this halfhour secured the corresponding ink and paper fellow
halfsheets and what not What do you say to Mrs Bucket having watched the
posting of em every one by this young woman Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet«
Mr Bucket asks triumphant in his admiration of his ladys genius
Two things are especially observable as Mr Bucket proceeds to a
conclusion First that he seems imperceptibly to establish a dreadful right of
property in Mademoiselle Secondly that the very atmosphere she breathes seems
to narrow and contract about her as if a close net or a pall were being drawn
nearer and yet nearer around her breathless figure
»There is no doubt that her Ladyship was on the spot at the eventful
period« says Mr Bucket »and my foreign friend here saw her I believe from
the upper part of the staircase Her Ladyship and George and my foreign friend
were all pretty close on one another's heels But that dont signify any more
so Ill not go into it I found the wadding of the pistol with which the
deceased Mr Tulkinghorn was shot It was a bit of the printed description of
your house at Chesney Wold Not much in that youll say Sir Leicester Dedlock
Baronet No But when my foreign friend here is so thoroughly off her guard as
to think it a safe time to tear up the rest of that leaf and when Mrs Bucket
puts the pieces together and finds the wadding wanting it begins to look like
Queer Street«
»These are very long lies« Mademoiselle interposes »You prose great deal
Is it that you have almost all finished or are you speaking always«
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet« proceeds Mr Bucket who delights in a
full title and does violence to himself when he dispenses with any fragment of
it »the last point in the case which I am now going to mention shows the
necessity of patience in our business and never doing a thing in a hurry I
watched this young woman yesterday without her knowledge when she was looking
at the funeral in company with my wife who planned to take her there and I
had so much to convict her and I saw such an expression in her face and my
mind so rose against her malice towards her Ladyship and the time was
altogether such a time for bringing down what you may call retribution upon her
that if I had been a younger hand with less experience I should have taken her
certain Equally last night when her Ladyship as is so universally admired I
am sure come home looking why Lord a man might almost say like Venus
rising from the ocean it was so unpleasant and inconsistent to think of her
being charged with a murder of which she was innocent that I felt quite to want
to put an end to the job What should I have lost Sir Leicester Dedlock
Baronet I should have lost the weapon My prisoner here proposed to Mrs
Bucket after the departure of the funeral that they should go per bus a
little ways into the country and take tea at a very decent house of
entertainment Now near that house of entertainment theres a piece of water
At tea my prisoner got up to fetch her pockethandkercher from the bedroom
where the bonnets was she was rather a long time gone and came back a little
out of wind As soon as they came home this was reported to me by Mrs Bucket
along with her observations and suspicions I had the piece of water dragged by
moonlight in presence of a couple of our men and the pocketpistol was brought
up before it had been there halfadozen hours Now my dear put your arm a
little further through mine and hold it steady and I shant hurt you«
In a trice Mr Bucket snaps a handcuff on her wrist »Thats one« says Mr
Bucket »Now the other darling Two and all told«
He rises she rises too »Where« she asks him darkening her large eyes
until their drooping lids almost conceal them and yet they stare »where is
your false your treacherous and cursed wife«
»Shes gone forrard to the Police Office« returns Mr Bucket »Youll see
her there my dear«
»I would like to kiss her« exclaims Mademoiselle Hortense panting
tigresslike
»Youd bite her I suspect« says Mr Bucket
»I would« making her eyes very large »I would love to tear her limb from
limb«
»Bless you darling« says Mr Bucket with the greatest composure »Im
fully prepared to hear that Your sex have such a surprising animosity against
one another, when you do differ You dont mind me half so much do you«
»No Though you are a Devil still«
»Angel and devil by turns eh« cries Mr Bucket »But I am in my regular
employment you must consider Let me put your shawl tidy Ive been ladys maid
to a good many before now Anything wanting to the bonnet Theres a cab at the
door«
Mademoiselle Hortense casting an indignant eye at the glass shakes herself
perfectly neat in one shake and looks to do her justice uncommonly genteel
»Listen then my angel« says she after several sarcastic nods »You are
very spiritual But can you restore him back to life«
Mr Bucket answers »Not exactly«
»That is droll Listen yet one time You are very spiritual Can you make a
honourable lady of Her«
»Dont be so malicious« says Mr Bucket
»Or a haughty gentleman of Him« cries Mademoiselle referring to Sir
Leicester with ineffable disdain »Eh O then regard him The poor infant Ha
ha ha«
»Come come why this is worse Parlaying than the other« says Mr Bucket
»Come along«
»You cannot do these things Then you can do as you please with me It is
but the death it is all the same Let us go my angel Adieu you old man
grey I pity you and I despise you«
With these last words she snaps her teeth together as if her mouth closed
with a spring It is impossible to describe how Mr Bucket gets her out but he
accomplishes that feat in a manner so peculiar to himself enfolding and
pervading her like a cloud and hovering away with her as if he were a homely
Jupiter and she the object of his affections
Sir Leicester left alone remains in the same attitude as though he were
still listening and his attention were still occupied At length he gazes round
the empty room and finding it deserted rises unsteadily to his feet pushes
back his chair and walks a few steps supporting himself by the table Then he
stops and with more of those inarticulate sounds lifts up his eyes and seems
to stare at something
Heaven knows what he sees The green green woods of Chesney Wold the noble
house the pictures of his forefathers strangers defacing them officers of
police coarsely handling his most precious heirlooms thousands of fingers
pointing at him thousands of faces sneering at him But if such shadows flit
before him to his bewilderment there is one other shadow which he can name with
something like distinctness even yet and to which alone he addresses his
tearing of his white hair and his extended arms
It is she in association with whom saving that she has been for years a
main fibre of the root of his dignity and pride he has never had a selfish
thought It is she whom he has loved admired honoured and set up for the
world to respect It is she who at the core of all the constrained formalities
and conventionalities of his life has been a stock of living tenderness and
love susceptible as nothing else is of being struck with the agony he feels He
sees her almost to the exclusion of himself and cannot bear to look upon her
cast down from the high place she has graced so well
And even to the point of his sinking on the ground oblivious of his
suffering he can yet pronounce her name with something like distinctness in the
midst of those intrusive sounds and in a tone of mourning and compassion rather
than reproach
Chapter LV
Flight
Inspector Bucket of the Detective has not yet struck his great blow as just now
chronicled but is yet refreshing himself with sleep preparatory to his
fieldday when through the night and along the freezing wintry roads a chaise
and pair comes out of Lincolnshire making its way towards London
Railroads shall soon traverse all this country and with a rattle and a
glare the engine and train shall shoot like a meteor over the wide
nightlandscape turning the moon paler but as yet such things are
nonexistent in these parts though not wholly unexpected Preparations are
afoot measurements are made ground is staked out Bridges are begun and their
not yet united piers desolately look at one another over roads and streams like
brick and mortar couples with an obstacle to their union fragments of
embankments are thrown up and left as precipices with torrents of rusty carts
and barrows tumbling over them tripods of tall poles appear on hilltops where
there are rumours of tunnels everything looks chaotic and abandoned in full
hopelessness Along the freezing roads and through the night the postchaise
makes its way without a railroad on its mind
Mrs Rouncewell so many years housekeeper at Chesney Wold sits within the
chaise and by her side sits Mrs Bagnet with her grey cloak and umbrella The
old girl would prefer the bar in front as being exposed to the weather and a
primitive sort of perch more in accordance with her usual course of travelling
but Mrs Rouncewell is too thoughtful of her comfort to admit of her proposing
it The old lady cannot make enough of the old girl She sits in her stately
manner holding her hand and regardless of its roughness puts it often to her
lips »You are a mother my dear soul« says she many times »and you found out
my Georges mother«
»Why George« returns Mrs Bagnet »was always free with me maam and
when he said at our house to my Woolwich that of all the things my Woolwich
could have to think of when he grew to be a man the comfortablest would be that
he had never brought a sorrowful line into his mothers face or turned a hair
of her head grey then I felt sure from his way that something fresh had
brought his own mother into his mind I had often known him say to me in past
times that he had behaved bad to her«
»Never my dear« returns Mrs Rouncewell bursting into tears »My blessing
on him never He was always fond of me and loving to me was my George But he
had a bold spirit and he ran a little wild and went for a soldier And I know
he waited at first in letting us know about himself till he should rise to be
an officer and when he didnt rise I know he considered himself beneath us
and wouldnt be a disgrace to us For he had a lion heart had my George always
from a baby«
The old ladys hands stray about her as of yore while she recalls all in a
tremble what a likely lad what a fine lad what a gay goodhumoured clever lad
he was how they all took to him down at Chesney Wold how Sir Leicester took
to him when he was a young gentleman how the dogs took to him how even the
people who had been angry with him forgave him the moment he was gone poor
boy And now to see him after all and in a prison too And the broad stomacher
heaves and the quaint upright oldfashioned figure bends under its load of
affectionate distress
Mrs Bagnet with the instinctive skill of a good warm heart leaves the old
housekeeper to her emotions for a little while not without passing the back of
her hand across her own motherly eyes and presently chirps up in her cheery
manner
»So I says to George when I goes to call him in to tea he pretended to be
smoking his pipe outside What ails you this afternoon George for gracious
sake I have seen all sorts and I have seen you pretty often in season and out
of season abroad and at home and I never see you so melancholy penitent Why
Mrs Bagnet says George its because I am melancholy and penitent both this
afternoon that you see me so What have you done old fellow I says Why Mrs
Bagnet says George shaking his head what I have done has been done this many
a long year and is best not tried to be undone now If I ever get to Heaven it
wont be for being a good son to a widowed mother I say no more Now maam
when George says to me that its best not tried to be undone now I have my
thoughts as I have often had before and I draw it out of George how he comes to
have such things on him that afternoon Then George tells me that he has seen by
chance at the lawyers office a fine old lady that has brought his mother
plain before him and he runs on about that old lady till he quite forgets
himself and paints her picture to me as she used to be years upon years back
So I says to George when he has done who is this old lady he has seen And
George tells me its Mrs Rouncewell housekeeper for more than half a century
to the Dedlock family down at Chesney Wold in Lincolnshire George has
frequently told me before that hes a Lincolnshire man and I says to my old
Lignum that night Lignum thats his mother for fiveandforty pound«
All this Mrs Bagnet now relates for the twentieth time at least within the
last four hours Trilling it out like a kind of bird with a pretty high note
that it may be audible to the old lady above the hum of the wheels
»Bless you and thank you« says Mrs Rouncewell »Bless you and thank you
my worthy soul«
»Dear heart« cries Mrs Bagnet in the most natural manner »No thanks to
me I am sure Thanks to yourself maam for being so ready to pay em And
mind once more maam what you had best do on finding George to be your own
son is to make him for your sake have every sort of help to put himself in
the right and clear himself of a charge of which he is as innocent as you or
me It wont do to have truth and justice on his side he must have law and
lawyers« exclaims the old girl apparently persuaded that the latter form a
separate establishment and have dissolved partnership with truth and justice
for ever and a day
»He shall have« says Mrs Rouncewell »all the help that can be got for him
in the world my dear I will spend all I have and thankfully to procure it
Sir Leicester will do his best the whole family will do their best I I know
something my dear and will make my own appeal as his mother parted from him
all these years and finding him in a jail at last«
The extreme disquietude of the old housekeepers manner in saying this her
broken words and her wringing of her hands make a powerful impression on Mrs
Bagnet and would astonish her but that she refers them all to her sorrow for
her sons condition And yet Mrs Bagnet wonders too why Mrs Rouncewell
should murmur so distractedly »My Lady my Lady my Lady« over and over again
The frosty night wears away and the dawn breaks and the postchaise comes
rolling on through the early mist like the ghost of a chaise departed It has
plenty of spectral company in ghosts of trees and hedges slowly vanishing and
giving place to the realities of day London reached the travellers alight the
old housekeeper in great tribulation and confusion Mrs Bagnet quite fresh and
collected as she would be if her next point with no new equipage and outfit
were the Cape of Good Hope the Island of Ascension Hong Kong or any other
military station
But when they set out for the prison where the trooper is confined the old
lady has managed to draw about her with her lavendercoloured dress much of
the staid calmness which is its usual accompaniment A wonderfully grave
precise and handsome piece of old china she looks though her heart beats fast
and her stomacher is ruffled more than even the remembrance of this wayward son
has ruffled it these many years
Approaching the cell they find the door opening and a warder in the act of
coming out The old girl promptly makes a sign of entreaty to him to say
nothing assenting with a nod he suffers them to enter as he shuts the door
So George who is writing at his table supposing himself to be alone does
not raise his eyes but remains absorbed The old housekeeper looks at him and
those wandering hands of hers are quite enough for Mrs Bagnets confirmation
even if she could see the mother and the son together knowing what she knows
and doubt their relationship
Not a rustle of the housekeepers dress not a gesture not a word betrays
her She stands looking at him as he writes on all unconscious and only her
fluttering hands give utterance to her emotions But they are very eloquent
very very eloquent Mrs Bagnet understands them They speak of gratitude of
joy of grief of hope of inextinguishable affection cherished with no return
since this stalwart man was a stripling of a better son loved less and this
son loved so fondly and so proudly and they speak in such touching language
that Mrs Bagnets eyes brim up with tears and they run glistening down her
sunbrown face
»George Rouncewell O my dear child turn and look at me«
The trooper starts up clasps his mother round the neck and falls down on
his knees before her Whether in a late repentance whether in the first
association that comes back upon him he puts his hands together as a child does
when it says its prayers and raising them towards her breast bows down his
head and cries
»My George my dearest son Always my favourite and my favourite still
where have you been these cruel years and years Grown such a man too grown
such a fine strong man Grown so like what I knew he must be if it pleased God
he was alive«
She can ask and he can answer nothing connected for a time All that time
the old girl turned away leans one arm against the whitened wall leans her
honest forehead upon it wipes her eyes with her serviceable grey cloak and
quite enjoys herself like the best of old girls as she is
»Mother« says the trooper when they are more composed »forgive me first
of all for I know my need of it«
Forgive him She does it with all her heart and soul She always has done
it She tells him how she has had it written in her will these many years that
he was her beloved son George She has never believed any ill of him never If
she had died without this happiness and she is an old woman now and cant
look to live very long she would have blessed him with her last breath if she
had had her senses as her beloved son George
»Mother I have been an undutiful trouble to you and I have my reward but
of late years I have had a kind of glimmering of a purpose in me too When I
left home I didnt care much mother I am afraid not a great deal for
leaving and went away and listed harumscarum making believe to think that I
cared for nobody no not I and that nobody cared for me«
The trooper has dried his eyes and put away his handkerchief but there is
an extraordinary contrast between his habitual manner of expressing himself and
carrying himself and the softened tone in which he speaks interrupted
occasionally by a halfstifled sob
»So I wrote a line home mother as you too well know to say I had listed
under another name and I went abroad Abroad at one time I thought I would
write home next year when I might be better off and when that year was out I
thought I would write home next year when I might be better off and when that
year was out again perhaps I didnt think much about it So on from year to
year through a service of ten years till I began to get older and to ask
myself why should I ever write«
»I dont find any fault child but not to ease my mind George Not a word
to your loving mother who was growing older too«
This almost overturns the trooper afresh but he sets himself up with a
great rough sounding clearance of his throat
»Heaven forgive me mother but I thought there would be small consolation
then in hearing anything about me There were you respected and esteemed There
was my brother as I read in chance northcountry papers now and then rising to
be prosperous and famous There was I a dragoon roving unsettled not
selfmade like him but selfunmade all my earlier advantages thrown away all
my little learning unlearnt nothing picked up but what unfitted me for most
things that I could think of What business had I to make myself known After
letting all that time go by me what good could come of it The worst was past
with you mother I knew by that time being a man how you had mourned for me
and wept for me and prayed for me and the pain was over or was softened down
and I was better in your mind as it was«
The old lady sorrowfully shakes her head and taking one of his powerful
hands lays it lovingly upon her shoulder
»No I dont say that it was so mother but that I made it out to be so I
said just now what good could come of it Well my dear mother some good might
have come of it to myself and there was the meanness of it You would have
sought me out you would have purchased my discharge you would have taken me
down to Chesney Wold you would have brought me and my brother and my brothers
family together you would all have considered anxiously how to do something for
me and set me up as a respectable civilian But how could any of you feel sure
of me when I couldnt so much as feel sure of myself How could you help
regarding as an incumbrance and a discredit to you an idle dragooning chap who
was an incumbrance and a discredit to himself excepting under discipline How
could I look my brothers children in the face and pretend to set them an
example I the vagabond boy who had run away from home and been the grief
and unhappiness of my mothers life No George Such were my words mother
when I passed this in review before me You have made your bed Now lie upon
it «
Mrs Rouncewell drawing up her stately form shakes her head at the old
girl with a swelling pride upon her as much as to say »I told you so« The old
girl relieves her feelings and testifies her interest in the conversation by
giving the trooper a great poke between the shoulders with her umbrella this
action she afterwards repeats at intervals in a species of affectionate
lunacy never failing after the administration of each of these remonstrances
to resort to the whitened wall and the grey cloak again
»This was the way I brought myself to think mother that my best amends was
to lie upon that bed I had made and die upon it And I should have done it
though I have been to see you more than once down at Chesney Wold when you
little thought of me but for my old comrades wife here who I find has been
too many for me But I thank her for it I thank you for it Mrs Bagnet with
all my heart and might«
To which Mrs Bagnet responds with two pokes
And now the old lady impresses upon her son George her own dear recovered
boy her joy and pride the light of her eyes the happy close of her life and
every fond name she can think of that he must be governed by the best advice
obtainable by money and influence that he must yield up his case to the
greatest lawyers that can be got that he must act in this serious plight as
he shall be advised to act and must not be selfwilled however right but must
promise to think only of his poor old mothers anxiety and suffering until he is
released or he will break her heart
»Mother tis little enough to consent to« returns the trooper stopping
her with a kiss »tell me what I shall do and Ill make a late beginning and
do it Mrs Bagnet youll take care of my mother I know«
A very hard poke from the old girls umbrella
»If youll bring her acquainted with Mr Jarndyce and Miss Summerson she
will find them of her way of thinking and they will give her the best advice
and assistance«
»And George« says the old lady »we must send with all haste for your
brother He is a sensible sound man as they tell me out in the world beyond
Chesney Wold my dear though I dont know much of it myself and will be of
great service«
»Mother« returns the trooper »is it too soon to ask a favour«
»Surely not my dear«
»Then grant me this one great favour Dont let my brother know«
»Not know what my dear«
»Not know of me In fact mother I cant bear it I cant make up my mind
to it He has proved himself so different from me and has done so much to raise
himself while Ive been soldiering that I havent brass enough in my
composition to see him in this place and under this charge How could a man
like him be expected to have any pleasure in such a discovery Its impossible
No keep my secret from him mother do me a greater kindness than I deserve
and keep my secret from my brother of all men«
»But not always dear George«
»Why mother perhaps not for good and all though I may come to ask that
too but keep it now I do entreat you If its ever broke to him that his Rip
of a brother has turned up I could wish« says the trooper shaking his head
very doubtfully »to break it myself and be governed as to advancing or
retreating by the way in which he seems to take it«
As he evidently has a rooted feeling on this point and as the depth of it
is recognised in Mrs Bagnets face his mother yields her implicit assent to
what he asks For this he thanks her kindly
»In all other respects my dear mother Ill be as tractable and obedient as
you can wish on this one alone I stand out So now I am ready even for the
lawyers I have been drawing up« he glances at his writing on the table »an
exact account of what I knew of the deceased and how I came to be involved in
this unfortunate affair Its entered plain and regular like an orderlybook
not a word in it but whats wanted for the facts I did intend to read it
straight on end whensoever I was called upon to say anything in my defence I
hope I may be let to do it still but I have no longer a will of my own in this
case and whatever is said or done I give my promise not to have any«
Matters being brought to this so far satisfactory pass and time being on
the wane Mrs Bagnet proposes a departure Again and again the old lady hangs
upon her sons neck and again and again the trooper holds her to his broad
chest
»Where are you going to take my mother Mrs Bagnet«
»I am going to the town house my dear the family house I have some
business there that must be looked to directly« Mrs Rouncewell answers
»Will you see my mother safe there in a coach Mrs Bagnet But of course I
know you will Why should I ask it«
Why indeed Mrs Bagnet expresses with the umbrella
»Take her my old friend and take my gratitude along with you Kisses to
Quebec and Malta love to my godson a hearty shake of the hand to Lignum and
this for yourself and I wish it was ten thousand pound in gold my dear« So
saying the trooper puts his lips to the old girls tanned forehead and the
door shuts upon him in his cell
No entreaties on the part of the good old housekeeper will induce Mrs
Bagnet to retain the coach for her own conveyance home Jumping out cheerfully
at the door of the Dedlock mansion and handing Mrs Rouncewell up the steps
the old girl shakes hands and trudges off arriving soon afterwards in the bosom
of the Bagnet family and falling to washing the greens as if nothing had
happened
My Lady is in that room in which she held her last conference with the
murdered man and is sitting where she sat that night and is looking at the
spot where he stood upon the hearth studying her so leisurely when a tap comes
at the door Who is it Mrs Rouncewell What has brought Mrs Rouncewell to
town so unexpectedly
»Trouble my Lady Sad trouble O my Lady may I beg a word with you«
What new occurrence is it that makes this tranquil old woman tremble so Far
happier than her Lady as her Lady has often thought why does she falter in
this manner and look at her with such strange mistrust
»What is the matter Sit down and take your breath«
»O my Lady my Lady I have found my son my youngest who went away for a
soldier so long ago And he is in prison«
»For debt«
»O no my Lady I would have paid any debt and joyful«
»For what is he in prison then«
»Charged with a murder my Lady of which he is as innocent as as I am
Accused of the murder of Mr Tulkinghorn«
What does she mean by this look and this imploring gesture Why does she
come so close What is the letter that she holds
»Lady Dedlock my dear Lady my good Lady my kind Lady You must have a
heart to feel for me you must have a heart to forgive me I was in this family
before you were born I am devoted to it But think of my dear son wrongfully
accused«
»I do not accuse him«
»No my Lady no But others do and he is in prison and in danger O Lady
Dedlock if you can say but a word to help to clear him say it«
What delusion can this be What power does she suppose is in the person she
petitions to avert this unjust suspicion if it be unjust Her Ladys handsome
eyes regard her with astonishment almost with fear
»My Lady I came away last night from Chesney Wold to find my son in my old
age and the step upon the Ghosts Walk was so constant and so solemn that I
never heard the like in all these years Night after night as it has fallen
dark the sound has echoed through your rooms but last night it was awfullest
And as it fell dark last night my Lady I got this letter«
»What letter is it«
»Hush Hush« The housekeeper looks round and answers in a frightened
whisper »My Lady I have not breathed a word of it I dont believe whats
written in it I know it cant be true I am sure and certain that it is not
true But my son is in danger and you must have a heart to pity me If you know
of anything that is not known to others if you have any suspicion if you have
any clue at all and any reason for keeping it in your own breast O my dear
Lady think of me and conquer that reason and let it be known This is the
most I consider possible I know you are not a hard lady but you go your own
way always without help and you are not familiar with your friends and all who
admire you and all do as a beautiful and elegant lady know you to be one
far away from themselves who cant be approached close My Lady you may have
some proud or angry reasons for disdaining to utter something that you know if
so pray O pray think of a faithful servant whose whole life has been passed
in this family which she dearly loves and relent and help to clear my son My
Lady my good Lady« the old housekeeper pleads with genuine simplicity »I am
so humble in my place and you are by nature so high and distant that you may
not think what I feel for my child but I feel so much that I have come here to
make so bold as to beg and pray you not to be scornful of us if you can do us
any right or justice at this fearful time«
Lady Dedlock raises her without one word until she takes the letter from
her hand
»Am I to read this«
»When I am gone my Lady if you please and then remembering the most that
I consider possible«
»I know of nothing I can do I know of nothing I reserve that can affect
your son I have never accused him«
»My Lady you may pity him the more under a false accusation after reading
the letter«
The old housekeeper leaves her with the letter in her hand In truth she is
not a hard lady naturally and the time has been when the sight of the venerable
figure suing to her with such strong earnestness would have moved her to great
compassion But so long accustomed to suppress emotion and keep down reality
so long schooled for her own purposes in that destructive school which shuts up
the natural feelings of the heart like flies in amber and spreads one uniform
and dreary gloss over the good and bad the feeling and the unfeeling the
sensible and the senseless she had subdued even her wonder until now
She opens the letter Spread out upon the paper is a printed account of the
discovery of the body as it lay face downward on the floor shot through the
heart and underneath is written her own name with the word Murderess attached
It falls out of her hand How long it may have lain upon the ground she
knows not but it lies where it fell when a servant stands before her
announcing the young man of the name of Guppy The words have probably been
repeated several times for they are ringing in her head before she begins to
understand them
»Let him come in«
He comes in Holding the letter in her hand which she has taken from the
floor she tries to collect her thoughts In the eyes of Mr Guppy she is the
same Lady Dedlock holding the same prepared proud chilling state
»Your Ladyship may not be at first disposed to excuse this visit from one
who has never been welcome to your Ladyship which he dont complain of for he
is bound to confess that there never has been any particular reason on the face
of things why he should be but I hope when I mention my motives to your
Ladyship you will not find fault with me« says Mr Guppy
»Do so«
»Thank your Ladyship I ought first to explain to your Ladyship« Mr Guppy
sits on the edge of a chair and puts his hat on the carpet at his feet »that
Miss Summerson whose image as I formerly mentioned to your Ladyship was at
one period of my life imprinted on my art until erased by circumstances over
which I had no control communicated to me after I had the pleasure of waiting
on your Ladyship last that she particularly wished me to take no steps whatever
in any manner at all relating to her And Miss Summersons wishes being to me a
law except as connected with circumstances over which I have no control I
consequently never expected to have the distinguished honour of waiting on your
Ladyship again«
And yet he is here now Lady Dedlock moodily reminds him
»And yet I am here now« Mr Guppy admits »My object being to communicate
to your Ladyship under the seal of confidence why I am here«
He cannot do so she tells him too plainly or too briefly
»Nor can I« Mr Guppy returns with a sense of injury upon him »too
particularly request your Ladyship to take particular notice that its no
personal affair of mine that brings me here I have no interested views of my
own to serve in coming here If it was not for my promise to Miss Summerson and
my keeping of it sacred I in point of fact, shouldnt have darkened these
doors again but should have seen em further first«
Mr Guppy considers this a favourable moment for sticking up his hair with
both hands
»Your Ladyship will remember when I mention it that the last time I was
here I run against a party very eminent in our profession and whose loss we
all deplore That party certainly did from that time apply himself to cutting in
against me in a way that I will call sharp practice and did make it at every
turn and point extremely difficult for me to be sure that I hadnt
inadvertently led up to something contrary to Miss Summersons wishes
Selfpraise is no recommendation but I may say for myself that I am not so bad
a man of business neither«
Lady Dedlock looks at him in stern inquiry Mr Guppy immediately withdraws
his eyes from her face and looks anywhere else
»Indeed it has been made so hard« he goes on »to have any idea what that
party was up to in combination with others that until the loss which we all
deplore I was gravelled an expression which your Ladyship moving in the
higher circles will be so good as to consider tantamount to knocked over Small
likewise a name by which I refer to another party a friend of mine that your
Ladyship is not acquainted with got to be so close and doublefaced that at
times it wasnt easy to keep ones hands off his ed However what with the
exertion of my humble abilities and what with the help of a mutual friend by
the name of Mr Tony Weevle who is of a high aristocratic turn and has your
Ladyships portrait always hanging up in his room I have now reasons for an
apprehension as to which I come to put your Ladyship upon your guard First
will your Ladyship allow me to ask you whether you have had any strange visitors
this morning I dont mean fashionable visitors but such visitors for
instance as Miss Barbarys old servant or as a person without the use of his
lower extremities carried upstairs similarly to a Guy«
»No«
»Then I assure your ladyship that such visitors have been here and have
been received here Because I saw them at the door and waited at the corner of
the square till they came out and took halfanhours turn afterwards to avoid
them«
»What have I to do with that or what have you I do not understand you
What do you mean«
»Your Ladyship I come to put you on your guard There may be no occasion
for it Very well Then I have only done my best to keep my promise to Miss
Summerson I strongly suspect from what Small has dropped and from what we
have corkscrewed out of him that those letters I was to have brought to your
Ladyship were not destroyed when I supposed they were That if there was
anything to be blown upon it is blown upon That the visitors I have alluded to
have been here this morning to make money of it And that the money is made or
making«
Mr Guppy picks up his hat and rises
»Your Ladyship you know best whether theres anything in what I say or
whether theres nothing Something or nothing I have acted up to Miss
Summersons wishes in letting things alone and in undoing what I had begun to
do as far as possible thats sufficient for me In case I should be taking a
liberty in putting your Ladyship on your guard when theres no necessity for it
you will endeavour I should hope to outlive my presumption and I shall
endeavour to outlive your disapprobation I now take my farewell of your
Ladyship and assure you that theres no danger of your ever being waited on by
me again«
She scarcely acknowledges these parting words by any look but when he has
been gone a little while she rings her bell
»Where is Sir Leicester«
Mercury reports that he is at present shut up in the library alone
»Has Sir Leicester had any visitors this morning«
Several on business Mercury proceeds to a description of them which has
been anticipated by Mr Guppy Enough he may go
So All is broken down Her name is in these many mouths her husband knows
his wrongs her shame will be published may be spreading while she thinks
about it and in addition to the thunderbolt so long foreseen by her so
unforeseen by him she is denounced by an invisible accuser as the murderess of
her enemy
Her enemy he was and she has often often often wished him dead Her
enemy he is even in his grave This dreadful accusation comes upon her like a
new torment at his lifeless hand And when she recalls how she was secretly at
his door that night and how she may be represented to have sent her favourite
girl away so soon before merely to release herself from observation she
shudders as if the hangmans hands were at her neck
She has thrown herself upon the floor and lies with her hair all wildly
scattered and her face buried in the cushions of a couch She rises up hurries
to and fro flings herself down again and rocks and moans The horror that is
upon her is unutterable If she really were the murderess it could hardly be
for the moment more intense
For as her murderous perspective before the doing of the deed however
subtle the precautions for its commission would have been closed up by a
gigantic dilatation of the hateful figure preventing her from seeing any
consequences beyond it and as those consequences would have rushed in in an
unimagined flood the moment the figure was laid low which always happens when
a murder is done so now she sees that when he used to be on the watch before
her and she used to think »if some mortal stroke would but fall on this old
man and take him from my way« it was but wishing that all he held against her
in his hand might be flung to the winds and chancesown in many places So
too with the wicked relief she has felt in his death What was his death but
the keystone of a gloomy arch removed and now the arch begins to fall in a
thousand fragments each crushing and mangling piecemeal
Thus a terrible impression steals upon and overshadows her that from this
pursuer living or dead obdurate and imperturbable before her in his
wellremembered shape or not more obdurate and imperturbable in his coffinbed
there is no escape but in death Hunted she flies The complication of her
shame her dread remorse and misery overwhelms her at its height and even
her strength of self-reliance is overturned and whirled away like a leaf before
a mighty wind
She hurriedly addresses these lines to her husband seals and leaves them
on her table
»If I am sought for or accused of his murder believe that I am wholly
innocent Believe no other good of me for I am innocent of nothing else
that you have heard or will hear laid to my charge He prepared me on
that fatal night for his disclosure of my guilt to you After he had
left me I went out on pretence of walking in the garden where I
sometimes walk but really to follow him and make one last petition
that he would not protract the dreadful suspense on which I have been
racked by him you do not know how long but would mercifully strike
next morning
I found his house dark and silent I rang twice at his door but
there was no reply and I came home
I have no home left I will encumber you no more May you in your
just resentment be able to forget the unworthy woman on whom you have
wasted a most generous devotion who avoids you only with a deeper
shame than that with which she hurries from herself and who writes
this last adieu«
She veils and dresses quickly leaves all her jewels and her money listens
goes downstairs at a moment when the hall is empty opens and shuts the great
door flutters away in the shrill frosty wind
Chapter LVI
Pursuit
Impassive as behoves its high breeding the Dedlock town house stares at the
other houses in the street of dismal grandeur and gives no outward sign of
anything going wrong within Carriages rattle doors are battered at the world
exchanges calls ancient charmers with skeleton throats and peachy cheeks that
have a rather ghastly bloom upon them seen by daylight when indeed these
fascinating creatures look like Death and the Lady fused together dazzle the
eyes of men Forth from the frigid Mews come easily swinging carriages guided by
shortlegged coachmen in flaxen wigs deep sunk into downy hammercloths and up
behind mount luscious Mercuries bearing sticks of state and wearing cocked
hats broadwise a spectacle for the Angels
The Dedlock town house changes not externally and hours pass before its
exalted dulness is disturbed within But Volumnia the fair being subject to the
prevalent complaint of boredom and finding that disorder attacking her spirits
with some virulence ventures at length to repair to the library for change of
scene Her gentle tapping at the door producing no response she opens it and
peeps in seeing no one there takes possession
The sprightly Dedlock is reputed in that grassgrown city of the ancients
Bath to be stimulated by an urgent curiosity which impels her on all
convenient and inconvenient occasions to sidle about with a golden glass at her
eye peering into objects of every description Certain it is that she avails
herself of the present opportunity of hovering over her kinsmans letters and
papers like a bird taking a short peck at this document and a blink with her
head on one side at that document and hopping about from table to table with
her glass at her eye in an inquisitive and restless manner In the course of
these researches she stumbles over something and turning her glass in that
direction sees her kinsman lying on the ground like a felled tree
Volumnias pet little scream acquires a considerable augmentation of reality
from this surprise and the house is quickly in commotion Servants tear up and
down stairs bells are violently rung doctors are sent for and Lady Dedlock is
sought in all directions but not found Nobody has seen or heard her since she
last rang her bell Her letter to Sir Leicester is discovered on her table
but it is doubtful yet whether he has not received another missive from another
world requiring to be personally answered and all the living languages and
all the dead are as one to him
They lay him down upon his bed and chafe and rub and fan and put ice to
his head and try every means of restoration Howbeit the day has ebbed away
and it is night in his room before his stertorous breathing lulls or his fixed
eyes show any consciousness of the candle that is occasionally passed before
them But when this change begins it goes on and byandby he nods or moves
his eyes or even his hand in token that he hears and comprehends
He fell down this morning a handsome stately gentleman somewhat infirm
but of a fine presence and with a wellfilled face He lies upon his bed an
aged man with sunken cheeks the decrepit shadow of himself His voice was rich
and mellow and he had so long been thoroughly persuaded of the weight and
import to mankind of any word he said that his words really had come to sound
as if there were something in them But now he can only whisper and what he
whispers sounds like what it is mere jumble and jargon
His favourite and faithful housekeeper stands at his bedside It is the
first act he notices and he clearly derives pleasure from it After vainly
trying to make himself understood in speech he makes signs for a pencil So
inexpressively that they cannot at first understand him it is his old
housekeeper who makes out what he wants and brings in a slate
After pausing for some time he slowly scrawls upon it in a hand that is
not his »Chesney Wold«
No she tells him he is in London He was taken ill in the library this
morning Right thankful she is that she happened to come to London and is able
to attend upon him
»It is not an illness of any serious consequence Sir Leicester You will be
much better tomorrow Sir Leicester All the gentlemen say so« This with the
tears coursing down her fair old face
After making a survey of the room and looking with particular attention all
round the bed where the doctors stand he writes »My Lady«
»My Lady went out Sir Leicester before you were taken ill and dont know
of your illness yet«
He points again in great agitation at the two words They all try to quiet
him but he points again with increased agitation On their looking at one
another, not knowing what to say he takes the slate once more and writes »My
Lady For Gods sake where« And makes an imploring moan
It is thought better that his old housekeeper should give him Lady Dedlocks
letter the contents of which no one knows or can surmise She opens it for him
and puts it out for his perusal Having read it twice by a great effort he
turns it down so that it shall not be seen and lies moaning He passes into a
kind of relapse or into a swoon and it is an hour before he opens his eyes
reclining on his faithful and attached old servants arm The doctors know that
he is best with her and when not actively engaged about him stand aloof
The slate comes into requisition again but the word he wants to write he
cannot remember His anxiety his eagerness and affliction at this pass are
pitiable to behold It seems as if he must go mad in the necessity he feels for
haste and the inability under which he labours of expressing to do what or to
fetch whom He has written the letter B and there stopped Of a sudden in the
height of his misery he puts Mr before it The old housekeeper suggests
Bucket Thank Heaven Thats his meaning
Mr Bucket is found to be downstairs by appointment Shall he come up
There is no possibility of misconstruing Sir Leicesters burning wish to see
him or the desire he signifies to have the room cleared of every one but the
housekeeper It is speedily done and Mr Bucket appears Of all men upon earth
Sir Leicester seems fallen from his high estate to place his sole trust and
reliance upon this man
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet Im sorry to see you like this I hope
youll cheer up Im sure you will on account of the family credit«
Sir Leicester puts her letter in his hands and looks intently in his face
while he reads it A new intelligence comes into Mr Buckets eye as he reads
on with one hook of his finger while that eye is still glancing over the
words he indicates »Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet I understand you«
Sir Leicester writes upon the slate »Full forgiveness Find « Mr Bucket
stops his hand
»Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet Ill find her But my search after her must
be begun out of hand Not a minute must be lost«
With the quickness of thought he follows Sir Leicester Dedlocks look
towards a little box upon a table
»Bring it here Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet Certainly Open it with one
of these here keys Certainly The littlest key To be sure Take the notes out
So I will Count em Thats soon done Twenty and thirtys fifty and twentys
seventy and fiftys one twenty and fortys one sixty Take em for expenses
That Ill do and render an account of course Dont spare money No I wont«
The velocity and certainty of Mr Buckets interpretation on all these heads
is little short of miraculous Mrs Rouncewell who holds the light is giddy
with the swiftness of his eyes and hands as he starts up furnished for his
journey
»Youre Georges mother old lady thats about what you are I believe«
says Mr Bucket aside with his hat already on and buttoning his coat
»Yes sir I am his distressed mother«
»So I thought according to what he mentioned to me just now Well then
Ill tell you something You neednt be distressed no more Your sons all
right Now dont you begin acrying because what youve got to do is to take
care of Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet and you wont do that by crying As to
your son hes all right I tell you and he sends his loving duty and hoping
youre the same Hes discharged honourable thats about what he is with no
more imputation on his character than there is on yours and yours is a tidy
one Ill bet a pound You may trust me for I took your son He conducted
himself in a game way too on that occasion and hes a finemade man and
youre a finemade old lady and youre a mother and son the pair of you as
might be showed for models in a caravan Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet what
youve trusted to me Ill go through with Dont you be afraid of my turning out
of my way right or left or taking a sleep or a wash or a shave till I have
found what I go in search of Say everything as is kind and forgiving on your
part Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet I will And I wish you better and these
family affairs smoothed over as Lord many other family affairs equally has
been and equally will be to the end of time«
With this peroration Mr Bucket buttoned up goes quietly out looking
steadily before him as if he were already piercing the night in quest of the
fugitive
His first step is to take himself to Lady Dedlocks rooms and look all over
them for any trifling indication that may help him The rooms are in darkness
now and to see Mr Bucket with a waxlight in his hand holding it above his
head and taking a sharp mental inventory of the many delicate objects so
curiously at variance with himself would be to see a sight which nobody does
see as he is particular to lock himself in
»A spicy boudoir this« says Mr Bucket who feels in a manner furbished up
in his French by the blow of the morning »Must have cost a sight of money Rum
articles to cut away from these she must have been hard put to it«
Opening and shutting tabledrawers and looking into caskets and
jewelcases he sees the reflection of himself in various mirrors and moralises
thereon
»One might suppose I was amoving in the fashionable circles and getting
myself up for Almacks« says Mr Bucket »I begin to think I must be a swell in
the Guards without knowing it«
Ever looking about he has opened a dainty little chest in an inner drawer
His great hand turning over some gloves which it can scarcely feel they are so
light and soft within it comes upon a white handkerchief
»Hum Lets have a look at you« says Mr Bucket putting down the light
»What should you be kept by yourself for Whats your motive Are you her
Ladyships property or somebody elses Youve got a mark upon you somewheres
or another I suppose«
He finds it as he speaks »Esther Summerson«
»Oh« says Mr Bucket pausing with his finger at his ear »Come Ill take
you«
He completes his observations as quietly and carefully as he has carried
them on leaves everything else precisely as he found it glides away after some
five minutes in all and passes into the street With a glance upward at the
dimly lighted windows of Sir Leicesters room he sets off fullswing to the
nearest coachstand picks out the horse for his money and directs to be driven
to the Shooting Gallery Mr Bucket does not claim to be a scientific judge of
horses but he lays out a little money on the principal events in that line and
generally sums up his knowledge of the subject in the remark that when he sees
a horse as can go he knows him
His knowledge is not at fault in the present instance Clattering over the
stones at a dangerous pace yet thoughtfully bringing his keen eyes to bear on
every slinking creature whom he passes in the midnight streets and even on the
lights in upper windows where people are going or gone to bed and on all the
turnings that he rattles by and alike on the heavy sky and on the earth where
the snow lies thin for something may present itself to assist him anywhere
he dashes to his destination at such a speed that when he stops the horse half
smothers him in a cloud of steam
»Unbear him half a moment to freshen him up and Ill be back«
He runs up the long wooden entry and finds the trooper smoking his pipe
»I thought I should George after what you have gone through my lad I
havent a word to spare Now honour All to save a woman Miss Summerson that
was here when Gridley died that was the name I Know all right where
does she live«
The trooper has just come from there and gives him the address near Oxford
Street
»You wont repent it George Good night«
He is off again with an impression of having seen Phil sitting by the
frosty fire staring at him open and gallops away again and gets out in a
cloud of steam again
Mr Jarndyce the only person up in the house is just going to bed rises
from his book on hearing the rapid ringing at the bell and comes down to the
door in his dressinggown
»Dont be alarmed sir« In a moment his visitor is confidential with him in
the hall has shut the door and stands with his hand upon the lock »Ive had
the pleasure of seeing you before Inspector Bucket Look at that handkerchief
sir Miss Esther Summersons Found it myself put away in a drawer of Lady
Dedlocks quarter of an hour ago Not a moment to lose Matter of life or
death You know Lady Dedlock«
»Yes«
»There has been a discovery there today Family affairs have come out Sir
Leicester Dedlock Baronet has had a fit apoplexy or paralysis and couldnt
be brought to and precious time has been lost Lady Dedlock disappeared this
afternoon and left a letter for him that looks bad Run your eye over it Here
it is«
Mr Jarndyce having read it asks him what he thinks
»I dont know It looks like suicide Anyways theres more and more danger
every minute of its drawing to that Id give a hundred pound an hour to have
got the start of the present time Now Mr Jarndyce I am employed by Sir
Leicester Dedlock Baronet to follow her and find her to save her and take
her his forgiveness I have money and full power but I want something else I
want Miss Summerson«
Mr Jarndyce in a troubled voice repeats »Miss Summerson«
»Now Mr Jarndyce« Mr Bucket has read his face with the greatest
attention all along »I speak to you as a gentleman of a humane heart and under
such pressing circumstances as dont often happen If ever delay was dangerous
its dangerous now and if ever you couldnt afterwards forgive yourself for
causing it this is the time Eight or ten hours worth as I tell you a
hundred pound apiece at least have been lost since Lady Dedlock disappeared I
am charged to find her I am Inspector Bucket Besides all the rest thats heavy
on her she has upon her as she believes suspicion of murder If I follow her
alone she being in ignorance of what Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet has
communicated to me may be driven to desperation But if I follow her in company
with a young lady answering to the description of a young lady that she has a
tenderness for I ask no question and I say no more than that she will give
me credit for being friendly Let me come up with her and be able to have the
hold upon her of putting that young lady forard and Ill save her and prevail
with her if she is alive Let me come up with her alone a hard matter and
Ill do my best but I dont answer for what the best may be Time flies its
getting on for one oclock When one strikes theres another hour gone and
its worth a thousand pound now instead of a hundred«
This is all true and the pressing nature of the case cannot be questioned
Mr Jarndyce begs him to remain there while he speaks to Miss Summerson Mr
Bucket says he will but acting on his usual principle does no such thing
following upstairs instead and keeping his man in sight So he remains
dodging and lurking about in the gloom of the staircase while they confer In a
very little time Mr Jarndyce comes down and tells him that Miss Summerson
will join him directly and place herself under his protection to accompany him
where he pleases Mr Bucket satisfied expresses high approval and awaits her
coming at the door
There he mounts a high tower in his mind and looks out far and wide Many
solitary figures he perceives creeping through the streets many solitary
figures out on heaths and roads and lying under haystacks But the figure that
he seeks is not among them Other solitaries he perceives in nooks of bridges
looking over and in shadowed places down by the rivers level and a dark
dark shapeless object drifting with the tide more solitary than all clings
with a drowning hold on his attention
Where is she Living or dead where is she If as he folds the handkerchief
and carefully puts it up it were able with an enchanted power to bring before
him the place where she found it and the night landscape near the cottage where
it covered the little child would he descry her there On the waste where the
brickkilns are burning with a pale blue flare where the strawroofs of the
wretched huts in which the bricks are made are being scattered by the wind
where the clay and water are hard frozen and the mill in which the gaunt blind
horse goes round all day looks like an instrument of human torture
traversing this deserted blighted spot there is a lonely figure with the sad
world to itself, pelted by the snow and driven by the wind and cast out it
would seem from all companionship It is the figure of a woman too but it is
miserably dressed and no such clothes ever came through the hall and out at
the great door of the Dedlock mansion
Chapter LVII
Esthers Narrative
I had gone to bed and fallen asleep when my guardian knocked at the door of my
room and begged me to get up directly On my hurrying to speak to him and learn
what had happened he told me after a word or two of preparation that there
had been a discovery at Sir Leicester Dedlocks That my mother had fled that a
person was now at our door who was empowered to convey to her the fullest
assurances of affectionate protection and forgiveness if he could possibly find
her and that I was sought for to accompany him in the hope that my entreaties
might prevail upon her if his failed Something to this general purpose I made
out but I was thrown into such a tumult of alarm and hurry and distress that
in spite of every effort I could make to subdue my agitation I did not seem to
myself fully to recover my right mind until hours had passed
But I dressed and wrapped up expeditiously without waking Charley or any
one and went down to Mr Bucket who was the person entrusted with the secret
In taking me to him my guardian told me this and also explained how it was that
he had come to think of me Mr Bucket in a low voice by the light of my
guardians candle read to me in the hall a letter that my mother had left
upon her table and I suppose within ten minutes of my having been aroused I
was sitting beside him rolling swiftly through the streets
His manner was very keen and yet considerate when he explained to me that a
great deal might depend on my being able to answer without confusion a few
questions that he wished to ask me These were chiefly whether I had had much
communication with my mother to whom he only referred as Lady Dedlock when
and where I had spoken with her last and how she had become possessed of my
handkerchief When I had satisfied him on these points he asked me particularly
to consider taking time to think whether within my knowledge there was any
one no matter where in whom she might be at all likely to confide under
circumstances of the last necessity I could think of no one but my guardian
But byandby I mentioned Mr Boythorn He came into my mind as connected
with his old chivalrous manner of mentioning my mothers name and with what my
guardian had informed me of his engagement to her sister and his unconscious
connexion with her unhappy story
My companion had stopped the driver while we held this conversation that we
might the better hear each other He now told him to go on again and said to
me after considering within himself for a few moments that he had made up his
mind how to proceed He was quite willing to tell me what his plan was but I
did not feel clear enough to understand it
We had not driven very far from our lodgings when we stopped in a
bystreet at a publiclooking place lighted up with gas Mr Bucket took me in
and sat me in an armchair by a bright fire It was now past one as I saw by
the clock against the wall Two police officers looking in their perfectly neat
uniform not at all like people who were up all night were quietly writing at a
desk and the place seemed very quiet altogether except for some beating and
calling out at distant doors underground to which nobody paid any attention
A third man in uniform whom Mr Bucket called and to whom he whispered his
instructions went out and then the two others advised together while one
wrote from Mr Buckets subdued dictation It was a description of my mother
that they were busy with for Mr Bucket brought it to me when it was done and
read it in a whisper It was very accurate indeed
The second officer who had attended to it closely then copied it out and
called in another man in uniform there were several in an outer room who took
it up and went away with it All this was done with the greatest despatch and
without the waste of a moment yet nobody was at all hurried As soon as the
paper was sent out upon its travels the two officers resumed their former quiet
work of writing with neatness and care Mr Bucket thoughtfully came and warmed
the soles of his boots first one and then the other at the fire
»Are you well wrapped up Miss Summerson« he asked me as his eyes met
mine »Its a desperate sharp night for a young lady to be out in«
I told him I cared for no weather and was warmly clothed
»It may be a long job« he observed »but so that it ends well never mind
miss«
»I pray to Heaven it may end well« said I
He nodded comfortingly »You see whatever you do dont you go and fret
yourself You keep yourself cool and equal for anything that may happen and
itll be the better for you the better for me the better for Lady Dedlock and
the better for Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet«
He was really very kind and gentle and as he stood before the fire warming
his boots and rubbing his face with his forefinger I felt a confidence in his
sagacity which reassured me It was not yet a quarter to two when I heard
horses feet and wheels outside »Now Miss Summerson« said he »we are off if
you please«
He gave me his arm and the two officers courteously bowed me out and we
found at the door a phaeton or barouche with a postilion and posthorses Mr
Bucket handed me in and took his own seat on the box The man in uniform whom
he had sent to fetch this equipage then handed him up a dark lantern at his
request and when he had given a few directions to the driver we rattled away
I was far from sure that I was not in a dream We rattled with great
rapidity through such a labyrinth of streets that I soon lost all idea where we
were except that we had crossed and recrossed the river and still seemed to
be traversing a lowlying waterside dense neighbourhood of narrow
thoroughfares chequered by docks and basins high piles of warehouses
swingbridges and masts of ships At length we stopped at the corner of a
little slimy turning which the wind from the river rushing up it did not
purify and I saw my companion by the light of his lantern in conference with
several men who looked like a mixture of police and sailors Against the
mouldering wall by which they stood there was a bill on which I could discern
the words FOUND DROWNED and this and an inscription about Drags possessed me
with the awful suspicion shadowed forth in our visit to that place
I had no need to remind myself that I was not there by the indulgence of
any feeling of mine to increase the difficulties of the search or to lessen
its hopes or enhance its delays I remained quiet but what I suffered in that
dreadful spot I never can forget And still it was like the horror of a dream A
man yet dark and muddy in long swollen sodden boots and a hat like them was
called out of a boat and whispered with Mr Bucket who went away with him down
some slippery steps as if to look at something secret that he had to show
They came back wiping their hands upon their coats after turning over
something wet but thank God it was not what I feared
After some further conference Mr Bucket whom everybody seemed to know and
defer to went in with the others at a door and left me in the carriage while
the driver walked up and down by his horses to warm himself The tide was
coming in as I judged from the sound it made and I could hear it break at the
end of the alley with a little rush towards me It never did so and I thought
it did so hundreds of times in what can have been at the most a quarter of an
hour and probably was less but the thought shuddered through me that it would
cast my mother at the horses feet
Mr Bucket came out again exhorting the others to be vigilant darkened his
lantern and once more took his seat »Dont you be alarmed Miss Summerson on
account of our coming down here« he said turning to me »I only want to have
everything in train and to know that it is in train by looking after it myself
Get on my lad«
We appeared to retrace the way we had come Not that I had taken note of any
particular objects in my perturbed state of mind but judging from the general
character of the streets We called at another office or station for a minute
and crossed the river again During the whole of this time and during the whole
search my companion wrapped up on the box never relaxed in his vigilance a
single moment but when we crossed the bridge he seemed if possible to be
more on the alert than before He stood up to look over the parapet he
alighted and went back after a shadowy female figure that flitted past us and
he gazed into the profound black pit of water with a face that made my heart
die within me The river had a fearful look so overcast and secret creeping
away so fast between the low flat lines of shore so heavy with indistinct and
awful shapes both of substance and shadow so deathlike and mysterious I have
seen it many times since then by sunlight and by moonlight but never free from
the impressions of that journey In my memory the lights upon the bridge are
always burning dim the cutting wind is eddying round the homeless woman whom we
pass the monotonous wheels are whirling on and the light of the carriagelamps
reflected back looks palely in upon me a face rising out of the dreaded
water
Clattering and clattering through the empty streets we came at length from
the pavement on to dark smooth roads and began to leave the houses behind us
After a while I recognised the familiar way to Saint Albans At Barnet fresh
horses were ready for us and we changed and went on It was very cold indeed
and the open country was white with snow though none was falling then
»An old acquaintance of yours this road Miss Summerson« said Mr Bucket
cheerfully
»Yes« I returned »Have you gathered any intelligence«
»None that can be quite depended on as yet« he answered »but its early
times as yet«
He had gone into every late or early publichouse where there was a light
they were not a few at that time the road being then much frequented by
drovers and had got down to talk to the turnpikekeepers I had heard him
ordering drink and chinking money and making himself agreeable and merry
everywhere but whenever he took his seat upon the box again his face resumed
its watchful steady look and he always said to the driver in the same business
tone »Get on my lad«
With all these stoppages it was between five and six oclock and we were
yet a few miles short of Saint Albans when he came out of one of these houses
and handed me in a cup of tea
»Drink it Miss Summerson itll do you good Youre beginning to get more
yourself now aint you«
I thanked him and said I hoped so
»You was what you may call stunned at first« he returned »and Lord no
wonder Dont speak loud my dear Its all right Shes on ahead«
I dont know what joyful exclamation I made or was going to make but he
put up his finger and I stopped myself
»Passed through here on foot this evening about eight or nine I heard of
her first at the archway toll over at Highgate but couldnt make quite sure
Traced her all along on and off Picked her up at one place and dropped her at
another but shes before us now safe Take hold of this cup and saucer
Ostler Now if you wasnt brought up to the butter trade look out and see if
you can catch halfacrown in your tother hand One two three and there you
are Now my lad try a gallop«
We were soon in Saint Albans and alighted a little before day when I was
just beginning to arrange and comprehend the occurrences of the night and
really to believe that they were not a dream Leaving the carriage at the
postinghouse and ordering fresh horses to be ready my companion gave me his
arm and we went towards home
»As this is your regular abode Miss Summerson you see« he observed »I
should like to know whether youve been asked for by any stranger answering the
description or whether Mr Jarndyce has I dont much expect it but it might
be«
As we ascended the hill he looked about him with a sharp eye the day was
now breaking and reminded me that I had come down it one night as I had
reason for remembering with my little servant and poor Jo whom he called
Toughey
I wondered how he knew that
»When you passed a man upon the road just yonder you know« said Mr
Bucket
Yes I remembered that too very well
»That was me« said Mr Bucket
Seeing my surprise he went on
»I drove down in a gig that afternoon to look after that boy You might
have heard my wheels when you came out to look after him yourself for I was
aware of you and your little maid going up when I was walking the horse down
Making an inquiry or two about him in the town I soon heard what company he was
in and was coming among the brickfields to look for him when I observed you
bringing him home here«
»Had he committed any crime« I asked
»None was charged against him« said Mr Bucket coolly lifting off his hat
»but I suppose he wasnt overparticular No What I wanted him for was in
connexion with keeping this very matter of Lady Dedlock quiet He had been
making his tongue more free than welcome as to a small accidental service he
had been paid for by the deceased Mr Tulkinghorn and it wouldnt do at any
sort of price to have him playing those games So having warned him out of
London I made an afternoon of it to warn him to keep out of it now he was away
and go farther from it and maintain a bright look out that I didnt catch him
coming back again«
»Poor creature« said I
»Poor enough« assented Mr Bucket »and trouble enough and well enough
away from London or anywhere else I was regularly turned on my back when I
found him taken up by your establishment I do assure you«
I asked him why »Why my dear« said Mr Bucket »Naturally there was no
end to his tongue then He might as well have been born with a yard and a half
of it and a remnant over«
Although I remember this conversation now my head was in confusion at the
time and my power of attention hardly did more than enable me to understand
that he entered into these particulars to divert me With the same kind
intention manifestly he often spoke to me of indifferent things while his
face was busy with the one object that we had in view He still pursued this
subject as we turned in at the gardengate
»Ah« said Mr Bucket »Here we are and a nice retired place it is Puts a
man in mind of the country house in the Woodpeckertapping that was known by
the smoke which so gracefully curled Theyre early with the kitchen fire and
that denotes good servants But what youve always got to be careful of with
servants is who comes to see em you never know what theyre up to if you
dont know that And another thing my dear Whenever you find a young man
behind the kitchendoor you give that young man in charge on suspicion of being
secreted in a dwellinghouse with an unlawful purpose«
We were now in front of the house he looked attentively and closely at the
gravel for footprints before he raised his eyes to the windows
»Do you generally put that elderly young gentleman in the same room when
hes on a visit here Miss Summerson« he inquired glancing at Mr Skimpoles
usual chamber
»You know Mr Skimpole« said I
»What do you call him again« returned Mr Bucket bending down his ear
»Skimpole is it Ive often wondered what his name might be Skimpole Not
John I should say nor yet Jacob«
»Harold« I told him
»Harold Yes Hes a queer bird is Harold« said Mr Bucket eyeing me with
great expression
»He is a singular character« said I
»No idea of money« observed Mr Bucket »He takes it though«
I involuntarily returned for answer that I perceived Mr Bucket knew him
»Why now Ill tell you Miss Summerson« he rejoined »Your mind will be
all the better for not running on one point too continually and Ill tell you
for a change It was him as pointed out to me where Toughey was I made up my
mind that night to come to the door and ask for Toughey if that was all but
willing to try a move or so first if any such was on the board I just pitched
up a morsel of gravel at that window where I saw a shadow As soon as Harold
opens it and I have had a look at him thinks I youre the man for me So I
smoothed him down a bit about not wanting to disturb the family after they was
gone to bed and about its being a thing to be regretted that charitable young
ladies should harbour vagrants and then when I pretty well understood his
ways I said I should consider a fypunnote well bestowed if I could relieve the
premises of Toughey without causing any noise or trouble Then says he lifting
up his eyebrows in the gayest way its no use mentioning a fypunnote to me my
friend because Im a mere child in such matters and have no idea of money Of
course I understood what his taking it so easy meant and being now quite sure
he was the man for me I wrapped the note round a little stone and threw it up
to him Well He laughs and beams and looks as innocent as you like and says
But I dont know the value of these things What am I to do with this Spend it
sir says I But I shall be taken in he says they wont give me the right
change I shall lose it its no use to me Lord you never saw such a face as
he carried it with Of course he told me where to find Toughey and I found
him«
I regarded this as very treacherous on the part of Mr Skimpole towards my
guardian and as passing the usual bounds of his childish innocence
»Bounds my dear« returned Mr Bucket »Bounds Now Miss Summerson Ill
give you a piece of advice that your husband will find useful when you are
happily married and have got a family about you Whenever a person says to you
that they are as innocent as can be in all concerning money look well after
your own money for they are dead certain to collar it if they can Whenever a
person proclaims to you In worldly matters Im a child you consider that that
person is only acrying off from being held accountable and that you have got
that persons number and its Number One Now I am not a poetical man myself
except in a vocal way when it goes round a company but Im a practical one and
thats my experience Sos this rule Fast and loose in one thing Fast and
loose in everything I never knew it fail No more will you Nor no one With
which caution to the unwary my dear I take the liberty of pulling this here
bell and so go back to our business«
I believe it had not been for a moment out of his mind any more than it had
been out of my mind or out of his face The whole household were amazed to see
me without any notice at that time in the morning and so accompanied and
their surprise was not diminished by my inquiries No one however had been
there It could not be doubted that this was the truth
»Then Miss Summerson« said my companion »we cant be too soon at the
cottage where those brickmakers are to be found Most inquiries there I leave to
you if youll be so good as to make em The naturalest way is the best way
and the naturalest way is your own way«
We set off again immediately On arriving at the cottage we found it shut
up and apparently deserted but one of the neighbours who knew me and who came
out when I was trying to make some one hear informed me that the two women and
their husbands now lived together in another house made of loose rough bricks
which stood on the margin of the piece of ground where the kilns were and where
the long rows of bricks were drying We lost no time in repairing to this place
which was within a few hundred yards and as the door stood ajar I pushed it
open
There were only three of them sitting at breakfast the child lying asleep
on a bed in the corner It was Jenny the mother of the dead child who was
absent The other woman rose on seeing me and the men though they were as
usual sulky and silent each gave me a morose nod of recognition A look passed
between them when Mr Bucket followed me in and I was surprised to see that the
woman evidently knew him
I had asked leave to enter of course Liz the only name by which I knew
her rose to give me her own chair but I sat down on a stool near the fire and
Mr Bucket took a corner of the bedstead Now that I had to speak and was among
people with whom I was not familiar I became conscious of being hurried and
giddy It was very difficult to begin and I could not help bursting into tears
»Liz« said I »I have come a long way in the night and through the snow to
inquire after a lady «
»Who has been here you know« Mr Bucket struck in addressing the whole
group with a composed propitiatory face »thats the lady the young lady means
The lady that was here last night you know«
»And who told you as there was anybody here« inquired Jennys husband who
had made a surly stop in his eating to listen and now measured him with his
eye
»A person of the name of Michael Jackson with a blue welveteen waistcoat
with a double row of mother of pearl buttons« Mr Bucket immediately answered
»He had as good mind his own business whoever he is« growled the man
»Hes out of employment I believe« said Mr Bucket apologetically for
Michael Jackson »and so gets talking«
The woman had not resumed her chair but stood faltering with her hand upon
its broken back looking at me I thought she would have spoken to me privately
if she had dared She was still in this attitude of uncertainty when her
husband who was eating with a lump of bread and fat in one hand and his
claspknife in the other struck the handle of his knife violently on the table
and told her with an oath to mind her own business at any rate and sit down
»I should like to have seen Jenny very much« said I »for I am sure she
would have told me all she could about this lady whom I am very anxious indeed
you cannot think how anxious to overtake Will Jenny be here soon Where is
she«
The woman had a great desire to answer but the man with another oath
openly kicked at her foot with his heavy boot He left it to Jennys husband to
say what he chose and after a dogged silence the latter turned his shaggy head
towards me
»Im not partial to gentlefolks coming into my place as youve heerd me say
afore now I think miss I let their places be and its curous they cant let
my place be Thered be a pretty shine made if I was to go awisitin them I
think Howsoever I dont so much complain of you as of some others and Im
agreeable to make you a civil answer though I give notice that Im not agoing
to be drawed like a badger Will Jenny be here soon No she wont Where is she
Shes gone up to Lunnun«
»Did she go last night« I asked
»Did she go last night Ah she went last night« he answered with a sulky
jerk of his head
»But was she here when the lady came And what did the lady say to her And
where is the lady gone I beg and pray you to be so kind as to tell me« said I
»for I am in great distress to know«
»If my master would let me speak and not say a word of harm « the woman
timidly began
»Your master« said her husband muttering an imprecation with slow
emphasis »will break your neck if you meddle with wot dont concern you«
After another silence the husband of the absent woman turning to me again
answered me with his usual grumbling unwillingness
»Wos Jenny here when the lady come Yes she wos here when the lady come
Wot did the lady say to her Well Ill tell you wot the lady said to her She
said You remember me as come one time to talk to you about the young lady as
had been awisiting of you You remember me as give you somethink handsome for a
handkercher wot she had left Ah she remembered So we all did Well then wos
that young lady up at the house now No she warnt up at the house now Well
then lookee here The lady was upon a journey all alone strange as we might
think it and could she rest herself where youre a setten for a hour or so
Yes she could and so she did Then she went it might be at twenty minutes
past eleven and it might be at twenty minutes past twelve we aint got no
watches here to know the time by nor yet clocks Where did she go I dont know
where she god She went one way and Jenny went another one went right to
Lunnun and tother went right from it Thats all about it Ask this man He
heerd it all and see it all He knows«
The other man repeated »Thats all about it«
»Was the lady crying« I inquired
»Devil a bit« returned the first man »Her shoes was the worse and her
clothes was the worse but she warnt not as I see«
The woman sat with her arms crossed and her eyes upon the ground Her
husband had turned his seat a little so as to face her and kept his
hammerlike hand upon the table as if it were in readiness to execute his
threat if she disobeyed him
»I hope you will not object to my asking your wife« said I »how the lady
looked«
»Come then« he gruffly cried to her »You hear what she says Cut it
short and tell her«
»Bad« replied the woman »Pale and exhausted Very bad«
»Did she speak much«
»Not much but her voice was hoarse«
She answered looking all the while at her husband for leave
»Was she faint« said I »Did she eat or drink here«
»Go on« said the husband in answer to her look »Tell her and cut it
short«
»She had a little water miss and Jenny fetched her some bread and tea But
she hardly touched it«
»And when she went from here« I was proceeding when Jennys husband
impatiently took me up
»When she went from here she went right away Norard by the high road Ask
on the road if you doubt me and see if it warnt so Now theres the end
Thats all about it«
I glanced at my companion and finding that he had already risen and was
ready to depart thanked them for what they had told me and took my leave The
woman looked full at Mr Bucket as he went out and he looked full at her
»Now Miss Summerson« he said to me as we walked quickly away »Theyve
got her ladyships watch among em Thats a positive fact«
»You saw it« I exclaimed
»Just as good as saw it« he returned »Else why should he talk about his
twenty minutes past and about his having no watch to tell the time by Twenty
minutes He dont usually cut his time so fine as that If he comes to
halfhours its as much as he does Now you see either her ladyship gave him
that watch or he took it I think she gave it him Now what should she give it
him for What should she give it him for«
He repeated this question to himself several times as we hurried on
appearing to balance between a variety of answers that arose in his mind
»If time could be spared« said Mr Bucket »which is the only thing that
cant be spared in this case I might get it out of that woman but its too
doubtful a chance to trust to under present circumstances They are up to
keeping a close eye upon her and any fool knows that a poor creetur like her
beaten and kicked and scarred and bruised from head to foot will stand by the
husband that ill uses her through thick and thin Theres something kept back
Its a pity but what we had seen the other woman«
I regretted it exceedingly for she was very grateful and I felt sure would
have resisted no entreaty of mine
»Its possible Miss Summerson« said Mr Bucket pondering on it »that her
Ladyship sent her up to London with some word for you and its possible that
her husband got the watch to let her go It dont come out altogether so plain
as to please me but its on the cards Now I dont take kindly to laying out
the money of Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet on these Roughs and I dont see my
way to the usefulness of it at present No So far our road Miss Summerson is
forard straight ahead and keeping everything quiet«
We called at home once more that I might send a hasty note to my guardian
and then we hurried back to where we had left the carriage The horses were
brought out as soon as we were seen coming and we were on the road again in a
few minutes
It had set in snowing at daybreak and it now snowed hard The air was so
thick with the darkness of the day and the density of the fall that we could
see but a very little way in any direction Although it was extremely cold the
snow was but partially frozen and it churned with a sound as if it were a
beach of small shells under the hoofs of the horses into mire and water They
sometimes slipped and floundered for a mile together and we were obliged to
come to a standstill to rest them One horse fell three times in this first
stage and trembled so and was so shaken that the driver had to dismount from
his saddle and lead him at last
I could eat nothing and could not sleep and I grew so nervous under those
delays and the slow pace at which we travelled that I had an unreasonable
desire upon me to get out and walk Yielding to my companions better sense
however I remained where I was All this time kept fresh by a certain
enjoyment of the work in which he was engaged he was up and down at every house
we came to addressing people whom he had never beheld before as old
acquaintances running in to warm himself at every fire he saw talking and
drinking and shaking hands at every bar and tap friendly with every waggoner
wheelwright blacksmith and tolltaker yet never seeming to lose time and
always mounting to the box again with his watchful steady face and his
businesslike »Get on my lad«
When we were changing horses the next time he came from the stableyard
with the wet snow encrusted upon him and dropping off him plashing and
crashing through it to his wet knees as he had been doing frequently since we
left Saint Albans and spoke to me at the carriage side
»Keep up your spirits Its certainly true that she came on here Miss
Summerson Theres not a doubt of the dress by this time and the dress has been
seen here«
»Still on foot« said I
»Still on foot I think the gentleman you mentioned must be the point shes
aiming at and yet I dont like his living down in her own part of the country
neither«
»I know so little« said I »There may be some one else nearer here of whom
I never heard«
»Thats true But whatever you do dont you fall acrying my dear and
dont you worry yourself no more than you can help Get on my lad«
The sleet fell all that day unceasingly a thick mist came on early and it
never rose or lightened for a moment Such roads I had never seen I sometimes
feared we had missed the way and got into the ploughed grounds or the marshes
If I ever thought of the time I had been out it presented itself as an
indefinite period of great duration and I seemed in a strange way never to
have been free from the anxiety under which I then laboured
As we advanced I began to feel misgivings that my companion lost
confidence He was the same as before with all the roadside people but he
looked graver when he sat by himself on the box I saw his finger uneasily going
across and across his mouth during the whole of one long weary stage I
overheard that he began to ask the drivers of coaches and other vehicles coming
towards us what passengers they had seen in other coaches and vehicles that
were in advance Their replies did not encourage him He always gave me a
reassuring beck of his finger and lift of his eyelid as he got upon the box
again but he seemed perplexed now when he said »Get on my lad«
At last when we were changing he told me that he had lost the track of the
dress so long that he began to be surprised It was nothing he said to lose
such a track for one while and to take it up for another while and so on but
it had disappeared here in an unaccountable manner and we had not come upon it
since This corroborated the apprehensions I had formed when he began to look
at directionposts and to leave the carriage at cross roads for a quarter of an
hour at a time while he explored them But I was not to be downhearted he
told me for it was as likely as not that the next stage might set us right
again
The next stage however ended as that one ended we had no new clue There
was a spacious inn here solitary but a comfortable substantial building and
as we drove in under a large gateway before I knew it where a landlady and her
pretty daughters came to the carriagedoor entreating me to alight and refresh
myself while the horses were making ready I thought it would be uncharitable to
refuse They took me upstairs to a warm room and left me there
It was at the corner of the house I remember looking two ways On one
side to a stableyard open to a byroad where the ostlers were unharnessing
the splashed and tired horses from the muddy carriage and beyond that to the
byroad itself across which the sign was heavily swinging on the other side
to a wood of dark pinetrees Their branches were encumbered with snow and it
silently dropped off in wet heaps while I stood at the window Night was setting
in and its bleakness was enhanced by the contrast of the pictured fire glowing
and gleaming in the windowpane As I looked among the stems of the trees and
followed the discoloured marks in the snow where the thaw was sinking into it
and undermining it I thought of the motherly face brightly set off by daughters
that had just now welcomed me and of my mother lying down in such a wood to
die
I was frightened when I found them all about me but I remembered that
before I fainted I tried very hard not to do it and that was some little
comfort They cushioned me up on a large sofa by the fire and then the comely
landlady told me that I must travel no further tonight but must go to bed But
this put me into such a tremble lest they should detain me there that she soon
recalled her words and compromised for a rest of halfanhour
A good endearing creature she was She and her three fair girls all so busy
about me I was to take hot soup and broiled fowl while Mr Bucket dried
himself and dined elsewhere but I could not do it when a snug round table was
presently spread by the fireside though I was very unwilling to disappoint
them However I could take some toast and some hot negus and as I really
enjoyed that refreshment it made some recompense
Punctual to the time at the halfhours end the carriage came rumbling
under the gateway and they took me down warmed refreshed comforted by
kindness and safe I assured them not to faint any more After I had got in
and had taken a grateful leave of them all the youngest daughter a blooming
girl of nineteen who was to be the first married they had told me got upon
the carriage step reached in and kissed me I have never seen her from that
hour but I think of her to this hour as my friend
The transparent windows with the fire and light looking so bright and warm
from the cold darkness out of doors were soon gone and again we were crushing
and churning the loose snow We went on with toil enough but the dismal roads
were not much worse than they had been and the stage was only nine miles My
companion smoking on the box I had thought at the last inn of begging him to
do so when I saw him standing at a great fire in a comfortable cloud of tobacco
was as vigilant as ever and as quickly down and up again when we came to any
human abode or any human creature He had lighted his little dark lantern which
seemed to be a favourite with him for we had lamps to the carriage and every
now and then he turned it upon me to see that I was doing well There was a
foldingwindow to the carriagehead but I never closed it for it seemed like
shutting out hope
We came to the end of the stage and still the lost trace was not recovered
I looked at him anxiously when we stopped to change but I knew by his yet
graver face as he stood watching the ostlers that he had heard nothing Almost
in an instant afterwards as I leaned back in my seat he looked in with his
lighted lantern in his hand an excited and quite different man
»What is it« said I starting »Is she here«
»No no Dont deceive yourself my dear Nobodys here But Ive got it«
The crystallised snow was in his eyelashes in his hair lying in ridges on
his dress He had to shake it from his face and get his breath before he spoke
to me
»Now Miss Summerson« said he beating his finger on the apron »dont you
be disappointed at what Im agoing to do You know me Im Inspector Bucket
and you can trust me Weve come a long way never mind Four horses out there
for the next stage up Quick«
There was a commotion in the yard and a man came running out of the stables
to know if he meant up or down
»Up I tell you Up Aint it English Up«
»Up« said I astonished »To London Are we going back«
»Miss Summerson« he answered »back Straight back as a die You know me
Dont be afraid Ill follow the other by G«
»The other« I repeated »Who«
»You called her Jenny didnt you Ill follow her Bring those two pair out
here for a crown a man Wake up some of you«
»You will not desert this lady we are in search of you will not abandon her
on such a night and in such a state of mind as I know her to be in« said I in
an agony and grasping his hand
»You are right my dear I wont But Ill follow the other Look alive here
with them horses Send a man forard in the saddle to the next stage and let
him send another forard again and order four on up right through My
darling dont you be afraid«
These orders and the way in which he ran about the yard urging them
caused a general excitement that was scarcely less bewildering to me than the
sudden change But in the height of the confusion a mounted man galloped away
to order the relays and our horses were put to with great speed
»My dear« said Mr Bucket jumping to his seat and looking in again
»youll excuse me if Im too familiar dont you fret and worry yourself no
more than you can help I say nothing else at present but you know me my dear
now dont you«
I endeavoured to say that I knew he was far more capable than I of deciding
what we ought to do but was he sure that this was right Could I not go forward
by myself in search of I grasped his hand again in my distress and whispered
it to him of my own mother
»My dear« he answered »I know I know and would I put you wrong do you
think Inspector Bucket Now you know me dont you«
What could I say but yes
»Then you keep up as good a heart as you can and you rely upon me for
standing by you no less than by Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet Now are you
right there«
»All right sir«
»Off she goes then And get on my lads«
We were again upon the melancholy road by which we had come tearing up the
miry sleet and thawing snow as if they were torn up by a waterwheel
Chapter LVIII
A Wintry Day and Night
Still impassive as behoves its breeding the Dedlock town house carries itself
as usual towards the street of dismal grandeur There are powdered heads from
time to time in the little windows of the hall looking out at the untaxed
powder falling all day from the sky and in the same conservatory there is
peach blossom turning itself exotically to the great hall fire from the nipping
weather out of doors It is given out that my Lady has gone down into
Lincolnshire but is expected to return presently
Rumour busy overmuch however will not go down into Lincolnshire It
persists in flitting and chattering about town It knows that that poor
unfortunate man Sir Leicester has been sadly used It hears my dear child
all sorts of shocking things It makes the world of five miles round quite
merry Not to know that there is something wrong at the Dedlocks is to augur
yourself unknown One of the peachycheeked charmers with the skeleton throats
is already apprised of all the principal circumstances that will come out before
the Lords on Sir Leicesters application for a bill of divorce
At Blaze and Sparkles the jewellers and at Sheen and Glosss the mercers
it is and will be for several hours the topic of the age the feature of the
century The patronesses of those establishments albeit so loftily inscrutable
being as nicely weighed and measured there as any other article of the
stockintrade are perfectly understood in this new fashion by the rawest hand
behind the counter »Our people Mr Jones« said Blaze and Sparkle to the hand
in question on engaging him »our people sir are sheep mere sheep Where two
or three marked ones go all the rest follow Keep those two or three in your
eye Mr Jones and you have the flock« So likewise Sheen and Gloss to their
Jones in reference to knowing where to have the fashionable people and how to
bring what they Sheen and Gloss choose into fashion On similar unerring
principles Mr Sladdery the librarian and indeed the great farmer of gorgeous
sheep admits this very day »Why yes sir there certainly are reports
concerning Lady Dedlock very current indeed among my high connexion sir You
see my high connexion must talk about something sir and its only to get a
subject into vogue with one or two ladies I could name to make it go down with
the whole Just what I should have done with those ladies sir in the case of
any novelty you had left to me to bring in they have done of themselves in this
case through knowing Lady Dedlock and being perhaps a little innocently jealous
of her too sir Youll find sir that this topic will be very popular among my
high connexion If it had been a speculation sir it would have brought money
And when I say so you may trust to my being right sir for I have made it my
business to study my high connexion and to be able to wind it up like a clock
sir«
Thus rumour thrives in the capital and will not go down into Lincolnshire
By halfpast five post meridian Horse Guards time it has even elicited a new
remark from the Honourable Mr Stables which bids fair to outshine the old one
on which he has so long rested his colloquial reputation This sparkling sally
is to the effect that although he always knew she was the bestgroomed woman in
the stud he had no idea she was a bolter It is immensely received in
turfcircles
At feasts and festivals also in firmaments she has often graced and among
constellations she outshone but yesterday she is still the prevalent subject
What is it Who is it When was it Where was it How was it She is discussed
by her dear friends with all the genteelest slang in vogue with the last new
word the last new manner the last new drawl and the perfection of polite
indifference A remarkable feature of the theme is that it is found to be so
inspiring that several people come out upon it who never came out before
positively say things William Buffy carries one of these smartnesses from the
place where he dines down to the House where the Whip for his party hands it
about with his snuffbox to keep men together who want to be off with such
effect that the Speaker who has had it privately insinuated into his own ear
under the corner of his wig cries »Order at the bar« three times without
making an impression
And not the least amazing circumstance connected with her being vaguely the
town talk is that people hovering on the confines of Mr Sladderys high
connexion people who know nothing and ever did know nothing about her think it
essential to their reputation to pretend that she is their topic too and to
retail her at secondhand with the last new word and the last new manner and
the last new drawl and the last new polite indifference and all the rest of
it all at secondhand but considered equal to new in inferior systems and to
fainter stars If there be any man of letters art or science among these
little dealers how noble in him to support the feeble sisters on such majestic
crutches
So goes the wintry day outside the Dedlock mansion How within it
Sir Leicester lying in his bed can speak a little though with difficulty
and indistinctness He is enjoined to silence and to rest and they have given
him some opiate to lull his pain for his old enemy is very hard with him He is
never asleep though sometimes he seems to fall into a dull waking doze He
caused his bedstead to be moved out nearer to the window when he heard it was
such inclement weather and his head to be so adjusted that he could see the
driving snow and sleet He watches it as it falls throughout the whole wintry
day
Upon the least noise in the house which is kept hushed his hand is at the
pencil The old housekeeper sitting by him knows what he would write and
whispers »No he has not come back yet Sir Leicester It was late last night
when he went He has been but a little time gone yet«
He withdraws his hand and falls to looking at the sleet and snow again
until they seem by being long looked at to fall so thick and fast that he is
obliged to close his eyes for a minute on the giddy whirl of white flakes and
icy blots
He began to look at them as soon as it was light The day is not yet far
spent when he conceives it to be necessary that her rooms should be prepared
for her It is very cold and wet Let there be good fires Let them know that
she is expected Please see to it yourself He writes to this purpose on his
slate and Mrs Rouncewell with a heavy heart obeys
»For I dread George« the old lady says to her son who waits below to keep
her company when she has a little leisure »I dread my dear that my Lady will
never more set foot within these walls«
»Thats a bad presentiment mother«
»Nor yet within the walls of Chesney Wold my dear«
»Thats worse But why mother«
»When I saw my Lady yesterday George she looked to me and I may say at
me too as if the step on the Ghosts Walk had almost walked her down«
»Come come You alarm yourself with oldstory fears mother«
»No I dont my dear No I dont Its going on for sixty year that I have
been in this family and I never had any fears for it before But its breaking
up my dear the great old Dedlock family is breaking up«
»I hope not mother«
»I am thankful I have lived long enough to be with Sir Leicester in this
illness and trouble for I know I am not too old nor too useless to be a
welcomer sight to him than anybody else in my place would be But the step on
the Ghosts Walk will walk my Lady down George it has been many a day behind
her and now it will pass her and go on«
»Well mother dear I say again I hope not«
»Ah so do I George« the old lady returns shaking her head and parting
her folded hands »But if my fears come true and he has to know it who will
tell him«
»Are these her rooms«
»These are my Ladys rooms just as she left them«
»Why now« says the trooper glancing round him and speaking in a lower
voice »I begin to understand how you come to think as you do think mother
Rooms get an awful look about them when they are fitted up like these for one
person you are used to see in them and that person is away under any shadow
let alone being God knows where«
He is not far out As all partings foreshadow the great final one so
empty rooms bereft of a familiar presence mournfully whisper what your room
and what mine must one day be My Ladys state has a hollow look thus gloomy
and abandoned and in the inner apartment where Mr Bucket last night made his
secret perquisition the traces of her dresses and her ornaments even the
mirrors accustomed to reflect them when they were a portion of herself have a
desolate and vacant air Dark and cold as the wintry day is it is darker and
colder in these deserted chambers than in many a hut that will barely exclude
the weather and though the servants heap fires in the grates and set the
couches and the chairs within the warm glass screens that let their ruddy light
shoot through to the furthest corners there is a heavy cloud upon the rooms
which no light will dispel
The old housekeeper and her son remain until the preparations are complete
and then she returns upstairs Volumnia has taken Mrs Rouncewells place in
the meantime though pearl necklaces and rouge pots however calculated to
embellish Bath are but indifferent comforts to the invalid under present
circumstances Volumnia not being supposed to know and indeed not knowing what
is the matter has found it a ticklish task to offer appropriate observations
and consequently has supplied their place with distracting smoothings of the
bedlinen elaborate locomotion on tiptoe vigilant peeping at her kinsmans
eyes and one exasperating whisper to herself of »He is asleep« In disproof of
which superfluous remark Sir Leicester has indignantly written on the slate »I
am not«
Yielding therefore the chair at the bedside to the quaint old housekeeper
Volumnia sits at a table a little removed sympathetically sighing Sir
Leicester watches the sleet and snow and listens for the returning steps that
he expects In the ears of his old servant looking as if she had stepped out of
an old pictureframe to attend a summoned Dedlock to another world the silence
is fraught with echoes of her own words »Who will tell him«
He has been under his valets hands this morning to be made presentable
and is as well got up as the circumstances will allow He is propped with
pillows his grey hair is brushed in its usual manner his linen is arranged to
a nicety and he is wrapped in a responsible dressinggown His eyeglass and his
watch are ready to his hand It is necessary less to his own dignity now
perhaps than for her sake that he should be seen as little disturbed and as
much himself as may be Women will talk and Volumnia though a Dedlock is no
exceptional case He keeps her here there is little doubt to prevent her
talking somewhere else He is very ill but he makes his present stand against
distress of mind and body most courageously
The fair Volumnia being one of those sprightly girls who cannot long
continue silent without imminent peril of seizure by the dragon Boredom soon
indicates the approach of that monster with a series of undisguisable yawns
Finding it impossible to suppress those yawns by any other process than
conversation she compliments Mrs Rouncewell on her son declaring that he
positively is one of the finest figures she ever saw and as soldierly a looking
person she should think as whats his name her favourite Life Guardsman the
man she doats on the dearest of creatures who was killed at Waterloo
Sir Leicester hears this tribute with so much surprise and stares about him
in such a confused way that Mrs Rouncewell feels it necessary to explain
»Miss Dedlock dont speak of my eldest son Sir Leicester but my youngest
I have found him He has come home«
Sir Leicester breaks silence with a harsh cry »George Your son George come
home Mrs Rouncewell«
The old housekeeper wipes her eyes Thank God Yes Sir Leicester
Does this discovery of some one lost this return of some one so long gone
come upon him as a strong confirmation of his hopes Does he think »Shall I
not with the aid I have recall her safely after this there being fewer hours
in her case than there are years in his«
It is of no use entreating him he is determined to speak now and he does
In a thick crowd of sounds but still intelligibly enough to be understood
»Why did you not tell me Mrs Rouncewell«
»It happened only yesterday Sir Leicester and I doubted your being well
enough to be talked to of such things«
Besides the giddy Volumnia now remembers with her little scream that nobody
was to have known of his being Mrs Rouncewells son and that she was not to
have told But Mrs Rouncewell protests with warmth enough to swell the
stomacher that of course she would have told Sir Leicester as soon as he got
better
»Where is your son George Mrs Rouncewell« asks Sir Leicester
Mrs Rouncewell not a little alarmed by his disregard of the doctors
injunctions replies in London
»Where in London«
Mrs Rouncewell is constrained to admit that he is in the house
»Bring him here to my room Bring him directly«
The old lady can do nothing but go in search of him Sir Leicester with
such power of movement as he has arranges himself a little to receive him
When he has done so he looks out again at the falling sleet and snow and
listens again for the returning steps A quantity of straw has been tumbled down
in the street to deaden the noises there and she might be driven to the door
perhaps without his hearing wheels
He is lying thus apparently forgetful of his newer and minor surprise when
the housekeeper returns accompanied by her trooper son Mr George approaches
softly to the bedside makes his bow squares his chest and stands with his
face flushed very heartily ashamed of himself
»Good Heaven and it is really George Rouncewell« exclaims Sir Leicester
»Do you remember me George«
The trooper needs to look at him and to separate this sound from that
sound before he knows what he has said but doing this and being a little
helped by his mother he replies
»I must have a very bad memory indeed Sir Leicester if I failed to
remember you«
»When I look at you George Rouncewell« Sir Leicester observes with
difficulty »I see something of a boy at Chesney Wold I remember well very
well«
He looks at the trooper until tears come into his eyes and then he looks at
the sleet and snow again
»I ask your pardon Sir Leicester« says the trooper »but would you accept
of my arms to raise you up You would lie easier Sir Leicester if you would
allow me to move you«
»If you please George Rouncewell if you will be so good«
The trooper takes him in his arms like a child lightly raises him and
turns him with his face more towards the window »Thank you You have your
mothers gentleness« returns Sir Leicester »and your own strength Thank you«
He signs to him with his hand not to go away George quietly remains at the
bedside waiting to be spoken to
»Why did you wish for secrecy« It takes Sir Leicester some time to ask
this
»Truly I am not much to boast of Sir Leicester and I I should still Sir
Leicester if you was not so indisposed which I hope you will not be long I
should still hope for the favour of being allowed to remain unknown in general
That involves explanations not very hard to be guessed at not very well timed
here and not very creditable to myself However opinions may differ on a
variety of subjects I should think it would be universally agreed Sir
Leicester that I am not much to boast of«
»You have been a soldier« observes Sir Leicester »and a faithful one«
George makes his military bow »As far as that goes Sir Leicester I have
done my duty under discipline and it was the least I could do«
»You find me« says Sir Leicester whose eyes are much attracted towards
him »far from well George Rouncewell«
»I am very sorry both to hear it and to see it Sir Leicester«
»I am sure you are No In addition to my older malady I have had a sudden
and bad attack Something that deadens « making an endeavour to pass one hand
down one side »and confuses « touching his lips
George with a look of assent and sympathy makes another bow The different
times when they were both young men the trooper much the younger of the two
and looked at one another down at Chesney Wold arise before them both and
soften both
Sir Leicester evidently with a great determination to say in his own
manner something that is on his mind before relapsing into silence tries to
raise himself among his pillows a little more George observant of the action
takes him in his arms again and places him as he desires to be »Thank you
George You are another self to me You have often carried my spare gun at
Chesney Wold George You are familiar to me in these strange circumstances
very familiar« He has put Sir Leicesters sounder arm over his shoulder in
lifting him up and Sir Leicester is slow in drawing it away again as he says
these words
»I was about to add« he presently goes on »I was about to add respecting
this attack that it was unfortunately simultaneous with a slight
misunderstanding between my Lady and myself I do not mean that there was any
difference between us for there has been none but that there was a
misunderstanding of certain circumstances important only to ourselves which
deprives me for a little while of my Ladys society She has found it
necessary to make a journey I trust will shortly return Volumnia do I make
myself intelligible The words are not quite under my command in the manner of
pronouncing them«
Volumnia understands him perfectly and in truth he delivers himself with
far greater plainness than could have been supposed possible a minute ago The
effort by which he does so is written in the anxious and labouring expression
of his face Nothing but the strength of his purpose enables him to make it
»Therefore Volumnia I desire to say in your presence and in the presence
of my old retainer and friend Mrs Rouncewell whose truth and fidelity no one
can question and in the presence of her son George who comes back like a
familiar recollection of my youth in the home of my ancestors at Chesney Wold
in case I should relapse in case I should not recover in case I should lose
both my speech and the power of writing though I hope for better things «
The old housekeeper weeping silently Volumnia in the greatest agitation
with the freshest bloom on her cheeks the trooper with his arms folded and his
head a little bent respectfully attentive
»Therefore I desire to say and to call you all to witness beginning
Volumnia with yourself most solemnly that I am on unaltered terms with Lady
Dedlock That I assert no cause whatever of complaint against her That I have
ever had the strongest affection for her and that I retain it undiminished Say
this to herself and to every one If you ever say less than this you will be
guilty of deliberate falsehood to me«
Volumnia tremblingly protests that she will observe his injunctions to the
letter
»My Lady is too high in position too handsome too accomplished too
superior in most respects to the best of those by whom she is surrounded not to
have her enemies and traducers I dare say Let it be known to them as I make
it known to you that being of sound mind memory and understanding I revoke
no disposition I have made in her favour I abridge nothing I have ever bestowed
upon her I am on unaltered terms with her and I recall having the full power
to do it if I were so disposed as you see no act I have done for her
advantage and happiness«
His formal array of words might have at any other time as it has often had
something ludicrous in it but at this time it is serious and affecting His
noble earnestness his fidelity his gallant shielding of her his general
conquest of his own wrong and his own pride for her sake are simply honourable
manly and true Nothing less worthy can be seen through the lustre of such
qualities in the commonest mechanic nothing less worthy can be seen in the
bestborn gentleman In such a light both aspire alike both rise alike both
children of the dust shine equally
Overpowered by his exertions he lays his head back on his pillows and
closes his eyes for not more than a minute when he again resumes his watching
of the weather and his attention to the muffled sounds In the rendering of
those little services and in the manner of their acceptance the trooper has
become installed as necessary to him Nothing had been said but it is quite
understood He falls a step or two backward to be out of sight and mounts guard
a little behind his mothers chair
The day is now beginning to decline The mist and the sleet into which the
snow has all resolved itself are darker and the blaze begins to tell more
vividly upon the room walls and furniture The gloom augments the bright gas
springs up in the streets and the pertinacious oil lamps which yet hold their
ground there with their source of life half frozen and half thawed twinkle
gaspingly like fiery fish out of water as they are The world which has been
rumbling over the straw and pulling at the bell to inquire begins to go home
begins to dress to dine to discuss its dear friend with all the last new
modes as already mentioned
Now does Sir Leicester become worse restless uneasy and in great pain
Volumnia lighting a candle with a predestined aptitude for doing something
objectionable is bidden to put it out again for it is not yet dark enough Yet
it is very dark too as dark as it will be all night Byandby she tries again
No Put it out It is not dark enough yet
His old housekeeper is the first to understand that he is striving to uphold
the fiction with himself that it is not growing late
»Dear Sir Leicester my honoured master« she softly whispers »I must for
your own good and my duty take the freedom of begging and praying that you
will not lie here in the lone darkness watching and waiting and dragging
through the time Let me draw the curtains and light the candles and make
things more comfortable about you The churchclocks will strike the hours just
the same Sir Leicester and the night will pass away just the same My Lady
will come back just the same«
»I know it Mrs Rouncewell but I am weak and he has been so long gone«
»Not so very long Sir Leicester Not twentyfour hours yet«
»But that is a long time O it is a long time«
He says it with a groan that wrings her heart
She knows that this is not a period for bringing the rough light upon him
she thinks his tears too sacred to be seen even by her Therefore she sits in
the darkness for a while without a word then gently begins to move about now
stirring the fire now standing at the dark window looking out Finally he tells
her with recovered selfcommand »As you say Mrs Rouncewell it is no worse
for being confessed It is getting late and they are not come Light the room«
When it is lighted and the weather shut out it is only left to him to listen
But they find that however dejected and ill he is he brightens when a
quiet pretence is made of looking at the fires in her rooms and being sure that
everything is ready to receive her Poor pretence as it is these allusions to
her being expected keep up hope within him
Midnight comes and with it the same blank The carriages in the streets are
few and other late sounds in that neighbourhood there are none unless a man so
very nomadically drunk as to stray into the frigid zone goes brawling and
bellowing along the pavement Upon this wintry night it is so still that
listening to the intense silence is like looking at intense darkness If any
distant sound be audible in this case it departs through the gloom like a
feeble light in that and all is heavier than before
The corporation of servants are dismissed to bed not unwilling to go for
they were up all last night and only Mrs Rouncewell and George keep watch in
Sir Leicesters room As the night lags tardily on or rather when it seems to
stop altogether at between two and three oclock they find a restless craving
on him to know more about the weather now he cannot see it Hence George
patrolling regularly every halfhour to the rooms so carefully looked after
extends his march to the halldoor looks about him and brings back the best
report he can make of the worst of nights the sleet still falling and even the
stone footways lying ankledeep in icy sludge
Volumnia in her room up a retired landing on the staircase the second
turning past the end of the carving and gilding a cousinly room containing a
fearful abortion of a portrait of Sir Leicester banished for its crimes and
commanding in the day a solemn yard planted with driedup shrubs like
antediluvian specimens of black tea is a prey to horrors of many kinds Not
last nor least among them possibly is a horror of what may befall her little
income in the event as she expresses it of anything happening to Sir
Leicester Anything in this sense meaning one thing only and that the last
thing that can happen to the consciousness of any baronet in the known world
An effect of these horrors is that Volumnia finds she cannot go to bed in
her own room or sit by the fire in her own room but must come forth with her
fair head tied up in a profusion of shawl and her fair form enrobed in drapery
and parade the mansion like a ghost particularly haunting the rooms warm and
luxurious prepared for one who still does not return Solitude under such
circumstances being not to be thought of Volumnia is attended by her maid who
impressed from her own bed for that purpose extremely cold very sleepy and
generally an injured maid as condemned by circumstances to take office with a
cousin when she had resolved to be maid to nothing less than ten thousand a
year has not a sweet expression of countenance
The periodical visits of the trooper to these rooms however in the course
of his patrolling is an assurance of protection and company both to mistress
and maid which renders them very acceptable in the small hours of the night
Whenever he is heard advancing they both make some little decorative
preparation to receive him at other times they divide their watches into short
scraps of oblivion and dialogues not wholly free from acerbity as to whether
Miss Dedlock sitting with her feet upon the fender was or was not falling into
the fire when rescued to her great displeasure by her guardian genius the
maid
»How is Sir Leicester now Mr George« inquires Volumnia adjusting her
cowl over her head
»Why Sir Leicester is much the same miss He is very low and ill and he
even wanders a little sometimes«
»Has he asked for me« inquires Volumnia tenderly
»Why no I cant say he has miss Not within my hearing that is to say«
»This is a truly sad time Mr George«
»It is indeed miss Hadnt you better go to bed«
»You had a deal better go to bed Miss Dedlock« quoth the maid sharply
But Volumnia answers No No She may be asked for she may be wanted at a
moments notice She never should forgive herself if anything was to happen and
she was not on the spot She declines to enter on the question mooted by the
maid how the spot comes to be there and not in her room which is nearer to
Sir Leicesters but staunchly declares that on the spot she will remain
Volumnia further makes a merit of not having closed an eye as if she had
twenty or thirty though it is hard to reconcile this statement with her having
most indisputably opened two within five minutes
But when it comes to four oclock and still the same blank Volumnias
constancy begins to fail her or rather it begins to strengthen for she now
considers that it is her duty to be ready for the morrow when much may be
expected of her that in fact howsoever anxious to remain upon the spot it
may be required of her as an act of self-devotion to desert the spot So when
the trooper reappears with his Hadnt you better go to bed miss and when the
maid protests more sharply than before »You had a deal better go to bed Miss
Dedlock« she meekly rises and says »Do with me what you think best«
Mr George undoubtedly thinks it best to escort her on his arm to the door
of her cousinly chamber and the maid as undoubtedly thinks it best to hustle
her into bed with mighty little ceremony Accordingly these steps are taken
and now the trooper in his rounds has the house to himself
There is no improvement in the weather From the portico from the eaves
from the parapet from every ledge and post and pillar drips the thawed snow
It has crept as if for shelter into the lintels of the great door under it
into the corners of the windows into every chink and crevice of retreat and
there wastes and dies It is falling still upon the roof upon the skylight
even through the skylight and drip drip drip with the regularity of the
Ghosts Walk on the stone floor below
The trooper his old recollections awakened by the solitary grandeur of a
great house no novelty to him once at Chesney Wold goes up the stairs and
through the chief rooms holding up his light at arms length Thinking of his
varied fortunes within the last few weeks and of his rustic boyhood and of the
two periods of his life so strangely brought together across the wide
intermediate space thinking of the murdered man whose image is fresh in his
mind thinking of the lady who has disappeared from these very rooms and the
tokens of whose recent presence are all here thinking of the master of the
house upstairs and of the foreboding »Who will tell him« he looks here and
looks there and reflects how he might see something now which it would tax his
boldness to walk up to lay his hand upon and prove to be a fancy But it is
all blank blank as the darkness above and below while he goes up the great
staircase again blank as the oppressive silence
»All is still in readiness George Rouncewell«
»Quite orderly and right Sir Leicester«
»No word of any kind«
The trooper shakes his head
»No letter that can possibly have been overlooked«
But he knows there is no such hope as that and lays his head down without
looking for an answer
Very familiar to him as he said himself some hours ago George Rouncewell
lifts him into easier positions through the long remainder of the blank wintry
night and equally familiar with his unexpressed wish extinguishes the light
and undraws the curtains at the first late break of day The day comes like a
phantom Cold colourless and vague it sends a warning streak before it of a
deathlike hue as if it cried out »Look what I am bringing you who watch
there Who will tell him«
Chapter LIX
Esthers Narrative
It was three oclock in the morning when the houses outside London did at last
begin to exclude the country and to close us in with streets We had made our
way along roads in a far worse condition than when we had traversed them by
daylight both the fall and the thaw having lasted ever since but the energy of
my companion never slackened It had only been as I thought of less assistance
than the horses in getting us on and it had often aided them They had stopped
exhausted halfway up hills they had been driven through streams of turbulent
water they had slipped down and become entangled with the harness but he and
his little lantern had been always ready and when the mishap was set right I
had never heard any variation in his cool »Get on my lads«
The steadiness and confidence with which he had directed our journey back I
could not account for Never wavering he never even stopped to make an inquiry
until we were within a few miles of London A very few words here and there
were then enough for him and thus we came at between three and four oclock in
the morning into Islington
I will not dwell on the suspense and anxiety with which I reflected all this
time that we were leaving my mother farther and farther behind every minute I
think I had some strong hope that he must be right and could not fail to have a
satisfactory object in following this woman but I tormented myself with
questioning it and discussing it during the whole journey What was to ensue
when we found her and what could compensate us for this loss of time were
questions also that I could not possibly dismiss my mind was quite tortured by
long dwelling on such reflections when we stopped
We stopped in a highstreet where there was a coachstand My companion
paid our two drivers who were as completely covered with splashes as if they
had been dragged along the roads like the carriage itself; and giving them some
brief direction where to take it lifted me out of it and into a hackneycoach
he had chosen from the rest
»Why my dear« he said as he did this »How wet you are«
I had not been conscious of it But the melted snow had found its way into
the carriage and I had got out two or three times when a fallen horse was
plunging and had to be got up and the wet had penetrated my dress I assured
him it was no matter but the driver who knew him would not be dissuaded by me
from running down the street to his stable whence he brought an armful of clean
dry straw They shook it out and strewed it well about me and I found it warm
and comfortable
»Now my dear« said Mr Bucket with his head in at the window after I was
shut up »Were agoing to mark this person down It may take a little time but
you dont mind that Youre pretty sure that Ive got a motive Aint you«
I little thought what it was little thought in how short a time I should
understand it better but I assured him that I had confidence in him
»So you may have my dear« he returned »And I tell you what If you only
repose half as much confidence in me as I repose in you after what Ive
experienced of you thatll do Lord youre no trouble at all I never see a
young woman in any station of society and Ive seen many elevated ones too
conduct herself like you have conducted yourself since you was called out of
your bed Youre a pattern you know thats what you are« said Mr Bucket
warmly »youre a pattern«
I told him I was very glad as indeed I was to have been no hindrance to
him and that I hoped I should be none now
»My dear« he returned »when a young lady is as mild as shes game and as
game as shes mild thats all I ask and more than I expect She then becomes a
Queen and thats about what you are yourself«
With these encouraging words they really were encouraging to me under
those lonely and anxious circumstances he got upon the box and we once more
drove away Where we drove I neither knew then nor have ever known since but
we appeared to seek out the narrowest and worst streets in London Whenever I
saw him directing the driver I was prepared for our descending into a deeper
complication of such streets and we never failed to do so
Sometimes we emerged upon a wider thoroughfare or came to a larger building
than the generality well lighted Then we stopped at offices like those we had
visited when we began our journey and I saw him in consultation with others
Sometimes he would get down by an archway or at a street corner and
mysteriously show the light of his little lantern This would attract similar
lights from various dark quarters like so many insects and a fresh
consultation would be held By degrees we appeared to contract our search within
narrower and easier limits Single policeofficers on duty could now tell Mr
Bucket what he wanted to know and point to him where to go At last we stopped
for a rather long conversation between him and one of these men which I
supposed to be satisfactory from his manner of nodding from time to time When
it was finished he came to me looking very busy and very attentive
»Now Miss Summerson« he said to me »you wont be alarmed whatever comes
off I know Its not necessary for me to give you any further caution than to
tell you that we have marked this person down and that you may be of use to me
before I know it myself I dont like to ask such a thing my dear but would
you walk a little way«
Of course I got out directly and took his arm
»It aint so easy to keep your feet« said Mr Bucket »but take time«
Although I looked about me confusedly and hurriedly as we crossed the
street I thought I knew the place »Are we in Holborn« I asked him
»Yes« said Mr Bucket »Do you know this turning«
»It looks like Chancery Lane«
»And was christened so my dear« said Mr Bucket
We turned down it and as we went shuffling through the sleet I heard the
clocks strike halfpast five We passed on in silence and as quickly as we
could with such a foothold when some one coming towards us on the narrow
pavement wrapped in a cloak stopped and stood aside to give me room In the
same moment I heard an exclamation of wonder and my own name from Mr
Woodcourt I knew his voice very well
It was so unexpected and so I dont know what to call it whether
pleasant or painful to come upon it after my feverish wandering journey and
in the midst of the night that I could not keep back the tears from my eyes It
was like hearing his voice in a strange country
»My dear Miss Summerson that you should be out at this hour and in such
weather«
He had heard from my guardian of my having been called away on some uncommon
business and said so to dispense with any explanation I told him that we had
but just left a coach and were going but then I was obliged to look at my
companion
»Why you see Mr Woodcourt« he had caught the name from me »we are
agoing at present into the next street Inspector Bucket«
Mr Woodcourt disregarding my remonstrances had hurriedly taken off his
cloak and was putting it about me »Thats a good move too« said Mr Bucket
assisting »a very good move«
»May I go with you« said Mr Woodcourt I dont know whether to me or my
companion
»Why Lord« exclaimed Mr Bucket taking the answer on himself »Of course
you may«
It was all said in a moment and they took me between them wrapped in the
cloak
»I have just left Richard« said Mr Woodcourt »I have been sitting with
him since ten oclock last night«
»O dear me he is ill«
»No no believe me not ill but not quite well He was depressed and faint
you know he gets so worried and so worn sometimes and Ada sent to me of
course and when I came home I found her note and came straight here Well
Richard revived so much after a little while and Ada was so happy and so
convinced of its being my doing though God knows I had little enough to do with
it that I remained with him until he had been fast asleep some hours As fast
asleep as she is now I hope«
His friendly and familiar way of speaking of them his unaffected devotion
to them the grateful confidence with which I knew he had inspired my darling
and the comfort he was to her could I separate all this from his promise to me
How thankless I must have been if it had not recalled the words he said to me
when he was so moved by the change in my appearance »I will accept him as a
trust and it shall be a sacred one«
We now turned into another narrow street »Mr Woodcourt« said Mr Bucket
who had eyed him closely as we came along »our business takes us to a
law-stationers here a certain Mr Snagsbys What you know him do you« He
was so quick that he saw it in an instant
»Yes I know a little of him and have called upon him at this place«
»Indeed sir« said Mr Bucket »Then you will be so good as to let me leave
Miss Summerson with you for a moment while I go and have half a word with him«
The last policeofficer with whom he had conferred was standing silently
behind us I was not aware of it until he struck in on my saying I heard some
one crying
»Dont be alarmed miss« he returned »Its Snagsbys servant«
»Why you see« said Mr Bucket »the girls subject to fits and has em
bad upon her tonight A most contrary circumstance it is for I want certain
information out of that girl and she must be brought to reason somehow«
»At all events they wouldnt be up yet if it wasnt for her Mr Bucket«
said the other man »Shes been at it pretty well all night sir«
»Well thats true« he returned »My lights burnt out Show yours a
moment«
All this passed in a whisper a door or two from the house in which I could
faintly hear crying and moaning In the little round of light produced for the
purpose Mr Bucket went up to the door and knocked The door was opened after
he had knocked twice and he went in leaving us standing in the street
»Miss Summerson« said Mr Woodcourt »if without obtruding myself on your
confidence I may remain near you pray let me do so«
»You are truly kind« I answered »I need wish to keep no secret of my own
from you if I keep any it is anothers«
»I quite understand Trust me I will remain near you only so long as I can
fully respect it«
»I trust implicitly to you« I said »I know and deeply feel how sacredly
you keep your promise«
After a short time the little round of light shone out again and Mr Bucket
advanced towards us in it with his earnest face »Please to come in Miss
Summerson« he said »and sit down by the fire Mr Woodcourt from information
I have received I understand you are a medical man Would you look to this girl
and see if anything can be done to bring her round She has a letter somewhere
that I particularly want Its not in her box and I think it must be about her
but she is so twisted and clenched up that she is difficult to handle without
hurting«
We all three went into the house together although it was cold and raw it
smelt close too from being up all night In the passage behind the door stood a
scared sorrowfullooking little man in a grey coat who seemed to have a
naturally polite manner and spoke meekly
»Downstairs if you please Mr Bucket« said he »The lady will excuse the
front kitchen we use it as our workaday sittingroom The back is Gusters
bedroom and in it shes acarrying on poor thing to a frightful extent«
We went downstairs followed by Mr Snagsby as I soon found the little man
to be In the front kitchen sitting by the fire was Mrs Snagsby with very
red eyes and a very severe expression of face
»My little woman« said Mr Snagsby entering behind us »to waive not to
put too fine a point upon it my dear hostilities for one single moment in
the course of this prolonged night here is Inspector Bucket Mr Woodcourt and
a lady«
She looked very much astonished as she had reason for doing and looked
particularly hard at me
»My little woman« said Mr Snagsby sitting down in the remotest corner by
the door as if he were taking a liberty »it is not unlikely that you may
inquire of me why Inspector Bucket Mr Woodcourt and a lady call upon us in
Cooks Court Cursitor Street at the present hour I dont know I have not the
least idea If I was to be informed I should despair of understanding and Id
rather not be told«
He appeared so miserable sitting with his head upon his hand and I
appeared so unwelcome that I was going to offer an apology when Mr Bucket
took the matter on himself
»Now Mr Snagsby« said he »the best thing you can do is to go along with
Mr Woodcourt to look after your Guster «
»My Guster Mr Bucket« cried Mr Snagsby »Go on sir go on I shall be
charged with that next«
»And to hold the candle« pursued Mr Bucket without correcting himself »or
hold her or make yourself useful in any way youre asked Which theres not a
man alive more ready to do for youre a man of urbanity and suavity you know
and youve got the sort of heart that can feel for another Mr Woodcourt
would you be so good as see to her and if you can get that letter from her to
let me have it as soon as ever you can«
As they went out Mr Bucket made me sit down in a corner by the fire and
take off my wet shoes which he turned up to dry upon the fender talking all
the time
»Dont you be at all put out miss by the want of a hospitable look from
Mrs Snagsby there because shes under a mistake altogether Shell find that
out sooner than will be agreeable to a lady of her generally correct manner of
forming her thoughts because Im agoing to explain it to her« Here standing
on the hearth with his wet hat and shawls in his hand himself a pile of wet he
turned to Mrs Snagsby »Now the first thing that I say to you as a married
woman possessing what you may call charms you know Believe me if all those
endearing and cetrer youre well acquainted with the song because its in
vain for you to tell me that you and good society are strangers charms
attractions mind you that ought to give you confidence in yourself is that
youve done it«
Mrs Snagsby looked rather alarmed relented a little and faltered what
did Mr Bucket mean
»What does Mr Bucket mean« he repeated and I saw by his face that all
the time he talked he was listening for the discovery of the letter to my own
great agitation for I knew then how important it must be »Ill tell you what
he means maam Go and see Othello acted Thats the tragedy for you«
Mrs Snagsby consciously asked why
»Why« said Mr Bucket »Because youll come to that if you dont look out
Why at the very moment while I speak I know what your minds not wholly free
from respecting this young lady But shall I tell you who this young lady is
Now come youre what I call an intellectual woman with your soul too large
for your body if you come to that and chafing it and you know me and you
recollect where you saw me last and what was talked of in that circle Dont
you Yes Very well This young lady is that young lady«
Mrs Snagsby appeared to understand the reference better than I did at the
time
»And Toughey him as you call Jo was mixed up in the same business and
no other and the lawwriter that you know of was mixed up in the same
business and no other and your husband with no more knowledge of it than your
greatgrandfather was mixed up by Mr Tulkinghorn deceased his best
customer in the same business and no other and the whole bileing of people
was mixed up in the same business and no other And yet a married woman
possessing your attractions shuts her eyes and sparklers too and goes and
runs her delicateformed head against a wall Why I am ashamed of you I
expected Mr Woodcourt might have got it by this time«
Mrs Snagsby shook her head and put her handkerchief to her eyes
»Is that all« said Mr Bucket excitedly »No See what happens Another
person mixed up in that business and no other a person in a wretched state
comes here tonight and is seen aspeaking to your maidservant and between
her and your maidservant there passes a paper that I would give a hundred pound
for down What do you do You hide and you watch em and you pounce upon that
maidservant knowing what shes subject to and what a little thing will bring
em on in that surprising manner and with that severity that by the Lord
she goes off and keeps off when a Life may be hanging upon that girls words«
He so thoroughly meant what he said now that I involuntarily clasped my
hands and felt the room turning away from me But it stopped Mr Woodcourt
came in put a paper into his hand and went away again
»Now Mrs Snagsby the only amends you can make« said Mr Bucket rapidly
glancing at it »is to let me speak a word to this young lady in private here
And if you know of any help that you can give to that gentleman in the next
kitchen there or can think of any one thing thats likelier than another to
bring the girl round do your swiftest and best« In an instant she was gone
and he had shut the door »Now my dear youre steady and quite sure of
yourself«
»Quite« said I
»Whose writing is that«
It was my mothers A pencilwriting on a crushed and torn piece of paper
blotted with wet Folded roughly like a letter and directed to me at my
guardians
»You know the hand« he said »and if you are firm enough to read it to me
do But be particular to a word«
It had been written in portions at different times I read what follows
»I came to the cottage with two objects First to see the dear one if
I could once more but only to see her not to speak to her or let
her know that I was near The other object to elude pursuit and to be
lost Do not blame the mother for her share The assistance that she
rendered me she rendered on my strongest assurance that it was for the
dear ones good You remember her dead child The mens consent I
bought but her help was freely given«
»I came That was written« said my companion »when she rested there It bears
out what I made of it I was right«
The next was written at another time
»I have wandered a long distance and for many hours and I know that I
must soon die These streets I have no purpose but to die When I left
I had a worse but I am saved from adding that guilt to the rest Cold
wet and fatigue are sufficient causes for my being found dead but I
shall die of others though I suffer from these It was right that all
that had sustained me should give way at once and that I should die of
terror and my conscience«
»Take courage« said Mr Bucket »Theres only a few words more«
Those too were written at another time To all appearance almost in the
dark
»I have done all I could to be lost I shall be soon forgotten so and
shall disgrace him least I have nothing about me by which I can be
recognised This paper I part with now The place where I shall lie
down if I can get so far has been often in my mind Farewell
Forgive«
Mr Bucket supporting me with his arm lowered me gently into my chair »Cheer
up Dont think me hard with you my dear but as soon as ever you feel equal
to it get your shoes on and be ready«
I did as he required but I was left there a long time praying for my
unhappy mother They were all occupied with the poor girl and I heard Mr
Woodcourt directing them and speaking to her often At length he came in with
Mr Bucket and said that as it was important to address her gently he thought
it best that I should ask her for whatever information we desired to obtain
There was no doubt that she could now reply to questions if she were soothed
and not alarmed The questions Mr Bucket said were how she came by the
letter what passed between her and the person who gave her the letter and
where the person went Holding my mind as steadily as I could to these points I
went into the next room with them Mr Woodcourt would have remained outside
but at my solicitation went in with us
The poor girl was sitting on the floor where they had laid her down They
stood around her though at a little distance that she might have air She was
not pretty and looked weak and poor but she had a plaintive and a good face
though it was still a little wild I kneeled on the ground beside her and put
her poor head upon my shoulder whereupon she drew her arm round my neck and
burst into tears
»My poor girl« said I laying my face against her forehead for indeed I
was crying too and trembling »it seems cruel to trouble you now but more
depends on our knowing something about this letter than I could tell you in an
hour«
She began piteously declaring that she didnt mean any harm she didnt mean
any harm Mrs Snagsby
»We are all sure of that« said I »But pray tell me how you got it«
»Yes dear lady I will and tell you true Ill tell true indeed Mrs
Snagsby«
»I am sure of that« said I »And how was it«
»I had been out on an errand dear lady long after it was dark quite
late and when I came home I found a commonlooking person all wet and muddy
looking up at our house When she saw me coming in at the door she called me
back and said did I live here and I said yes and she said she knew only one
or two places about here but had lost her way and couldnt find them O what
shall I do what shall I do They wont believe me She didnt say any harm to
me and I didnt say any harm to her indeed Mrs Snagsby«
It was necessary for her mistress to comfort her which she did I must say
with a good deal of contrition before she could be got beyond this
»She could not find those places« said I
»No« cried the girl shaking her head »No Couldnt find them And she was
so faint and lame and miserable O so wretched that if you had seen her Mr
Snagsby youd have given her halfacrown I know«
»Well Guster my girl« said he at first not knowing what to say »I hope
I should«
»And yet she was so well spoken« said the girl looking at me with
wideopen eyes »that it made a persons heart bleed And so she said to me did
I know the way to the buryingground And I asked her which buryingground And
she said the poor buryingground And so I told her I had been a poor child
myself and it was according to parishes But she said she meant a poor
buryingground not very far from here where there was an archway and a step
and an iron gate«
As I watched her face and soothed her to go on I saw that Mr Bucket
received this with a look which I could not separate from one of alarm
»O dear dear« cried the girl pressing her hair back with her hands »what
shall I do what shall I do She meant the buryingground where the man was
buried that took the sleepingstuff that you came home and told us of Mr
Snagsby that frightened me so Mrs Snagsby O I am frightened again Hold
me«
»You are so much better now« said I »Pray pray tell me more«
»Yes I will yes I will But dont be angry with me thats a dear lady
because I have been so ill«
Angry with her poor soul
»There Now I will now I will So she said could I tell her how to find
it and I said yes and I told her and she looked at me with eyes like almost
as if she was blind and herself all waving back And so she took out the
letter and showed it me and said if she was to put that in the postoffice it
would be rubbed out and not minded and never sent and would I take it from her
and send it and the messenger would be paid at the house And so I said yes if
it was no harm and she said no no harm And so I took it from her and she
said she had nothing to give me and I said I was poor myself and consequently
wanted nothing And so she said God bless you and went«
»And did she go «
»Yes« cried the girl anticipating the inquiry »yes she went the way I
had shown her Then I came in and Mrs Snagsby came behind me from somewhere
and laid hold of me and I was frightened«
Mr Woodcourt took her kindly from me Mr Bucket wrapped me up and
immediately we were in the street Mr Woodcourt hesitated but I said »Dont
leave me now« and Mr Bucket added »Youll be better with us we may want you
dont lose time«
I have the most confused impressions of that walk I recollect that it was
neither night nor day that morning was dawning but the streetlamps were not
yet put out that the sleet was still falling and that all the ways were deep
with it I recollect a few chilled people passing in the streets I recollect
the wet housetops the clogged and bursting gutters and waterspouts the
mounds of blackened ice and snow over which we passed the narrowness of the
courts by which we went At the same time I remember that the poor girl seemed
to be yet telling her story audibly and plainly in my hearing that I could feel
her resting on my arm that the stained house fronts put on human shapes and
looked at me that great watergates seemed to be opening and closing in my
head or in the air and that the unreal things were more substantial than the
real
At last we stood under a dark and miserable covered way where one lamp was
burning over an iron gate and where the morning faintly struggled in The gate
was closed Beyond it was a burialground a dreadful spot in which the night
was very slowly stirring but where I could dimly see heaps of dishonoured
graves and stones hemmed in by filthy houses with a few dull lights in their
windows and on whose walls a thick humidity broke out like a disease On the
step at the gate drenched in the fearful wet of such a place which oozed and
splashed down everywhere I saw with a cry of pity and horror a woman lying
Jenny the mother of the dead child
I ran forward but they stopped me and Mr Woodcourt entreated me with the
greatest earnestness even with tears before I went up to the figure to listen
for an instant to what Mr Bucket said I did so as I thought I did so as I
am sure
»Miss Summerson youll understand me if you think a moment They changed
clothes at the cottage«
They changed clothes at the cottage I could repeat the words in my mind
and I knew what they meant of themselves but I attached no meaning to them in
any other connexion
»And one returned« said Mr Bucket »and one went on And the one that went
on only went on a certain way agreed upon to deceive and then turned across
country and went home Think a moment«
I could repeat this in my mind too but I had not the least idea what it
meant I saw before me lying on the step the mother of the dead child She lay
there with one arm creeping round a bar of the iron gate and seeming to
embrace it She lay there who had so lately spoken to my mother She lay there
a distressed unsheltered senseless creature She who had brought my mothers
letter who could give me the only clue to where my mother was she who was to
guide us to rescue and save her whom we had sought so far who had come to this
condition by some means connected with my mother that I could not follow and
might be passing beyond our reach and help at that moment she lay there and
they stopped me I saw but did not comprehend the solemn and compassionate
look in Mr Woodcourts face I saw but did not comprehend his touching the
other on the breast to keep him back I saw him stand uncovered in the bitter
air with a reverence for something But my understanding for all this was gone
I even heard it said between them
»Shall she go«
»She had better go Her hands should be the first to touch her They have a
higher right than ours«
I passed on to the gate and stooped down I lifted the heavy head put the
long dank hair aside and turned the face And it was my mother cold and dead
Chapter LX
Perspective
I proceed to other passages of my narrative From the goodness of all about me
I derived such consolation as I can never think of unmoved I have already said
so much of myself and so much still remains that I will not dwell upon my
sorrow I had an illness but it was not a long one and I would avoid even this
mention of it if I could quite keep down the recollection of their sympathy
I proceed to other passages of my narrative
During the time of my illness we were still in London where Mrs Woodcourt
had come on my guardians invitation to stay with us When my guardian thought
me well and cheerful enough to talk with him in our old way though I could
have done that sooner if he would have believed me I resumed my work and my
chair beside his He had appointed the time himself and we were alone
»Dame Trot« said he receiving me with a kiss »welcome to the Growlery
again my dear I have a scheme to develop little woman I propose to remain
here perhaps for six months perhaps for a longer time as it may be Quite to
settle here for a while in short«
»And in the meanwhile leave Bleak House« said I
»Aye my dear Bleak House« he returned »must learn to take care of
itself.«
I thought his tone sounded sorrowful but looking at him I saw his kind
face lighted up by its pleasantest smile
»Bleak House« he repeated and his tone did not sound sorrowful I found
»must learn to take care of itself. It is a long way from Ada my dear and Ada
stands much in need of you«
»Its like you Guardian« said I »to have been taking that into
consideration for a happy surprise to both of us«
»Not so disinterested either my dear if you mean to extol me for that
virtue since if you were generally on the road you could be seldom with me
And besides I wish to hear as much and as often of Ada as I can in this
condition of estrangement from poor Rick Not of her alone but of him too poor
fellow«
»Have you seen Mr Woodcourt this morning Guardian«
»I see Mr Woodcourt every morning Dame Durden«
»Does he still say the same of Richard«
»Just the same He knows of no direct bodily illness that he has on the
contrary he believes that he has none Yet he is not easy about him who can
be«
My dear girl had been to see us lately every day sometimes twice in a day
But we had foreseen all along that this would only last until I was quite
myself We knew full well that her fervent heart was as full of affection and
gratitude towards her cousin John as it had ever been and we acquitted Richard
of laying any injunctions upon her to stay away but we knew on the other hand
that she felt it a part of her duty to him to be sparing of her visits at our
house My guardians delicacy had soon perceived this and had tried to convey
to her that he thought she was right
»Dear unfortunate mistaken Richard« said I »When will he awake from his
delusion«
»He is not in the way to do so now my dear« replied my guardian »The more
he suffers the more averse he will be to me having made me the principal
representative of the great occasion of his suffering«
I could not help adding »So unreasonably«
»Ah Dame Trot Dame Trot« returned my guardian »what shall we find
reasonable in Jarndyce and Jarndyce Unreason and injustice at the top unreason
and injustice at the heart and at the bottom unreason and injustice from
beginning to end if it ever has an end how should poor Rick always hovering
near it pluck reason out of it He no more gathers grapes from thorns or figs
from thistles than older men did in old times«
His gentleness and consideration for Richard whenever we spoke of him
touched me so that I was always silent on this subject very soon
»I suppose the Lord Chancellor and the Vice Chancellors and the whole
Chancery battery of great guns would be infinitely astonished by such unreason
and injustice in one of their suitors« pursued my guardian »When those learned
gentlemen begin to raise mossroses from the powder they sow in their wigs I
shall begin to be astonished too«
He checked himself in glancing towards the window to look where the wind
was and leaned on the back of my chair instead
»Well well little woman To go on my dear This rock we must leave to
time chance and hopeful circumstance We must not shipwreck Ada upon it She
cannot afford and he cannot afford the remotest chance of another separation
from a friend Therefore I have particularly begged of Woodcourt and I now
particularly beg of you my dear not to move this subject with Rick Let it
rest Next week next month next year sooner or later he will see me with
clearer eyes I can wait«
But I had already discussed it with him I confessed and so I thought had
Mr Woodcourt
»So he tells me« returned my guardian »Very good He has made his protest
and Dame Durden has made hers and there is nothing more to be said about it
Now I come to Mrs Woodcourt How do you like her my dear«
In answer to this question which was oddly abrupt I said I liked her very
much and thought she was more agreeable than she used to be
»I think so too« said my guardian »Less pedigree Not so much of Morganap
whats his name«
That was what I meant I acknowledged though he was a very harmless person
even when we had had more of him
»Still upon the whole he is as well in his native mountains« said my
guardian »I agree with you Then little woman can I do better for a time than
retain Mrs Woodcourt here«
No And yet
My guardian looked at me waiting for what I had to say
I had nothing to say At least I had nothing in my mind that I could say I
had an undefined impression that it might have been better if we had had some
other inmate but I could hardly have explained why even to myself Or if to
myself certainly not to anybody else
»You see« said my guardian »our neighbourhood is in Woodcourts way and
he can come here to see her as often as he likes which is agreeable to them
both and she is familiar to us and fond of you«
Yes That was undeniable I had nothing to say against it I could not have
suggested a better arrangement but I was not quite easy in my mind Esther
Esther why not Esther think
»It is a very good plan indeed dear Guardian and we could not do better«
»Sure little woman«
Quite sure I had had a moments time to think since I had urged that duty
on myself and I was quite sure
»Good« said my guardian »It shall be done Carried unanimously«
»Carried unanimously« I repeated going on with my work
It was a cover for his booktable that I happened to be ornamenting It had
been laid by on the night preceding my sad journey and never resumed I showed
it to him now and he admired it highly After I had explained the pattern to
him and all the great effects that were to come out byandby I thought I
would go back to our last theme
»You said dear Guardian when we spoke of Mr Woodcourt before Ada left us
that you thought he would give a long trial to another country Have you been
advising him since«
»Yes little woman pretty often«
»Has he decided to do so«
»I rather think not«
»Some other prospect has opened to him perhaps« said I
»Why yes perhaps« returned my guardian beginning his answer in a very
deliberate manner »About half a year hence or so there is a medical attendant
for the poor to be appointed at a certain place in Yorkshire It is a thriving
place pleasantly situated streams and streets town and country mill and
moor and seems to present an opening for such a man I mean a man whose hopes
and aims may sometimes lie as most mens sometimes do I dare say above the
ordinary level but to whom the ordinary level will be high enough after all if
it should prove to be a way of usefulness and good service leading to no other
All generous spirits are ambitious I suppose but the ambition that calmly
trusts itself to such a road instead of spasmodically trying to fly over it is
of the kind I care for It is Woodcourts kind«
»And will he get this appointment« I asked
»Why little woman« returned my guardian smiling »not being an oracle I
cannot confidently say but I think so His reputation stands very high there
were people from that part of the country in the shipwreck and strange to say
I believe the best man has the best chance You must not suppose it to be a fine
endowment It is a very very commonplace affair my dear an appointment to a
great amount of work and a small amount of pay but better things will gather
about it it may be fairly hoped«
»The poor of that place will have reason to bless the choice if it falls on
Mr Woodcourt Guardian«
»You are right little woman that I am sure they will«
We said no more about it nor did he say a word about the future of Bleak
House But it was the first time I had taken my seat at his side in my mourning
dress and that accounted for it I considered
I now began to visit my dear girl every day in the dull dark corner where
she lived The morning was my usual time but whenever I found I had an hour or
so to spare I put on my bonnet and bustled off to Chancery Lane They were both
so glad to see me at all hours and used to brighten up so when they heard me
opening the door and coming in being quite at home I never knocked that I
had no fear of becoming troublesome just yet
On these occasions I frequently found Richard absent At other times he
would be writing or reading papers in the Cause at that table of his so
covered with papers which was never disturbed Sometimes I would come upon him
lingering at the door of Mr Vholess office Sometimes I would meet him in the
neighbourhood lounging about and biting his nails I often met him wandering
in Lincolns Inn near the place where I had first seen him O how different
how different
That the money Ada brought him was melting away with the candles I used to
see burning after dark in Mr Vholess office I knew very well It was not a
large amount in the beginning he had married in debt and I could not fail to
understand by this time what was meant by Mr Vholess shoulder being at the
wheel as I still heard it was My dear made the best of housekeepers and
tried hard to save but I knew that they were getting poorer and poorer every
day
She shone in the miserable corner like a beautiful star She adorned and
graced it so that it became another place Paler than she had been at home and
a little quieter than I had thought natural when she was yet so cheerful and
hopeful her face was so unshadowed that I half believed she was blinded by her
love for Richard to his ruinous career
I went one day to dine with them while I was under this impression As I
turned into Symonds Inn I met little Miss Flite coming out She had been to
make a stately call upon the wards in Jarndyce as she still called them and
had derived the highest gratification from that ceremony Ada had already told
me that she called every Monday at five oclock with one little extra white bow
in her bonnet which never appeared there at any other time and with her
largest reticule of documents on her arm
»My dear« she began »So delighted How do you do So glad to see you And
you are going to visit our interesting Jarndyce wards To be sure Our beauty is
at home my dear and will be charmed to see you«
»Then Richard is not come in yet« said I »I am glad of that for I was
afraid of being a little late«
»No he is not come in« returned Miss Flite »He has had a long day in
Court I left him there with Vholes You dont like Vholes I hope Dont like
Vholes Dangerous man«
»I am afraid you see Richard oftener than ever now« said I
»My dearest« returned Miss Flite »daily and hourly You know what I told
you of the attraction on the Chancellors table My dear next to myself he is
the most constant suitor in Court He begins quite to amuse our little party
Very friendly little party are we not«
It was miserable to hear this from her poor mad lips though it was no
surprise
»In short my valued friend« pursued Miss Flite advancing her lips to my
ear with an air of equal patronage and mystery »I must tell you a secret I
have made him my executor Nominated constituted and appointed him In my
will Yees«
»Indeed« said I
»Yees« repeated Miss Flite in her most genteel accents »my executor
administrator and assign Our Chancery phrases my love I have reflected
that if I should wear out he will be able to watch that judgment Being so very
regular in his attendance«
It made me sigh to think of him
»I did at one time mean« said Miss Flite echoing the sigh »to nominate
constitute and appoint poor Gridley Also very regular my charming girl I
assure you most exemplary But he wore out poor man so I have appointed his
successor Dont mention it This is in confidence«
She carefully opened her reticule a little way and showed me a folded piece
of paper inside as the appointment of which she spoke
»Another secret my dear I have added to my collection of birds«
»Really Miss Flite« said I knowing how it pleased her to have her
confidence received with an appearance of interest
She nodded several times and her face became overcast and gloomy »Two
more I call them the Wards in Jarndyce They are caged up with all the others
With Hope Joy Youth Peace Rest Life Dust Ashes Waste Want Ruin
Despair Madness Death Cunning Folly Words Wigs Rags Sheepskin Plunder
Precedent Jargon Gammon and Spinach«
The poor soul kissed me with the most troubled look I had ever seen in her
and went her way Her manner of running over the names of her birds as if she
were afraid of hearing them even from her own lips quite chilled me
This was not a cheering preparation for my visit and I could have dispensed
with the company of Mr Vholes when Richard who arrived within a minute or two
after me brought him to share our dinner Although it was a very plain one Ada
and Richard were for some minutes both out of the room together helping to get
ready what we were to eat and drink Mr Vholes took that opportunity of holding
a little conversation in a low voice with me He came to the window where I was
sitting and began upon Symonds Inn
»A dull place Miss Summerson for a life that is not an official one« said
Mr Vholes smearing the glass with his black glove to make it clearer for me
»There is not much to see here« said I
»Nor to hear miss« returned Mr Vholes »A little music does occasionally
stray in but we are not musical in the law and soon eject it I hope Mr
Jarndyce is as well as his friends could wish him«
I thanked Mr Vholes and said he was quite well
»I have not the pleasure to be admitted among the number of his friends
myself« said Mr Vholes »and I am aware that the gentlemen of our profession
are sometimes regarded in such quarters with an unfavourable eye Our plain
course however under good report and evil report and all kinds of prejudice
we are the victims of prejudice is to have everything openly carried on How
do you find Mr C looking Miss Summerson«
»He looks very ill Dreadfully anxious«
»Just so« said Mr Vholes
He stood behind me with his long black figure reaching nearly to the
ceiling of those low rooms feeling the pimples on his face as if they were
ornaments and speaking inwardly and evenly as though there were not a human
passion or emotion in his nature
»Mr Woodcourt is in attendance upon Mr C I believe« he resumed
»Mr Woodcourt is his disinterested friend« I answered
»But I mean in professional attendance medical attendance«
»That can do little for an unhappy mind« said I
»Just so« said Mr Vholes
So slow so eager so bloodless and gaunt I felt as if Richard were wasting
away beneath the eyes of this adviser and there were something of the Vampire
in him
»Miss Summerson« said Mr Vholes very slowly rubbing his gloved hands as
if to his cold sense of touch they were much the same in black kid or out of
it »this was an illadvised marriage of Mr Cs«
I begged he would excuse me for discussing it They had been engaged when
they were both very young I told him a little indignantly and when the
prospect before them was much fairer and brighter When Richard had not yielded
himself to the unhappy influence which now darkened his life
»Just so« assented Mr Vholes again »Still with a view to everything
being openly carried on I will with your permission Miss Summerson observe
to you that I consider this a very illadvised marriage indeed I owe the
opinion not only to Mr Cs connexions against whom I should naturally wish
to protect myself but also to my own reputation dear to myself as a
professional man aiming to keep respectable dear to my three girls at home for
whom I am striving to realise some little independence dear I will even say
to my aged father whom it is my privilege to support«
»It would become a very different marriage a much happier and better
marriage another marriage altogether Mr Vholes« said I »if Richard were
persuaded to turn his back on the fatal pursuit in which you are engaged with
him«
Mr Vholes with a noiseless cough or rather gasp into one of his black
gloves inclined his head as if he did not wholly dispute even that
»Miss Summerson« he said »it may be so and I freely admit that the young
lady who has taken Mr Cs name upon herself in so illadvised a manner you
will I am sure not quarrel with me for throwing out that remark again as a duty
I owe to Mr Cs connexions is a highly genteel young lady Business has
prevented me from mixing much with general society in any but a professional
character still I trust I am competent to perceive that she is a highly genteel
young lady As to beauty I am not a judge of that myself and I never did give
much attention to it from a boy but I dare say the young lady is equally
eligible in that point of view She is considered so I have heard among the
clerks in the Inn and it is a point more in their way than in mine In
reference to Mr Cs pursuit of his interests «
»O His interests Mr Vholes«
»Pardon me« returned Mr Vholes going on in exactly the same inward and
dispassionate manner »Mr C takes certain interests under certain wills
disputed in the suit It is a term we use In reference to Mr Cs pursuit of
his interests I mentioned to you Miss Summerson the first time I had the
pleasure of seeing you in my desire that everything should be openly carried on
I used those words for I happened afterwards to note them in my diary which
is producible at any time I mentioned to you that Mr C had laid down the
principle of watching his own interests and that when a client of mine laid
down a principle which was not of an immoral that is to say unlawful nature
it devolved upon me to carry it out I have carried it out I do carry it out
But I will not smooth things over to any connexion of Mr Cs on any account
As open as I was to Mr Jarndyce I am to you I regard it in the light of a
professional duty to be so though it can be charged to no one I openly say
unpalatable as it may be that I consider Mr Cs affairs in a very bad way
that I consider Mr C himself in a very bad way and that I regard this as an
exceedingly illadvised marriage Am I here sir Yes I thank you I am here
Mr C and enjoying the pleasure of some agreeable conversation with Miss
Summerson for which I have to thank you very much sir«
He broke off thus in answer to Richard who addressed him as he came into
the room By this time I too well understood Mr Vholess scrupulous way of
saving himself and his respectability not to feel that our worst fears did but
keep pace with his clients progress
We sat down to dinner and I had an opportunity of observing Richard
anxiously I was not disturbed by Mr Vholes who took off his gloves to dine
though he sat opposite to me at the small table for I doubt if looking up at
all he once removed his eyes from his hosts face I found Richard thin and
languid slovenly in his dress abstracted in his manner forcing his spirits
now and then and at other intervals relapsing into a dull thoughtfulness About
his large bright eyes that used to be so merry there was a wanness and a
restlessness that changed them altogether I cannot use the expression that he
looked old There is a ruin of youth which is not like age and into such a ruin
Richards youth and youthful beauty had all fallen away
He ate little and seemed indifferent what it was showed himself to be much
more impatient than he used to be and was quick even with Ada I thought at
first that his old lighthearted manner was all gone but it shone out of him
sometimes as I had occasionally known little momentary glimpses of my own old
face to look out upon me from the glass His laugh had not quite left him
either but it was like the echo of a joyful sound and that is always
sorrowful
Yet he was as glad as ever in his old affectionate way to have me there
and we talked of the old times pleasantly These did not appear to be
interesting to Mr Vholes though he occasionally made a gasp which I believe
was his smile He rose shortly after dinner and said that with the permission
of the ladies he would retire to his office
»Always devoted to business Vholes« cried Richard
»Yes Mr C« he returned »the interests of clients are never to be
neglected sir They are paramount in the thoughts of a professional man like
myself who wishes to preserve a good name among his fellowpractitioners and
society at large My denying myself the pleasure of the present agreeable
conversation may not be wholly irrespective of your own interests Mr C«
Richard expressed himself quite sure of that and lighted Mr Vholes out On
his return he told us more than once that Vholes was a good fellow a safe
fellow a man who did what he pretended to do a very good fellow indeed He was
so defiant about it that it struck me he had begun to doubt Mr Vholes
Then he threw himself on the sofa tired out and Ada and I put things to
rights for they had no other servant than the woman who attended to the
chambers My dear girl had a cottage piano there and quietly sat down to sing
some of Richards favourites the lamp being first removed into the next room
as he complained of its hurting his eyes
I sat between them at my dear girls side and felt very melancholy
listening to her sweet voice I think Richard did too I think he darkened the
room for that reason She had been singing some time rising between whiles to
bend over him and speak to him when Mr Woodcourt came in Then he sat down by
Richard and half playfully half earnestly quite naturally and easily found
out how he felt and where he had been all day Presently he proposed to
accompany him in a short walk on one of the bridges as it was a moonlight airy
night and Richard readily consenting they went out together
They left my dear girl still sitting at the piano and me still sitting
beside her When they were gone out I drew my arm round her waist She put her
left hand in mine I was sitting on that side but kept her right upon the keys
going over and over them without striking any note
»Esther my dearest« she said breaking silence »Richard is never so well
and I am never so easy about him as when he is with Allan Woodcourt We have to
thank you for that«
I pointed out to my darling how this could scarcely be because Mr
Woodcourt had come to her cousin Johns house and had known us all there and
because he had always liked Richard and Richard had always liked him and and
so forth
»All true« said Ada »but that he is such a devoted friend to us we owe to
you«
I thought it best to let my dear girl have her way and to say no more about
it So I said as much I said it lightly because I felt her trembling
»Esther my dearest I want to be a good wife a very very good wife
indeed You shall teach me«
I teach I said no more for I noticed the hand that was fluttering over the
keys and I knew that it was not I who ought to speak that it was she who had
something to say to me
»When I married Richard I was not insensible to what was before him I had
been perfectly happy for a long time with you and I had never known any trouble
or anxiety so loved and cared for but I understood the danger he was in dear
Esther«
»I know I know my darling«
»When we were married I had some little hope that I might be able to
convince him of his mistake that he might come to regard it in a new way as my
husband and not pursue it all the more desperately for my sake as he does
But if I had not had that hope I would have married him just the same Esther
Just the same«
In the momentary firmness of the hand that was never still a firmness
inspired by the utterance of these last words and dying away with them I saw
the confirmation of her earnest tones
»You are not to think my dearest Esther that I fail to see what you see
and fear what you fear No one can understand him better than I do The greatest
wisdom that ever lived in the world could scarcely know Richard better than my
love does«
She spoke so modestly and softly and her trembling hand expressed such
agitation as it moved to and fro upon the silent notes My dear dear girl
»I see him at his worst every day I watch him in his sleep I know every
change of his face But when I married Richard I was quite determined Esther
if Heaven would help me never to show him that I grieved for what he did and
so to make him more unhappy I want him when he comes home to find no trouble
in my face I want him when he looks at me to see what he loved in me I
married him to do this and this supports me«
I felt her trembling more I waited for what was yet to come and I now
thought I began to know what it was
And something else supports me Esther
She stopped a minute Stopped speaking only her hand was still in motion
»I look forward a little while and I dont know what great aid may come to
me When Richard turns his eyes upon me then there may be something lying on my
breast more eloquent than I have been with greater power than mine to show him
his true course and win him back«
Her hand stopped now She clasped me in her arms and I clasped her in mine
»If that little creature should fail too Esther I still look forward I
look forward a long while through years and years and think that then when I
am growing old or when I am dead perhaps a beautiful woman his daughter
happily married may be proud of him and a blessing to him Or that a generous
brave man as handsome as he used to be as hopeful and far more happy may
walk in the sunshine with him honouring his grey head and saying to himself I
thank God this is my father ruined by a fatal inheritance and restored through
me«
O my sweet girl what a heart was that which beat so fast against me
»These hopes uphold me my dear Esther and I know they will Though
sometimes even they depart from me before a dread that arises when I look at
Richard«
I tried to cheer my darling and asked her what it was Sobbing and weeping
she replied
»That he may not live to see his child«
Chapter LXI
A Discovery
The days when I frequented that miserable corner which my dear girl brightened
can never fade in my remembrance I never see it and I never wish to see it
now I have been there only once since but in my memory there is a mournful
glory shining on the place which will shine for ever
Not a day passed without my going there of course At first I found Mr
Skimpole there on two or three occasions idly playing the piano and talking
in his usual vivacious strain Now besides my very much mistrusting the
probability of his being there without making Richard poorer I felt as if there
were something in his careless gaiety too inconsistent with what I knew of the
depths of Adas life I clearly perceived too that Ada shared my feelings I
therefore resolved after much thinking of it to make a private visit to Mr
Skimpole and try delicately to explain myself My dear girl was the great
consideration that made me bold
I set off one morning accompanied by Charley for Somers Town As I
approached the house I was strongly inclined to turn back for I felt what a
desperate attempt it was to make an impression on Mr Skimpole and how
extremely likely it was that he would signally defeat me However I thought
that being there I would go through with it I knocked with a trembling hand at
Mr Skimpoles door literally with a hand for the knocker was gone and
after a long parley gained admission from an Irishwoman who was in the area
when I knocked breaking up the lid of a waterbutt with a poker to light the
fire with
Mr Skimpole lying on the sofa in his room playing the flute a little was
enchanted to see me Now who should receive me he asked Who would I prefer
for mistress of the ceremonies Would I have his Comedy daughter his Beauty
daughter or his Sentiment daughter Or would I have all the daughters at once
in a perfect nosegay
I replied half defeated already that I wished to speak to himself only if
he would give me leave
»My dear Miss Summerson most joyfully Of course« he said bringing his
chair nearer mine and breaking into his fascinating smile »of course its not
business Then its pleasure«
I said it certainly was not business that I came upon but it was not quite
a pleasant matter
»Then my dear Miss Summerson« said he with the frankest gaiety »dont
allude to it Why should you allude to anything that is not a pleasant matter I
never do And you are a much pleasanter creature in every point of view than
I You are perfectly pleasant I am imperfectly pleasant then if I never
allude to an unpleasant matter how much less should you So thats disposed of
and we will talk of something else«
Although I was embarrassed I took courage to intimate that I still wished
to pursue the subject
»I should think it a mistake« said Mr Skimpole with his airy laugh »if I
thought Miss Summerson capable of making one But I dont«
»Mr Skimpole« said I raising my eyes to his »I have so often heard you
say that you are unacquainted with the common affairs of life «
»Meaning our three bankinghouse friends L S and whos the junior
partner D« said Mr Skimpole brightly »Not an idea of them«
» That perhaps« I went on »you will excuse my boldness on that account
I think you ought most seriously to know that Richard is poorer than he was«
»Dear me« said Mr Skimpole »So am I they tell me«
»And in very embarrassed circumstances«
»Parallel case exactly« said Mr Skimpole with a delighted countenance
»This at present naturally causes Ada much secret anxiety and as I think
she is less anxious when no claims are made upon her by visitors and as Richard
has one uneasiness always heavy on his mind it has occurred to me to take the
liberty of saying that if you would not «
I was coming to the point with great difficulty when he took me by both
hands and with a radiant face and in the liveliest way anticipated it
»Not go there Certainly not my dear Miss Summerson most assuredly not
Why should I go there When I go anywhere I go for pleasure I dont go
anywhere for pain because I was made for pleasure Pain comes to me when it
wants me Now I have had very little pleasure at our dear Richards lately
and your practical sagacity demonstrates why Our young friends losing the
youthful poetry which was once so captivating in them begin to think this is a
man who wants pounds So I am I always want pounds not for myself but because
tradespeople always want them of me Next our young friends begin to think
becoming mercenary this is the man who had pounds who borrowed them which I
did I always borrow pounds So our young friends reduced to prose which is
much to be regretted degenerate in their power of imparting pleasure to me
Why should I go to see them therefore Absurd«
Through the beaming smile with which he regarded me as he reasoned thus
there now broke forth a look of disinterested benevolence quite astonishing
»Besides« he said pursuing his argument in his tone of lighthearted
conviction »if I dont go anywhere for pain which would be a perversion of
the intention of my being and a monstrous thing to do why should I go
anywhere to be the cause of pain If I went to see our young friends in their
present illregulated state of mind I should give them pain The associations
with me would be disagreeable They might say this is the man who had pounds
and who cant pay pounds which I cant of course nothing could be more out of
the question Then kindness requires that I shouldnt go near them and I
wont«
He finished by genially kissing my hand and thanking me Nothing but Miss
Summersons fine tact he said would have found this out for him
I was much disconcerted but I reflected that if the main point were gained
it mattered little how strangely he perverted everything leading to it I had
determined to mention something else however and I thought I was not to be put
off in that
»Mr Skimpole« said I »I must take the liberty of saying before I
conclude my visit that I was much surprised to learn on the best authority
some little time ago that you knew with whom that poor boy left Bleak House
and that you accepted a present on that occasion I have not mentioned it to my
guardian for I fear it would hurt him unnecessarily but I may say to you that
I was much surprised«
»No Really surprised my dear Miss Summerson« he returned inquiringly
raising his pleasant eyebrows
»Greatly surprised«
He thought about it for a little while with a highly agreeable and
whimsical expression of face then quite gave it up and said in his most
engaging manner
»You know what a child I am Why surprised«
I was reluctant to enter minutely into that question but as he begged I
would for he was really curious to know I gave him to understand in the
gentlest words I could use that his conduct seemed to involve a disregard of
several moral obligations He was much amused and interested when he heard this
and said »No really« with ingenuous simplicity
»You know I dont intend to be responsible I never could do it
Responsibility is a thing that has always been above me or below me« said Mr
Skimpole »I dont even know which but as I understand the way in which my
dear Miss Summerson always remarkable for her practical good sense and
clearness puts this case I should imagine it was chiefly a question of money
do you know«
I incautiously gave a qualified assent to this
»Ah Then you see« said Mr Skimpole shaking his head »I am hopeless of
understanding it«
I suggested as I rose to go that it was not right to betray my guardians
confidence for a bribe
»My dear Miss Summerson« he returned with a candid hilarity that was all
his own »I cant be bribed«
»Not by Mr Bucket« said I
»No« said he »Not by anybody I dont attach any value to money I dont
care about it I dont know about it I dont want it I dont keep it it goes
away from me directly How can I be bribed«
I showed that I was of a different opinion though I had not the capacity
for arguing the question
»On the contrary« said Mr Skimpole »I am exactly the man to be placed in
a superior position in such a case as that I am above the rest of mankind in
such a case as that I can act with philosophy in such a case as that I am not
warped by prejudices as an Italian baby is by bandages I am as free as the
air I feel myself as far above suspicion as Cæsars wife«
Anything to equal the lightness of his manner and the playful impartiality
with which he seemed to convince himself as he tossed the matter about like a
ball of feathers was surely never seen in anybody else
»Observe the case my dear Miss Summerson Here is a boy received into the
house and put to bed in a state that I strongly object to The boy being in
bed a man arrives like the house that Jack built Here is the man who demands
the boy who is received into the house and put to bed in a state that I strongly
object to Here is a banknote produced by the man who demands the boy who is
received into the house and put to bed in a state that I strongly object to
Here is the Skimpole who accepts the banknote produced by the man who demands
the boy who is received into the house and put to bed in a state that I strongly
object to Those are the facts Very well Should the Skimpole have refused the
note Why should the Skimpole have refused the note Skimpole protests to
Bucket whats this for I dont understand it it is of no use to me take it
away Bucket still entreats Skimpole to accept it Are there reasons why
Skimpole not being warped by prejudices should accept it Yes Skimpole
perceives them What are they Skimpole reasons with himself this is a tamed
lynx an active policeofficer an intelligent man a person of a peculiarly
directed energy and great subtlety both of conception and execution who
discovers our friends and enemies for us when they run away recovers our
property for us when we are robbed avenges us comfortably when we are murdered
This active policeofficer and intelligent man has acquired in the exercise of
his art a strong faith in money he finds it very useful to him and he makes
it very useful to society Shall I shake that faith in Bucket because I want it
myself shall I deliberately blunt one of Buckets weapons shall I positively
paralyse Bucket in his next detective operation And again If it is blameable
in Skimpole to take the note it is blameable in Bucket to offer the note much
more blameable in Bucket because he is the knowing man Now Skimpole wishes to
think well of Bucket Skimpole deems it essential in its little place to the
general cohesion of things that he should think well of Bucket The State
expressly asks him to trust to Bucket And he does And thats all he does«
I had nothing to offer in reply to this exposition and therefore took my
leave Mr Skimpole however who was in excellent spirits would not hear of my
returning home attended only by Little Coavinses and accompanied me himself He
entertained me on the way with a variety of delightful conversation and
assured me at parting that he should never forget the fine tact with which I
had found that out for him about our young friends
As it so happened that I never saw Mr Skimpole again I may at once finish
what I know of his history A coolness arose between him and my guardian based
principally on the foregoing grounds and on his having heartlessly disregarded
my guardians entreaties as we afterwards learned from Ada in reference to
Richard His being heavily in my guardians debt had nothing to do with their
separation He died some five years afterwards and left a diary behind him
with letters and other materials towards his Life which was published and
which showed him to have been the victim of a combination on the part of mankind
against an amiable child It was considered very pleasant reading but I never
read more of it myself than the sentence on which I chanced to light on opening
the book It was this »Jarndyce in common with most other men I have known is
the Incarnation of Selfishness«
And now I come to a part of my story touching myself very nearly indeed
and for which I was quite unprepared when the circumstance occurred Whatever
little lingerings may have now and then revived in my mind associated with my
poor old face had only revived as belonging to a part of my life that was gone
gone like my infancy or my childhood I have suppressed none of my many
weaknesses on that subject but have written them as faithfully as my memory has
recalled them And I hope to do and mean to do the same down to the last words
of these pages which I see now not so very far before me
The months were gliding away and my dear girl sustained by the hopes she
had confided in me was the same beautiful star in the miserable corner
Richard more worn and haggard haunted the Court day after day listlessly sat
there the whole day long when he knew there was no remote chance of the suit
being mentioned and became one of the stock sights of the place I wonder
whether any of the gentlemen remembered him as he was when he first went there
So completely was he absorbed in his fixed idea that he used to avow in his
cheerful moments that he should never have breathed the fresh air now but for
Woodcourt It was only Mr Woodcourt who could occasionally divert his
attention for a few hours at a time and rouse him even when he sunk into a
lethargy of mind and body that alarmed us greatly and the returns of which
became more frequent as the months went on My dear girl was right in saying
that he only pursued his errors the more desperately for her sake I have no
doubt that his desire to retrieve what he had lost was rendered the more
intense by his grief for his young wife and became like the madness of a
gamester
I was there as I have mentioned at all hours When I was there at night I
generally went home with Charley in a coach sometimes my guardian would meet me
in the neighbourhood and we would walk home together One evening he had
arranged to meet me at eight oclock I could not leave as I usually did quite
punctually at the time for I was working for my dear girl and had a few
stitches more to do to finish what I was about but it was within a few minutes
of the hour when I bundled up my little workbasket gave my darling my last
kiss for the night and hurried downstairs Mr Woodcourt went with me as it
was dusk
When we came to the usual place of meeting it was close by and Mr
Woodcourt had often accompanied me before my guardian was not there We waited
half an hour walking up and down but there were no signs of him We agreed
that he was either prevented from coming or that he had come and gone away
and Mr Woodcourt proposed to walk home with me
It was the first walk we had ever taken together except that very short one
to the usual place of meeting We spoke of Richard and Ada the whole way I did
not thank him in words for what he had done my appreciation of it had risen
above all words then but I hoped he might not be without some understanding of
what I felt so strongly
Arriving at home and going upstairs we found that my guardian was out and
that Mrs Woodcourt was out too We were in the very same room into which I had
brought my blushing girl when her youthful lover now her so altered husband
was the choice of her young heart the very same room from which my guardian
and I had watched them going away through the sunlight in the fresh bloom of
their hope and promise
We were standing by the opened window looking down into the street when
Mr Woodcourt spoke to me I learned in a moment that he loved me I learned in
a moment that my scarred face was all unchanged to him I learned in a moment
that what I had thought was pity and compassion was devoted generous faithful
love O too late to know it now too late too late That was the first
ungrateful thought I had Too late
»When I returned« he told me »when I came back no richer than when I went
away and found you newly risen from a sick bed yet so inspired by sweet
consideration for others and so free from a selfish thought «
»O Mr Woodcourt forbear forbear« I entreated him »I do not deserve
your high praise I had many selfish thoughts at that time many«
»Heaven knows beloved of my life« said he »that my praise is not a
lovers praise but the truth You do not know what all around you see in Esther
Summerson how many hearts she touches and awakens what sacred admiration and
what love she wins«
»O Mr Woodcourt« cried I »it is a great thing to win love it is a great
thing to win love I am proud of it and honoured by it and the hearing of it
causes me to shed these tears of mingled joy and sorrow joy that I have won
it sorrow that I have not deserved it better but I am not free to think of
yours«
I said it with a stronger heart for when he praised me thus and when I
heard his voice thrill with his belief that what he said was true I aspired to
be more worthy of it It was not too late for that Although I closed this
unforeseen page in my life tonight I could be worthier of it all through my
life And it was a comfort to me and an impulse to me and I felt a dignity
rise up within me that was derived from him when I thought so
He broke the silence
»I should poorly show the trust that I have in the dear one who will
evermore be as dear to me as now« and the deep earnestness with which he said
it at once strengthened me and made me weep »if after her assurance that she
is not free to think of my love I urged it Dear Esther let me only tell you
that the fond idea of you which I took abroad was exalted to the Heavens when I
came home I have always hoped in the first hour when I seemed to stand in any
ray of good fortune to tell you this I have always feared that I should tell
it you in vain My hopes and fears are both fulfilled tonight I distress you
I have said enough«
Something seemed to pass into my place that was like the Angel he thought
me and I felt so sorrowful for the loss he had sustained I wished to help him
in his trouble as I had wished to do when he showed that first commiseration
for me
»Dear Mr Woodcourt« said I »before we part tonight something is left
for me to say I never could say it as I wish I never shall but «
I had to think again of being more deserving of his love and his
affliction before I could go on
» I am deeply sensible of your generosity and I shall treasure its
remembrance to my dying hour I know full well how changed I am I know you are
not unacquainted with my history and I know what a noble love that is which is
so faithful What you have said to me could have affected me so much from no
other lips for there are none that could give it such a value to me It shall
not be lost It shall make me better«
He covered his eyes with his hand and turned away his head How could I
ever be worthy of those tears
»If in the unchanged intercourse we shall have together in tending
Richard and Ada and I hope in many happier scenes of life you ever find
anything in me which you can honestly think is better than it used to be
believe that it will have sprung up from tonight and that I shall owe it to
you And never believe dear dear Mr Woodcourt never believe that I forget
this night or that while my heart beats it can be insensible to the pride and
joy of having been beloved by you«
He took my hand and kissed it He was like himself again and I felt still
more encouraged
»I am induced by what you said just now« said I »to hope that you have
succeeded in your endeavour«
»I have« he answered »With such help from Mr Jarndyce as you who know
him so well can imagine him to have rendered me I have succeeded«
»Heaven bless him for it« said I giving him my hand »and Heaven bless you
in all you do«
»I shall do it better for the wish« he answered »it will make me enter on
these new duties as on another sacred trust from you«
»Ah Richard« I exclaimed involuntarily »what will he do when you are
gone«
»I am not required to go yet I would not desert him dear Miss Summerson
even if I were«
One other thing I felt it needful to touch upon before he left me I knew
that I should not be worthier of the love I could not take if I reserved it
»Mr Woodcourt« said I »you will be glad to know from my lips before I say
Good night that in the future which is clear and bright before me I am most
happy most fortunate have nothing to regret or desire«
It was indeed a glad hearing to him he replied
»From my childhood I have been« said I »the object of the untiring
goodness of the best of human beings to whom I am so bound by every tie of
attachment gratitude and love that nothing I could do in the compass of a
life could express the feelings of a single day«
»I share those feelings« he returned »You speak of Mr Jarndyce«
»You know his virtues well« said I »but few can know the greatness of his
character as I know it All its highest and best qualities have been revealed to
me in nothing more brightly than in the shaping out of that future in which I
am so happy And if your highest homage and respect had not been his already
which I know they are they would have been his I think on this assurance
and in the feeling it would have awakened in you towards him for my sake«
He fervently replied that indeed indeed they would have been I gave him my
hand again
»Good night« I said »goodbye«
»The first until we meet tomorrow the second as a farewell to this theme
between us for ever«
»Yes«
»Good night goodbye«
He left me and I stood at the dark window watching the street His love in
all its constancy and generosity had come so suddenly upon me that he had not
left me a minute when my fortitude gave way again and the street was blotted
out by my rushing tears
But they were not tears of regret and sorrow No He had called me the
beloved of his life and had said I would be evermore as dear to him as I was
then and I felt as if my heart would not hold the triumph of having heard those
words My first wild thought had died away It was not too late to hear them
for it was not too late to be animated by them to be good true grateful and
contented How easy my path how much easier than his
Chapter LXII
Another Discovery
I had not the courage to see any one that night I had not even the courage to
see myself for I was afraid that my tears might a little reproach me I went up
to my room in the dark and prayed in the dark and lay down in the dark to
sleep I had no need of any light to read my guardians letter by for I knew it
by heart I took it from the place where I kept it and repeated its contents by
its own clear light of integrity and love and went to sleep with it on my
pillow
I was up very early in the morning and called Charley to come for a walk
We bought flowers for the breakfasttable and came back and arranged them and
were as busy as possible We were so early that I had good time still for
Charleys lesson before breakfast Charley who was not in the least improved
in the old defective article of grammar came through it with great applause
and we were altogether very notable When my guardian appeared he said »Why
little woman you look fresher than your flowers« And Mrs Woodcourt repeated
and translated a passage from the Mewlinnwillinwodd expressive of my being like
a mountain with the sun upon it
This was all so pleasant that I hope it made me still more like the
mountain than I had been before After breakfast I waited my opportunity and
peeped about a little until I saw my guardian in his own room the room of
last night by himself Then I made an excuse to go in with my housekeeping
keys shutting the door after me
»Well Dame Durden« said my guardian the post had brought him several
letters and he was writing »You want money«
»No indeed I have plenty in hand«
»There never was such a Dame Durden« said my guardian »for making money
last«
He had laid down his pen and leaned back in his chair looking at me I have
often spoken of his bright face but I thought I had never seen it look so
bright and good There was a high happiness upon it which made me think »he
has been doing some great kindness this morning«
»There never was« said my guardian musing as he smiled upon me »such a
Dame Durden for making money last«
He had never yet altered his old manner I loved it and him so much that
when I now went up to him and took my usual chair which was always put at his
side for sometimes I read to him and sometimes I talked to him and sometimes
I silently worked by him I hardly liked to disturb it by laying my hand on his
breast But I found I did not disturb it at all
»Dear Guardian« said I »I want to speak to you Have I been remiss in
anything«
»Remiss in anything my dear«
»Have I not been what I have meant to be since I brought the answer to
your letter Guardian«
»You have been everything I could desire my love«
»I am very glad indeed to hear that« I returned »You know you said to me
was this the mistress of Bleak House And I said yes«
»Yes« said my guardian nodding his head He had put his arm about me as
if there were something to protect me from and looked in my face smiling
»Since then« said I »we have never spoken on the subject except once«
»And then I said Bleak House was thinning fast and so it was my dear«
»And I said« I timidly reminded him »but its mistress remained«
He still held me in the same protecting manner and with the same bright
goodness in his face
»Dear Guardian« said I »I know how you have felt all that has happened
and how considerate you have been As so much time has passed and as you spoke
only this morning of my being so well again perhaps you expect me to renew the
subject Perhaps I ought to do so I will be the mistress of Bleak House when
you please«
»See« he returned gaily »what a sympathy there must be between us I have
had nothing else poor Rick excepted its a large exception in my mind When
you came in I was full of it When shall we give Bleak House its mistress
little woman«
»When you please«
»Next month«
»Next month dear Guardian«
»The day on which I take the happiest and best step of my life the day on
which I shall be a man more exulting and more enviable than any other man in the
world the day on which I give Bleak House its little mistress shall be next
month then« said my guardian
I put my arms round his neck and kissed him just as I had done on the day
when I brought my answer
A servant came to the door to announce Mr Bucket which was quite
unnecessary for Mr Bucket was already looking in over the servants shoulder
»Mr Jarndyce and Miss Summerson« said he rather out of breath »with all
apologies for intruding will you allow me to order up a person thats on the
stairs and that objects to being left there in case of becoming the subject of
observations in his absence Thank you Be so good as chair that there Member in
this direction will you« said Mr Bucket beckoning over the banisters
This singular request produced an old man in a black skullcap unable to
walk who was carried up by a couple of bearers and deposited in the room near
the door Mr Bucket immediately got rid of the bearers mysteriously shut the
door and bolted it
»Now you see Mr Jarndyce« he then began putting down his hat and
opening his subject with a flourish of his wellremembered finger »you know me
and Miss Summerson knows me This gentleman likewise knows me and his name is
Smallweed The discounting line is his line principally and hes what you may
call a dealer in bills Thats about what you are you know aint you« said
Mr Bucket stopping a little to address the gentleman in question who was
exceedingly suspicious of him
He seemed about to dispute this designation of himself when he was seized
with a violent fit of coughing
»Now Moral you know« said Mr Bucket improving the accident »Dont you
contradict when there aint no occasion and you wont be took in that way Now
Mr Jarndyce I address myself to you Ive been negotiating with this gentleman
on behalf of Sir Leicester Dedlock Baronet and one way and another Ive been
in and out and about his premises a deal His premises are the premises formerly
occupied by Krook Marine Store Dealer a relation of this gentlemans that
you saw in his lifetime if I dont mistake«
My guardian replied »Yes«
»Well You are to understand« said Mr Bucket »that this gentleman he come
into Krooks property and a good deal of Magpie property there was Vast lots
of waste paper among the rest Lord bless you of no use to nobody«
The cunning of Mr Buckets eye and the masterly manner in which he
contrived without a look or a word against which his watchful auditor could
protest to let us know that he stated the case according to previous agreement
and could say much more of Mr Smallweed if he thought it advisable deprived us
of any merit in quite understanding him His difficulty was increased by Mr
Smallweeds being deaf as well as suspicious and watching his face with the
closest attention
»Among them odd heaps of old papers this gentleman when he comes into the
property naturally begins to rummage dont you see« said Mr Bucket
»To which Say that again« cried Mr Smallweed in a shrill sharp voice
»To rummage« repeated Mr Bucket »Being a prudent man and accustomed to
take care of your own affairs you begin to rummage among the papers as you have
come into dont you«
»Of course I do« cried Mr Smallweed
»Of course you do« said Mr Bucket conversationally »and much to blame
you would be if you didnt And so you chance to find you know« Mr Bucket
went on stooping over him with an air of cheerful raillery which Mr Smallweed
by no means reciprocated »and so you chance to find you know a paper with
the signature of Jarndyce to it Dont you«
Mr Smallweed glanced with a troubled eye at us and grudgingly nodded
assent
»And coming to look at that paper at your full leisure and convenience
all in good time for youre not curious to read it and why should you be
what do you find it to be but a Will you see Thats the drollery of it« said
Mr Bucket with the same lively air of recalling a joke for the enjoyment of
Mr Smallweed who still had the same crestfallen appearance of not enjoying it
at all »what do you find it to be but a Will«
»I dont know that its good as a Will or as anything else« snarled Mr
Smallweed
Mr Bucket eyed the old man for a moment he had slipped and shrunk down in
his chair into a mere bundle as if he were much disposed to pounce upon him
nevertheless he continued to bend over him with the same agreeable air keeping
the corner of one of his eyes upon us
»Notwithstanding which« said Mr Bucket »you get a little doubtful and
uncomfortable in your mind about it having a very tender mind of your own«
»Eh What do you say I have got of my own« asked Mr Smallweed with his
hand to his ear
»A very tender mind«
»Ho Well go on« said Mr Smallweed
»And as youve heard a good deal mentioned regarding a celebrated Chancery
Will case of the same name and as you know what a card Krook was for buying
all manner of old pieces of furniter and books and papers and what not and
never liking to part with em and always agoing to teach himself to read you
begin to think and you never was more correct in your born days Ecod if I
dont look about me I may get into trouble regarding this Will«
»Now mind how you put it Bucket« cried the old man anxiously with his
hand at his ear »Speak up none of your brimstone tricks Pick me up I want to
hear better O Lord I am shaken to bits«
Mr Bucket had certainly picked him up at a dart However as soon as he
could be heard through Mr Smallweeds coughing and his vicious ejaculations of
»O my bones O dear Ive no breath in my body Im worse than the chattering
clattering brimstone pig at home« Mr Bucket proceeded in the same convivial
manner as before
»So as I happen to be in the habit of coming about your premises you take
me into your confidence dont you«
I think it would be impossible to make an admission with more illwill and
a worse grace than Mr Smallweed displayed when he admitted this rendering it
perfectly evident that Mr Bucket was the very last person he would have thought
of taking into his confidence if he could by any possibility have kept him out
of it
»And I go into the business with you very pleasant we are over it and I
confirm you in your wellfounded fears that you willgetyourselfintoamost
precious line if you dont come out with that there Will« said Mr Bucket
emphatically »and accordingly you arrange with me that it shall be delivered up
to this present Mr Jarndyce on no conditions If it should prove to be
valuable you trusting yourself to him for your reward thats about where it
is aint it«
»Thats what was agreed« Mr Smallweed assented with the same bad grace
»In consequence of which« said Mr Bucket dismissing his agreeable manner
all at once and becoming strictly businesslike »youve got that Will upon
your person at the present time and the only thing that remains for you to do
is just to Out with it«
Having given us one glance out of the watching corner of his eye and having
given his nose one triumphant rub with his forefinger Mr Bucket stood with his
eyes fastened on his confidential friend and his hand stretched forth ready to
take the paper and present it to my guardian It was not produced without much
reluctance and many declarations on the part of Mr Smallweed that he was a
poor industrious man and that he left it to Mr Jarndyces honour not to let
him lose by his honesty Little by little he very slowly took from a
breastpocket a stained discoloured paper which was much singed upon the
outside and a little burnt at the edges as if it had long ago been thrown upon
a fire and hastily snatched off again Mr Bucket lost no time in transferring
this paper with the dexterity of a conjurer from Mr Smallweed to Mr
Jarndyce As he gave it to my guardian he whispered behind his fingers
»Hadnt settled how to make their market of it Quarrelled and hinted about
it I laid out twenty pound upon it First the avaricious grandchildren split
upon him on account of their objections to his living so unreasonably long and
then they split on one another. Lord there aint one of the family that
wouldnt sell the other for a pound or two except the old lady and shes only
out of it because shes too weak in her mind to drive a bargain«
»Mr Bucket« said my guardian aloud »whatever the worth of this paper may
be to any one my obligations are great to you and if it be of any worth I
hold myself bound to see Mr Smallweed remunerated accordingly«
»Not according to your merits you know« said Mr Bucket in friendly
explanation to Mr Smallweed »Dont you be afraid of that According to its
value«
»That is what I mean« said my guardian »You may observe Mr Bucket that
I abstain from examining this paper myself The plain truth is I have forsworn
and abjured the whole business these many years and my soul is sick of it But
Miss Summerson and I will immediately place the paper in the hands of my
solicitor in the cause and its existence shall be made known without delay to
all other parties interested«
»Mr Jarndyce cant say fairer than that you understand« observed Mr
Bucket to his fellowvisitor »And it being now made clear to you that nobodys
agoing to be wronged which must be a great relief to your mind we may
proceed with the ceremony of chairing you home again«
He unbolted the door called in the bearers wished us good morning and
with a look full of meaning and a crook of his finger at parting went his way
We went our way too which was to Lincolns Inn as quickly as possible Mr
Kenge was disengaged and we found him at his table in his dusty room with the
inexpressivelooking books and the piles of papers Chairs having been placed
for us by Mr Guppy Mr Kenge expressed the surprise and gratification he felt
at the unusual sight of Mr Jarndyce in his office He turned over his double
eyeglass as he spoke and was more Conversation Kenge than ever
»I hope« said Mr Kenge »that the genial influence of Miss Summerson« he
bowed to me »may have induced Mr Jarndyce« he bowed to him »to forego some
little of his animosity towards a Cause and towards a Court which are shall I
say which take their place in the stately vista of the pillars of our
profession«
»I am inclined to think« returned my guardian »that Miss Summerson has
seen too much of the effects of the Court and the Cause to exert any influence
in their favour Nevertheless they are a part of the occasion of my being here
Mr Kenge before I lay this paper on your desk and have done with it let me
tell you how it has come into my hands«
He did so shortly and distinctly
»It could not sir« said Mr Kenge »have been stated more plainly and to
the purpose if it had been a case at law«
»Did you ever know English law or equity either plain and to the purpose«
said my guardian
»O fie« said Mr Kenge
At first he had not seemed to attach much importance to the paper but when
he saw it he appeared more interested and when he had opened and read a little
of it through his eyeglass he became amazed »Mr Jarndyce« he said looking
off it »you have perused this«
»Not I« returned my guardian
»But my dear sir« said Mr Kenge »it is a Will of later date than any in
the suit It appears to be all in the Testators handwriting It is duly
executed and attested And even if intended to be cancelled as might possibly
be supposed to be denoted by these marks of fire it is not cancelled Here it
is a perfect instrument«
»Well« said my guardian »What is that to me«
»Mr Guppy« cried Mr Kenge raising his voice »I beg your pardon Mr
Jarndyce«
»Sir«
»Mr Vholes of Symonds Inn My compliments Jarndyce and Jarndyce Glad to
speak with him«
Mr Guppy disappeared
»You ask me what is this to you Mr Jarndyce If you had perused this
document you would have seen that it reduces your interest considerably though
still leaving it a very handsome one still leaving it a very handsome one«
said Mr Kenge waving his hand persuasively and blandly »You would further
have seen that the interests of Mr Richard Carstone and of Miss Ada Clare
now Mrs Richard Carstone are very materially advanced by it«
»Kenge« said my guardian »if all the flourishing wealth that the suit
brought into this vile court of Chancery could fall to my two young cousins I
should be well contented But do you ask me to believe that any good is to come
of Jarndyce and Jarndyce«
»O really Mr Jarndyce Prejudice prejudice My dear sir this is a very
great country a very great country Its system of equity is a very great
system a very great system Really really«
My guardian said no more and Mr Vholes arrived He was modestly impressed
by Mr Kenges professional eminence
»How do you do Mr Vholes Will you be so good as to take a chair here by
me and look over this paper«
Mr Vholes did as he was asked and seemed to read it every word He was not
excited by it but he was not excited by anything When he had well examined it
he retired with Mr Kenge into a window and shading his mouth with his black
glove spoke to him at some length I was not surprised to observe Mr Kenge
inclined to dispute what he said before he had said much for I knew that no two
people ever did agree about anything in Jarndyce and Jarndyce But he seemed to
get the better of Mr Kenge too in a conversation that sounded as if it were
almost composed of the words ReceiverGeneral AccountantGeneral Report
Estate and Costs When they had finished they came back to Mr Kenges table
and spoke aloud
»Well But this is a very remarkable document Mr Vholes« said Mr Kenge
Mr Vholes said »Very much so«
»And a very important document Mr Vholes« said Mr Kenge
Again Mr Vholes said »Very much so«
»And as you say Mr Vholes when the Cause is in the paper next Term this
document will be an unexpected and interesting feature in it« said Mr Kenge
looking loftily at my guardian
Mr Vholes was gratified as a smaller practitioner striving to keep
respectable to be confirmed in any opinion of his own by such an authority
»And when« asked my guardian rising after a pause during which Mr Kenge
had rattled his money and Mr Vholes had picked his pimples »when is next
Term«
»Next Term Mr Jarndyce will be next month« said Mr Kenge »Of course we
shall at once proceed to do what is necessary with this document and to collect
the necessary evidence concerning it and of course you will receive our usual
notification of the Cause being in the paper«
»To which I shall pay of course my usual attention«
»Still bent my dear sir« said Mr Kenge showing us through the outer
office to the door »still bent even with your enlarged mind on echoing a
popular prejudice We are a prosperous community Mr Jarndyce a very
prosperous community We are a great country Mr Jarndyce we are a very great
country This is a great system Mr Jarndyce and would you wish a great
country to have a little system Now really really«
He said this at the stairhead gently moving his right hand as if it were a
silver trowel with which to spread the cement of his words on the structure of
the system and consolidate it for a thousand ages
Chapter LXIII
Steel and Iron
Georges shootinggallery is to let and the stock is sold off and George
himself is at Chesney Wold attending on Sir Leicester in his rides and riding
very near his bridlerein because of the uncertain hand with which he guides
his horse But not today is George so occupied He is journeying today into
the iron country farther north to look about him
As he comes into the iron country farther north such fresh green woods as
those of Chesney Wold are left behind and coalpits and ashes high chimneys and
red bricks blighted verdure scorching fires and a heavy neverlightening
cloud of smoke become the features of the scenery Among such objects rides the
trooper looking about him and always looking for something he has come to
find
At last on the black canal bridge of a busy town with a clang of iron in
it and more fires and more smoke than he has seen yet the trooper swart with
the dust of the coal roads checks his horse and asks a workman does he know
the name of Rouncewell thereabouts
»Why master« quoth the workman »do I know my own name«
»Tis so well known here is it comrade« asks the trooper
»Rouncewells Ah youre right«
»And where might it be now« asks the trooper with a glance before him
»The bank the factory or the house« the workman wants to know
»Hum Rouncewells is so great apparently« mutters the trooper stroking his
chin »that I have as good as half a mind to go back again Why I dont know
which I want Should I find Mr Rouncewell at the factory do you think«
»Taint easy to say where youd find him at this time of the day you
might find either him or his son there if hes in town but his contracts take
him away«
And which is the factory Why he sees those chimneys the tallest ones
Yes he sees them Well let him keep his eye on those chimneys going on as
straight as ever he can and presently hell see em down a turning on the left
shut in by a great brick wall which forms one side of the street Thats
Rouncewells
The trooper thanks his informant and rides slowly on looking about him He
does not turn back but puts up his horse and is much disposed to groom him
too at a publichouse where some of Rouncewells hands are dining as the
ostler tells him Some of Rouncewells hands have just knocked off for dinner
time and seem to be invading the whole town They are very sinewy and strong
are Rouncewells hands a little sooty too
He comes to a gateway in the brick wall looks in and sees a great
perplexity of iron lying about in every stage and in a vast variety of shapes
in bars in wedges in sheets in tanks in boilers in axles in wheels in
cogs in cranks in rails twisted and wrenched into eccentric and perverse
forms as separate parts of machinery mountains of it broken up and rusty in
its age distant furnaces of it glowing and bubbling in its youth bright
fireworks of it showering about under the blows of the steam hammer redhot
iron whitehot iron coldblack iron an iron taste an iron smell and a Babel
of iron sounds
»This is a place to make a mans head ache too« says the trooper looking
about him for a countinghouse »Who comes here This is very like me before I
was set up This ought to be my nephew if likenesses run in families Your
servant sir«
»Yours sir Are you looking for any one«
»Excuse me Young Mr Rouncewell I believe«
»Yes«
»I was looking for your father sir I wish to have a word with him«
The young man telling him he is fortunate in his choice of a time for his
father is there leads the way to the office where he is to be found »Very like
me before I was set up devilish like me« thinks the trooper as he follows
They come to a building in the yard with an office on an upper floor At sight
of the gentleman in the office Mr George turns very red
»What name shall I say to my father« asks the young man
George full of the idea of iron in desperation answers »Steel« and is so
presented He is left alone with the gentleman in the office who sits at a
table with accountbooks before him and some sheets of paper blotted with
hosts of figures and drawings of cunning shapes It is a bare office with bare
windows looking on the iron view below Tumbled together on the table are some
pieces of iron purposely broken to be tested at various periods of their
service in various capacities There is irondust on everything and the smoke
is seen through the windows rolling heavily out of the tall chimneys to
mingle with the smoke from a vaporous Babylon of other chimneys
»I am at your service Mr Steel« says the gentleman when his visitor has
taken a rusty chair
»Well Mr Rouncewell« George replies leaning forward with his left arm on
his knee and his hat in his hand and very chary of meeting his brothers eye
»I am not without my expectations that in the present visit I may prove to be
more free than welcome I have served as a Dragoon in my day and a comrade of
mine that I was once rather partial to was if I dont deceive myself a
brother of yours I believe you had a brother who gave his family some trouble
and ran away and never did any good but in keeping away«
»Are you quite sure« returns the ironmaster in an altered voice »that
your name is Steel«
The trooper falters and looks at him His brother starts up calls him by
his name and grasps him by both hands
»You are too quick for me« cries the trooper with the tears springing out
of his eyes »How do you do my dear old fellow I never could have thought you
would have been half so glad to see me as all this How do you do my dear old
fellow how do you do«
They shake hands and embrace each other over and over again the trooper
still coupling his »How do you do my dear old fellow« with his protestation
that he never thought his brother would have been half so glad to see him as all
this
»So far from it« he declares at the end of a full account of what has
preceded his arrival there »I had very little idea of making myself known I
thought if you took by any means forgivingly to my name I might gradually get
myself up to the point of writing a letter But I should not have been
surprised brother if you had considered it anything but welcome news to hear
of me«
»We will show you at home what kind of news we think it George« returns
his brother »This is a great day at home and you could not have arrived you
bronzed old soldier on a better I make an agreement with my son Watt today
that on this day twelvemonth he shall marry as pretty and as good a girl as you
have seen in all your travels She goes to Germany tomorrow with one of your
nieces for a little polishing up in her education We make a feast of the
event and you will be made the hero of it«
Mr George is so entirely overcome at first by this prospect that he
resists the proposed honour with great earnestness Being overborne however by
his brother and his nephew concerning whom he renews his protestations that he
never could have thought they would have been half so glad to see him he is
taken home to an elegant house in all the arrangements of which there is to be
observed a pleasant mixture of the originally simple habits of the father and
mother with such as are suited to their altered station and the higher fortunes
of their children Here Mr George is much dismayed by the graces and
accomplishments of his nieces that are and by the beauty of Rosa his niece
that is to be and by the affectionate salutations of these young ladies which
he receives in a sort of dream He is sorely taken aback too by the dutiful
behaviour of his nephew and has a woful consciousness upon him of being a
scapegrace However there is great rejoicing and a very hearty company and
infinite enjoyment and Mr George comes bluff and martial through it all and
his pledge to be present at the marriage and give away the bride is received
with universal favour A whirling head has Mr George that night when he lies
down in the statebed of his brothers house to think of all these things and
to see the images of his nieces awful all the evening in their floating
muslins waltzing after the German manner over his counterpane
The brothers are closeted next morning in the ironmasters room where the
elder is proceeding in his clear sensible way to show how he thinks he may
best dispose of George in his business when George squeezes his hand and stops
him
»Brother I thank you a million times for your more than brotherly welcome
and a million times more to that for your more than brotherly intentions But my
plans are made Before I say a word as to them I wish to consult you upon one
family point How« says the trooper folding his arms and looking with
indomitable firmness at his brother »how is my mother to be got to scratch me«
»I am not sure that I understand you George« replies the ironmaster
»I say brother how is my mother to be got to scratch me She must be got
to do it somehow«
»Scratch you out of her will I think you mean«
»Of course I do In short« says the trooper folding his arms more
resolutely yet »I mean to scratch me«
»My dear George« returns his brother »is it so indispensable that you
should undergo that process«
»Quite Absolutely I couldnt be guilty of the meanness of coming back
without it I should never be safe not to be off again I have not sneaked home
to rob your children if not yourself brother of your rights I who forfeited
mine long ago If I am to remain and hold up my head I must be scratched
Come You are a man of celebrated penetration and intelligence and you can tell
me how its to be brought about«
»I can tell you George« replies the ironmaster deliberately »how it is
not to be brought about which I hope may answer the purpose as well Look at
our mother think of her recall her emotion when she recovered you Do you
believe there is a consideration in the world that would induce her to take such
a step against her favourite son Do you believe there is any chance of her
consent to balance against the outrage it would be to her loving dear old
lady to propose it If you do you are wrong No George You must make up
your mind to remain unscratched I think« there is an amused smile on the
ironmasters face as he watches his brother who is pondering deeply
disappointed »I think you may manage almost as well as if the thing were done
though«
»How brother«
»Being bent upon it you can dispose by will of anything you have the
misfortune to inherit in any way you like you know«
»Thats true« says the trooper pondering again Then he wistfully asks
with his hand on his brothers »Would you mind mentioning that brother to
your wife and family«
»Not at all«
»Thank you You wouldnt object to say perhaps that although an undoubted
vagabond I am a vagabond of the harumscarum order and not of the mean sort«
The ironmaster repressing his amused smile assents
»Thank you Thank you Its a weight off my mind« says the trooper with a
heave of his chest as he unfolds his arms and puts a hand on each leg »though
I had set my heart on being scratched too«
The brothers are very like each other sitting face to face but a certain
massive simplicity and absence of usage in the ways of the world is all on the
troopers side
»Well« he proceeds throwing off his disappointment »next and last those
plans of mine You have been so brotherly as to propose to me to fall in here
and take my place among the products of your perseverance and sense I thank you
heartily Its more than brotherly as I said before and I thank you heartily
for it« shaking him a long time by the hand »But the truth is brother I am a
I am a kind of a Weed and its too late to plant me in a regular garden«
»My dear George« returns the elder concentrating his strong steady brow
upon him and smiling confidently »leave that to me and let me try«
George shakes his head »You could do it I have not a doubt if anybody
could but its not to be done Not to be done sir Whereas it so falls out on
the other hand that I am able to be of some trifle of use to Sir Leicester
Dedlock since his illness brought on by family sorrows and that he would
rather have that help from our mothers son than from anybody else«
»Well my dear George« returns the other with a very slight shade upon his
open face »if you prefer to serve in Sir Leicester Dedlocks household brigade
«
»There it is brother« cries the trooper checking him with his hand upon
his knee again »there it is You dont take kindly to that idea I dont mind
it You are not used to being officered I am Everything about you is in
perfect order and discipline everything about me requires to be kept so We are
not accustomed to carry things with the same hand or to look at em from the
same point I dont say much about my garrison manners because I found myself
pretty well at my ease last night and they wouldnt be noticed here I dare
say once and away But I shall get on best at Chesney Wold where theres more
room for a Weed than there is here and the dear old lady will be made happy
besides Therefore I accept of Sir Leicester Dedlocks proposals When I come
over next year to give away the bride or whenever I come I shall have the
sense to keep the household brigade in ambuscade and not to manoeuvre it on
your ground I thank you heartily again and am proud to think of the
Rouncewells as theyll be founded by you«
»You know yourself George« says the elder brother returning the grip of
his hand »and perhaps you know me better than I know myself Take your way So
that we dont quite lose one another again take your way«
»No fear of that« returns the trooper »Now before I turn my horses head
homewards brother I will ask you if youll be so good to look over a
letter for me I brought it with me to send from these parts as Chesney Wold
might be a painful name just now to the person its written to I am not much
accustomed to correspondence myself and I am particular respecting this present
letter because I want it to be both straightforward and delicate«
Herewith he hands a letter closely written in somewhat pale ink but in a
neat round hand to the ironmaster who reads as follows
»Miss Esther Summerson
A communication having been made to me by Inspector Bucket of a
letter to myself being found among the papers of a certain person I
take the liberty to make known to you that it was but a few lines of
instruction from abroad when where and how to deliver an enclosed
letter to a young and beautiful lady then unmarried in England I duly
observed the same
I further take the liberty to make known to you that it was got
from me as a proof of handwriting only and that otherwise I would not
have given it up as appearing to be the most harmless in my possession
without being previously shot through the heart
I further take the liberty to mention that if I could have supposed
a certain unfortunate gentleman to have been in existence I never could
and never would have rested until I had discovered his retreat and
shared my last farthing with him as my duty and my inclination would
have equally been But he was officially reported drowned and
assuredly went over the side of a transportship at night in an Irish
harbour within a few hours of her arrival from the West Indies as I
have myself heard both from officers and men on board and know to have
been officially confirmed
I further take the liberty to state that in my humble quality as one
of the rank and file I am and shall ever continue to be your
thoroughly devoted and admiring servant and that I esteem the qualities
you possess above all others far beyond the limits of the present
dispatch
I have the honour to be
GEORGE«
»A little formal« observes the elder brother refolding it with a puzzled face
»But nothing that might not be sent to a pattern young lady« asks the
younger
»Nothing at all«
Therefore it is sealed and deposited for posting among the iron
correspondence of the day This done Mr George takes a hearty farewell of the
family party and prepares to saddle and mount His brother however unwilling
to part with him so soon proposes to ride with him in a light open carriage to
the place where he will bait for the night and there remain with him until
morning a servant riding for so much of the journey on the thoroughbred old
grey from Chesney Wold The offer being gladly accepted is followed by a
pleasant ride a pleasant dinner and a pleasant breakfast all in brotherly
communion Then they once more shake hands long and heartily and part the
ironmaster turning his face to the smoke and fires and the trooper to the green
country Early in the afternoon the subdued sound of his heavy military trot is
heard on the turf in the avenue as he rides on with imaginary clank and jingle
of accoutrements under the old elm trees
Chapter LXIV
Esthers Narrative
Soon after I had had that conversation with my guardian he put a sealed paper
in my hand one morning and said »This is for next month my dear« I found in
it two hundred pounds
I now began very quietly to make such preparations as I thought were
necessary Regulating my purchases by my guardians taste which I knew very
well of course I arranged my wardrobe to please him and hoped I should be
highly successful I did it all so quietly because I was not quite free from my
old apprehension that Ada would be rather sorry and because my guardian was so
quiet himself I had no doubt that under all the circumstances we should be
married in the most private and simple manner Perhaps I should only have to say
to Ada »Would you like to come and see me married tomorrow my pet« Perhaps
our wedding might even be as unpretending as her own and I might not find it
necessary to say anything about it until it was over I thought that if I were
to choose I would like this best
The only exception I made was Mrs Woodcourt I told her that I was going to
be married to my guardian and that we had been engaged some time She highly
approved She could never do enough for me and was remarkably softened now in
comparison with what she had been when we first knew her There was no trouble
she would not have taken to have been of use to me but I need hardly say that I
only allowed her to take as little as gratified her kindness without tasking it
Of course this was not a time to neglect my guardian and of course it was
not a time for neglecting my darling So I had plenty of occupation which I
was glad of and as to Charley she was absolutely not to be seen for
needlework To surround herself with great heaps of it baskets full and tables
full and do a little and spend a great deal of time in staring with her round
eyes at what there was to do and persuade herself that she was going to do it
were Charleys great dignities and delights
Meanwhile I must say I could not agree with my guardian on the subject of
the Will and I had some sanguine hopes of Jarndyce and Jarndyce Which of us
was right will soon appear but I certainly did encourage expectations In
Richard the discovery gave occasion for a burst of business and agitation that
buoyed him up for a little time but he had lost the elasticity even of hope
now and seemed to me to retain only its feverish anxieties From something my
guardian said one day when we were talking about this I understood that my
marriage would not take place until after the Term-time we had been told to look
forward to and I thought the more for that how rejoiced I should be if I
could be married when Richard and Ada were a little more prosperous
The Term was very near indeed when my guardian was called out of town and
went down into Yorkshire on Mr Woodcourts business He had told me beforehand
that his presence there would be necessary I had just come in one night from my
dear girls and was sitting in the midst of all my new clothes looking at them
all around me and thinking when a letter from my guardian was brought to me
It asked me to join him in the country and mentioned by what stagecoach my
place was taken and at what time in the morning I should have to leave town It
added in a postscript that I would not be many hours from Ada
I expected few things less than a journey at that time but I was ready for
it in halfanhour and set off as appointed early next morning I travelled all
day wondering all day what I could be wanted for at such a distance now I
thought it might be for this purpose and now I thought it might be for that
purpose but I was never never never near the truth
It was night when I came to my journeys end and found my guardian waiting
for me This was a great relief for towards evening I had begun to fear the
more so as his letter was a very short one that he might be ill However there
he was as well as it was possible to be and when I saw his genial face again
at its brightest and best I said to myself he has been doing some other great
kindness Not that it required much penetration to say that because I knew that
his being there at all was an act of kindness
Supper was ready at the hotel and when we were alone at table he said
»Full of curiosity no doubt little woman to know why I have brought you
here«
»Well Guardian« said I »without thinking myself a Fatima or you a Blue
Beard I am a little curious about it«
»Then to ensure your nights rest my love« he returned gaily »I wont
wait until tomorrow to tell you I have very much wished to express to
Woodcourt somehow my sense of his humanity to poor unfortunate Jo his
inestimable services to my young cousins and his value to us all When it was
decided that he should settle here it came into my head that I might ask his
acceptance of some unpretending and suitable little place to lay his own head
in I therefore caused such a place to be looked out for and such a place was
found on very easy terms and I have been touching it up for him and making it
habitable However when I walked over it the day before yesterday and it was
reported ready I found that I was not housekeeper enough to know whether things
were all as they ought to be So I sent off for the best little housekeeper that
could possibly be got to come and give me her advice and opinion And here she
is« said my guardian »laughing and crying both together«
Because he was so dear so good so admirable I tried to tell him what I
thought of him but I could not articulate a word
»Tut tut« said my guardian »You make too much of it little woman Why
how you sob Dame Durden how you sob«
»It is with exquisite pleasure Guardian with a heart full of thanks«
»Well well« said he »I am delighted that you approve I thought you
would I meant it as a pleasant surprise for the little mistress of Bleak
House«
I kissed him and dried my eyes »I know now« said I »I have seen this in
your face a long while«
»No have you really my dear« said he »What a Dame Durden it is to read a
face«
He was so quaintly cheerful that I could not long be otherwise and was
almost ashamed of having been otherwise at all When I went to bed I cried I
am bound to confess that I cried but I hope it was with pleasure though I am
not quite sure it was with pleasure I repeated every word of the letter twice
over
A most beautiful summer morning succeeded and after breakfast we went out
arm in arm to see the house of which I was to give my mighty housekeeping
opinion We entered a flowergarden by a gate in a side wall of which he had
the key and the first thing I saw was that the beds and flowers were all laid
out according to the manner of my beds and flowers at home
»You see my dear« observed my guardian standing still with a delighted
face to watch my looks »knowing there could be no better plan I borrowed
yours«
We went on by a pretty little orchard where the cherries were nestling
among the green leaves and the shadows of the appletrees were sporting on the
grass to the house itself a cottage quite a rustic cottage of dolls rooms
but such a lovely place so tranquil and so beautiful with such a rich and
smiling country spread around it with water sparkling away into the distance
here all overhung with summergrowth there turning a humming mill at its
nearest point glancing through a meadow by the cheerful town where
cricketplayers were assembling in bright groups and a flag was flying from a
white tent that rippled in the sweet west wind And still as we went through
the pretty rooms out at the little rustic verandah doors and underneath the
tiny wooden colonnades garlanded with woodbine jasmine and honeysuckle I
saw in the papering on the walls in the colours of the furniture in the
arrangement of all the pretty objects my little tastes and fancies my little
methods and inventions which they used to laugh at while they praised them my
odd ways everywhere
I could not say enough in admiration of what was all so beautiful but one
secret doubt arose in my mind when I saw this I thought O would he be the
happier for it Would it not have been better for his peace that I should not
have been so brought before him Because although I was not what he thought me
still he loved me very dearly and it might remind him mournfully of what he
believed he had lost I did not wish him to forget me perhaps he might not
have done so without these aids to his memory but my way was easier than
his and I could have reconciled myself even to that so that he had been the
happier for it
»And now little woman« said my guardian whom I had never seen so proud
and joyful as in showing me these things and watching my appreciation of them
»now last of all for the name of this house«
»What is it called dear Guardian«
»My child« said he »come and see«
He took me to the porch which he had hitherto avoided and said pausing
before we went out
»My dear child dont you guess the name«
»No« said I
We went out of the porch and he showed me written over it BLEAK HOUSE
He led me to a seat among the leaves close by and sitting down beside me
and taking my hand in his spoke to me thus
»My darling girl in what there has been between us I have I hope been
really solicitous for your happiness When I wrote you the letter to which you
brought the answer« smiling as he referred to it »I had my own too much in
view but I had yours too Whether under different circumstances I might ever
have renewed the old dream I sometimes dreamed when you were very young of
making you my wife one day I need not ask myself I did renew it and I wrote
my letter and you brought your answer You are following what I say my child«
I was cold and I trembled violently but not a word he uttered was lost As
I sat looking fixedly at him and the suns rays descended softly shining
through the leaves upon his bare head I felt as if the brightness on him must
be like the brightness of the Angels
»Hear me my love but do not speak It is for me to speak now When it was
that I began to doubt whether what I had done would really make you happy is no
matter Woodcourt came home and I soon had no doubt at all«
I clasped him round the neck and hung my head upon his breast and wept
»Lie lightly confidently here my child« said he pressing me gently to him
»I am your guardian and your father now Rest confidently here«
Soothingly like the gentle rustling of the leaves and genially like the
ripening weather and radiantly and beneficently like the sunshine he went on
»Understand me my dear girl I had no doubt of your being contented and
happy with me being so dutiful and so devoted but I saw with whom you would be
happier That I penetrated his secret when Dame Durden was blind to it is no
wonder for I knew the good that could never change in her better far than she
did Well I have long been in Allan Woodcourts confidence although he was
not until yesterday a few hours before you came here in mine But I would not
have my Esthers bright example lost I would not have a jot of my dear girls
virtues unobserved and unhonoured I would not have her admitted on sufferance
into the line of Morgan ap Kerrig no not for the weight in gold of all the
mountains in Wales«
He stopped to kiss me on the forehead and I sobbed and wept afresh For I
felt as if I could not bear the painful delight of his praise
»Hush little woman Dont cry this is to be a day of joy I have looked
forward to it« he said exultingly »for months on months A few words more
Dame Trot and I have said my say Determined not to throw away one atom of my
Esthers worth I took Mrs Woodcourt into a separate confidence Now madam
said I I clearly perceive and indeed I know to boot that your son loves my
ward I am further very sure that my ward loves your son but will sacrifice her
love to a sense of duty and affection and will sacrifice it so completely so
entirely so religiously that you should never suspect it though you watched
her night and day Then I told her all our story ours yours and mine Now
madam said I come you knowing this and live with us Come you and see my
child from hour to hour set what you see against her pedigree which is this
and this for I scorned to mince it and tell me what is the true legitimacy
when you shall have quite made up your mind on that subject Why honour to her
old Welsh blood my dear« cried my guardian with enthusiasm »I believe the
heart it animates beats no less warmly no less admiringly no less lovingly
towards Dame Durden than my own«
He tenderly raised my head and as I clung to him kissed me in his old
fatherly way again and again What a light now on the protecting manner I had
thought about
»One more last word When Allan Woodcourt spoke to you my dear he spoke
with my knowledge and consent but I gave him no encouragement not I for
these surprises were my great reward and I was too miserly to part with a scrap
of it He was to come and tell me all that passed and he did I have no more
to say My dearest Allan Woodcourt stood beside your father when he lay dead
stood beside your mother This is Bleak House This day I give this house its
little mistress and before God it is the brightest day in all my life«
He rose and raised me with him We were no longer alone My husband I
have called him by that name full seven happy years now stood at my side
»Allan« said my guardian »take from me a willing gift the best wife that
ever man had What more can I say for you than that I know you deserve her
Take with her the little home she brings you You know what she will make it
Allan you know what she has made its namesake Let me share its felicity
sometimes and what do I sacrifice Nothing nothing«
He kissed me once again and now the tears were in his eyes as he said more
softly
»Esther my dearest after so many years there is a kind of parting in this
too I know that my mistake has caused you some distress Forgive your old
guardian in restoring him to his old place in your affections and blot it out
of your memory Allan take my dear«
He moved away from under the green roof of leaves and stopping in the
sunlight outside and turning cheerfully towards us said
»I shall be found about here somewhere Its a West wind little woman due
West Let no one thank me any more for I am going to revert to my bachelor
habits and if anybody disregards this warning Ill run away and never come
back«
What happiness was ours that day what joy what rest what hope what
gratitude what bliss We were to be married before the month was out but when
we were to come and take possession of our own house was to depend on Richard
and Ada
We all three went home together next day As soon as we arrived in town
Allan went straight to see Richard and to carry our joyful news to him and my
darling Late as it was I meant to go to her for a few minutes before lying
down to sleep but I went home with my guardian first to make his tea for him
and to occupy the old chair by his side for I did not like to think of its
being empty so soon
When we came home we found that a young man had called three times in the
course of that one day to see me and that having been told on the occasion
of his third call that I was not expected to return before ten oclock at
night he had left word that he would call about then He had left his card
three times MR GUPPY
As I naturally speculated on the object of these visits and as I always
associated something ludicrous with the visitor it fell out that in laughing
about Mr Guppy I told my guardian of his old proposal and his subsequent
retractation »After that« said my guardian »we will certainly receive this
hero« So instructions were given that Mr Guppy should be shown in when he
came again and they were scarcely given when he did come again
He was embarrassed when he found my guardian with me but recovered himself
and said »How de do sir«
»How do you do sir« returned my guardian
»Thank you sir I am tolerable« returned Mr Guppy »Will you allow me to
introduce my mother Mrs Guppy of the Old Street Road and my particular
friend Mr Weevle That is to say my friend has gone by the name of Weevle
but his name is really and truly Jobling«
My guardian begged them to be seated and they all sat down
»Tony« said Mr Guppy to his friend after an awkward silence »Will you
open the case«
»Do it yourself« returned the friend rather tartly
»Well Mr Jarndyce sir« Mr Guppy after a moments consideration began
to the great diversion of his mother which she displayed by nudging Mr Jobling
with her elbow and winking at me in a most remarkable manner »I had an idea
that I should see Miss Summerson by herself and was not quite prepared for your
esteemed presence But Miss Summerson has mentioned to you perhaps that
something has passed between us on former occasions«
»Miss Summerson« returned my guardian smiling »has made a communication to
that effect to me«
»That« said Mr Guppy »makes matters easier Sir I have come out of my
articles at Kenge and Carboys and I believe with satisfaction to all parties
I am now admitted after undergoing an examination thats enough to badger a man
blue touching a pack of nonsense that he dont want to know on the roll of
attorneys and have taken out my certificate if it would be any satisfaction to
you to see it«
»Thank you Mr Guppy« returned my guardian »I am quite willing I
believe I use a legal phrase to admit the certificate«
Mr Guppy therefore desisted from taking something out of his pocket and
proceeded without it
»I have no capital myself but my mother has a little property which takes
the form of an annuity« here Mr Guppys mother rolled her head as if she never
could sufficiently enjoy the observation and put her handkerchief to her mouth
and again winked at me »and a few pounds for expenses out of pocket in
conducting business will never be wanting free of interest which is an
advantage you know« said Mr Guppy feelingly
»Certainly an advantage« returned my guardian
»I have some connexion« pursued Mr Guppy »and it lays in the direction of
Walcot Square Lambeth I have therefore taken a ouse in that locality which
in the opinion of my friends is a hollow bargain taxes ridiculous and use of
fixtures included in the rent and intend setting up professionally for myself
there forthwith«
Here Mr Guppys mother fell into an extraordinary passion of rolling her
head and smiling waggishly at anybody who would look at her
»Its a sixroomer exclusive of kitchens« said Mr Guppy »and in the
opinion of my friends a commodious tenement When I mention my friends I refer
principally to my friend Jobling who I believe has known me« Mr Guppy looked
at him with a sentimental air »from boyhoods hour«
Mr Jobling confirmed this with a sliding movement of his legs
»My friend Jobling will render me his assistance in the capacity of clerk
and will live in the ouse« said Mr Guppy »My mother will likewise live in the
ouse when her present quarter in the Old Street Road shall have ceased and
expired and consequently there will be no want of society My friend Jobling is
naturally aristocratic by taste and besides being acquainted with the movements
of the upper circles fully backs me in the intentions I am now developing«
Mr Jobling said »certainly« and withdrew a little from the elbow of Mr
Guppys mother
»Now I have no occasion to mention to you sir you being in the confidence
of Miss Summerson« said Mr Guppy »mother I wish youd be so good as to keep
still that Miss Summersons image was formerly imprinted on my art and that I
made her a proposal of marriage«
»That I have heard« returned my guardian
»Circumstances« pursued Mr Guppy »over which I had no control but quite
the contrary weakened the impression of that image for a time At which time
Miss Summersons conduct was highly genteel I may even add magnanimous«
My guardian patted me on the shoulder and seemed much amused
»Now sir« said Mr Guppy »I have got into that state of mind myself that
I wish for a reciprocity of magnanimous behaviour I wish to prove to Miss
Summerson that I can rise to a heighth of which perhaps she hardly thought me
capable I find that the image which I did suppose had been eradicated from my
art is not eradicated Its influence over me is still tremenjous and yielding
to it I am willing to overlook the circumstances over which none of us have had
any control and to renew those proposals to Miss Summerson which I had the
honour to make at a former period I beg to lay the ouse in Walcot Square the
business and myself before Miss Summerson for her acceptance«
»Very magnanimous indeed sir« observed my guardian
»Well sir« replied Mr Guppy with candour »my wish is to be magnanimous
I do not consider that in making this offer to Miss Summerson I am by any means
throwing myself away neither is that the opinion of my friends Still there
are circumstances which I submit may be taken into account as a set off against
any little drawbacks of mine and so a fair and equitable balance arrived at«
»I take upon myself sir« said my guardian laughing as he rang the bell
»to reply to your proposals on behalf of Miss Summerson She is very sensible of
your handsome intentions and wishes you good evening and wishes you well«
»Oh« said Mr Guppy with a blank look »Is that tantamount sir to
acceptance or rejection or consideration«
»To decided rejection if you please« returned my guardian
Mr Guppy looked incredulously at his friend and at his mother who suddenly
turned very angry and at the floor and at the ceiling
»Indeed« said he »Then Jobling if you was the friend you represent
yourself I should think you might hand my mother out of the gangway instead of
allowing her to remain where she aint wanted«
But Mrs Guppy positively refused to come out of the gangway She wouldnt
hear of it »Why get along with you« said she to my guardian »what do you
mean Aint my son good enough for you You ought to be ashamed of yourself Get
out with you«
»My good lady« returned my guardian »it is hardly reasonable to ask me to
get out of my own room«
»I dont care for that« said Mrs Guppy »Get out with you If we aint
good enough for you go and procure somebody that is good enough Go along and
find em«
I was quite unprepared for the rapid manner in which Mrs Guppys power of
jocularity merged into a power of taking the profoundest offence
»Go along and find somebody thats good enough for you« repeated Mrs
Guppy »Get out« Nothing seemed to astonish Mr Guppys mother so much and to
make her so very indignant as our not getting out »Why dont you get out«
said Mrs Guppy »What are you stopping here for«
»Mother« interposed her son always getting before her and pushing her
back with one shoulder as she sidled at my guardian »will you hold your
tongue«
»No William« she returned »I wont Not unless he gets out I wont«
However Mr Guppy and Mr Jobling together closed on Mr Guppys mother
who began to be quite abusive and took her very much against her will
downstairs her voice rising a stair higher every time her figure got a stair
lower and insisting that we should immediately go and find somebody who was
good enough for us and above all things that we should get out
Chapter LXV
Beginning the World
The term had commenced and my guardian found an intimation from Mr Kenge that
the Cause would come on in two days As I had sufficient hopes of the Will to be
in a flutter about it Allan and I agreed to go down to the Court that morning
Richard was extremely agitated and was so weak and low though his illness was
still of the mind, that my dear girl indeed had sore occasion to be supported
But she looked forward a very little way now to the help that was to come to
her and never drooped
It was at Westminster that the Cause was to come on It had come on there I
dare say a hundred times before but I could not divest myself of an idea that
it might lead to some result now We left home directly after breakfast to be
at Westminster Hall in good time and walked down there through the lively
streets so happily and strangely it seemed together
As we were going along planning what we should do for Richard and Ada I
heard somebody calling »Esther My dear Esther Esther« And there was Caddy
Jellyby with her head out of the window of a little carriage which she hired
now to go about in to her pupils she had so many as if she wanted to embrace
me at a hundred yards distance I had written her a note to tell her of all
that my guardian had done but had not had a moment to go and see her Of course
we turned back and the affectionate girl was in that state of rapture and was
so overjoyed to talk about the night when she brought me the flowers and was so
determined to squeeze my face bonnet and all between her hands and go on in a
wild manner altogether calling me all kinds of precious names and telling
Allan I had done I dont know what for her that I was just obliged to get into
the little carriage and calm her down by letting her say and do exactly what
she liked Allan standing at the window was as pleased as Caddy and I was as
pleased as either of them and I wonder that I got away as I did rather than
that I came off laughing and red and anything but tidy and looking after
Caddy who looked after us out of the coachwindow as long as she could see us
This made us some quarter of an hour late and when we came to Westminster
Hall we found that the days business was begun Worse than that we found such
an unusual crowd in the Court of Chancery that it was full to the door and we
could neither see nor hear what was passing within It appeared to be something
droll for occasionally there was a laugh and a cry of »Silence« It appeared
to be something interesting for every one was pushing and striving to get
nearer It appeared to be something that made the professional gentlemen very
merry for there were several young counsellors in wigs and whiskers on the
outside of the crowd and when one of them told the others about it they put
their hands in their pockets and quite doubled themselves up with laughter and
went stamping about the pavement of the hall
We asked a gentleman by us if he knew what cause was on He told us
Jarndyce and Jarndyce We asked him if he knew what was doing in it He said
really no he did not nobody ever did but as well as he could make out it was
over Over for the day we asked him No he said over for good
Over for good
When we heard this unaccountable answer we looked at one another quite lost
in amazement Could it be possible that the Will had set things right at last
and that Richard and Ada were going to be rich It seemed too good to be true
Alas it was
Our suspense was short for a break up soon took place in the crowd and the
people came streaming out looking flushed and hot and bringing a quantity of
bad air with them Still they were all exceedingly amused and were more like
people coming out from a Farce or a Juggler than from a court of Justice We
stood aside watching for any countenance we knew and presently great bundles
of paper began to be carried out bundles in bags bundles too large to be got
into any bags immense masses of papers of all shapes and no shapes which the
bearers staggered under and threw down for the time being anyhow on the Hall
pavement while they went back to bring out more Even these clerks were
laughing We glanced at the papers and seeing Jarndyce and Jarndyce everywhere
asked an officiallooking person who was standing in the midst of them whether
the cause was over »Yes« he said »it was all up with it at last« and burst
out laughing too
At this juncture we perceived Mr Kenge coming out of Court with an affable
dignity upon him listening to Mr Vholes who was deferential and carried his
own bag Mr Vholes was the first to see us »Here is Miss Summerson sir« he
said »And Mr Woodcourt«
»O indeed Yes Truly« said Mr Kenge raising his hat to me with polished
politeness »How do you do Glad to see you Mr Jarndyce is not here«
No He never came there I reminded him
»Really« returned Mr Kenge »it is as well that he is not here today for
his shall I say in my good friends absence his indomitable singularity of
opinion might have been strengthened perhaps not reasonably but might have
been strengthened«
»Pray what has been done today« asked Allan
»I beg your pardon« said Mr Kenge with excessive urbanity
»What has been done today«
»What has been done« repeated Mr Kenge »Quite so Yes Why not much has
been done not much We have been checked brought up suddenly I would say
upon the shall I term it threshold«
»Is this Will considered a genuine document sir« said Allan »will you
tell us that«
»Most certainly if I could« said Mr Kenge »but we have not gone into
that we have not gone into that«
»We have not gone into that« repeated Mr Vholes as if his low inward
voice were an echo
»You are to reflect Mr Woodcourt« observed Mr Kenge using his silver
trowel persuasively and smoothingly »that this has been a great cause that
this has been a protracted cause that this has been a complex cause Jarndyce
and Jarndyce has been termed not inaptly a Monument of Chancery practice«
»And Patience has sat upon it a long time« said Allan
»Very well indeed sir« returned Mr Kenge with a certain condescending
laugh he had »Very well You are further to reflect Mr Woodcourt« becoming
dignified almost to severity »that on the numerous difficulties contingencies
masterly fictions and forms of procedure in this great cause there has been
expended study ability eloquence knowledge intellect Mr Woodcourt high
intellect For many years the a I would say the flower of the Bar and the
a I would presume to add the matured autumnal fruits of the Woolsack have
been lavished upon Jarndyce and Jarndyce If the public have the benefit and if
the country have the adornment of this great Grasp it must be paid for in
money or moneys worth sir«
»Mr Kenge« said Allan appearing enlightened all in a moment »Excuse me
our time presses Do I understand that the whole estate is found to have been
absorbed in costs«
»Hem I believe so« returned Mr Kenge »Mr Vholes what do you say«
»I believe so« said Mr Vholes
»And that thus the suit lapses and melts away«
»Probably« returned Mr Kenge »Mr Vholes«
»Probably« said Mr Vholes
»My dearest life« whispered Allan »this will break Richards heart«
There was such a shock of apprehension in his face and he knew Richard so
perfectly and I too had seen so much of his gradual decay that what my dear
girl had said to me in the fulness of her foreboding love sounded like a knell
in my ears
»In case you should be wanting Mr C sir« said Mr Vholes coming after
us »youll find him in Court I left him there resting himself a little Good
day sir good day Miss Summerson« As he gave me that slowly devouring look of
his while twisting up the strings of his bag before he hastened with it after
Mr Kenge the benignant shadow of whose conversational presence he seemed
afraid to leave he gave one gasp as if he had swallowed the last morsel of his
client and his black buttonedup unwholesome figure glided away to the low door
at the end of the Hall
»My dear love« said Allan »leave to me for a little while the charge you
gave me Go home with this intelligence and come to Adas byandby«
I would not let him take me to a coach but entreated him to go to Richard
without a moments delay and leave me to do as he wished Hurrying home I
found my guardian and told him gradually with what news I had returned »Little
woman« said he quite unmoved for himself »to have done with the suit on any
terms is a greater blessing than I had looked for But my poor young cousins«
We talked about them all the morning and discussed what it was possible to
do In the afternoon my guardian walked with me to Symonds Inn and left me at
the door I went upstairs When my darling heard my footsteps she came out
into the small passage and threw her arms round my neck but she composed
herself directly and said that Richard had asked for me several times Allan
had found him sitting in the corner of the Court she told me like a stone
figure On being roused he had broken away and made as if he would have spoken
in a fierce voice to the Judge He was stopped by his mouth being full of blood
and Allan had brought him home
He was lying on a sofa with his eyes closed when I went in There were
restoratives on the table the room was made as airy as possible and was
darkened and was very orderly and quiet Allan stood behind him watching him
gravely His face appeared to me to be quite destitute of colour and now that I
saw him without his seeing me I fully saw for the first time how worn away he
was But he looked handsomer than I had seen him look for many a day
I sat down by his side in silence Opening his eyes byandby he said in a
weak voice but with his old smile »Dame Durden kiss me my dear«
It was a great comfort and surprise to me to find him in his low state
cheerful and looking forward He was happier he said in our intended marriage
than he could find words to tell me My husband had been a guardian angel to him
and Ada and he blessed us both and wished us all the joy that life could yield
us I almost felt as if my own heart would have broken when I saw him take my
husbands hand and hold it to his breast
We spoke of the future as much as possible and he said several times that
he must be present at our marriage if he could stand upon his feet Ada would
contrive to take him somehow he said »Yes surely dearest Richard« But as
my darling answered him thus hopefully so serene and beautiful with the help
that was to come to her so near I knew I knew
It was not good for him to talk too much and when he was silent we were
silent too Sitting beside him I made a pretence of working for my dear as he
had always been used to joke about my being busy Ada leaned upon his pillow
holding his head upon her arm He dozed often and whenever he awoke without
seeing him said first of all »Where is Woodcourt«
Evening had come on when I lifted up my eyes and saw my guardian standing
in the little hall »Who is that Dame Burden« Richard asked me The door was
behind him but he had observed in my face that some one was there
I looked to Allan for advice and as he nodded »Yes« bent over Richard and
told him My guardian saw what passed came softly by me in a moment and laid
his hand on Richards »O sir« said Richard »you are a good man you are a
good man« and burst into tears for the first time
My guardian the picture of a good man sat down in my place keeping his
hand on Richards
»My dear Rick« said he »the clouds have cleared away and it is bright
now We can see now We were all bewildered Rick more or less What matters
And how are you my dear boy«
»I am very weak sir but I hope I shall be stronger I have to begin the
world«
»Aye truly well said« cried my guardian
»I will not begin it in the old way now« said Richard with a sad smile »I
have learned a lesson now sir It was a hard one but you shall be assured
indeed that I have learned it«
»Well well« said my guardian comforting him »well well well dear
boy«
»I was thinking sir« resumed Richard »that there is nothing on earth I
should so much like to see as their house Dame Durdens and Woodcourts house
If I could be removed there when I begin to recover my strength I feel as if I
should get well there sooner than anywhere«
»Why so have I been thinking too Rick« said my guardian »and our little
woman likewise she and I have been talking of it this very day I dare say her
husband wont object What do you think«
Richard smiled and lifted up his arm to touch him as he stood behind the
head of the couch
»I say nothing of Ada« said Richard »but I think of her and have thought
of her very much Look at her see her here sir bending over this pillow when
she has so much need to rest upon it herself my dear love my poor girl«
He clasped her in his arms and none of us spoke He gradually released her
and she looked upon us and looked up to Heaven and moved her lips
»When I get down to Bleak House« said Richard »I shall have much to tell
you sir and you will have much to show me You will go wont you«
»Undoubtedly dear Rick«
»Thank you like you like you« said Richard »But its all like you They
have been telling me how you planned it and how you remembered all Esthers
familiar tastes and ways It will be like coming to the old Bleak House again«
»And you will come there too I hope Rick I am a solitary man now you
know and it will be a charity to come to me A charity to come to me my love«
he repeated to Ada as he gently passed his hand over her golden hair and put a
lock of it to his lips I think he vowed within himself to cherish her if she
were left alone
»It was a troubled dream« said Richard clasping both my guardians hands
eagerly
»Nothing more Rick nothing more«
»And you being a good man can pass it as such and forgive and pity the
dreamer and be lenient and encouraging when he wakes«
»Indeed I can What am I but another dreamer Rick«
»I will begin the world« said Richard with a light in his eyes
My husband drew a little nearer towards Ada and I saw him solemnly lift up
his hand to warn my guardian
»When shall I go from this place to that pleasant country where the old
times are where I shall have strength to tell what Ada has been to me where I
shall be able to recall my many faults and blindnesses where I shall prepare
myself to be a guide to my unborn child« said Richard »When shall I go«
»Dear Rick when you are strong enough« returned my guardian
»Ada my darling«
He sought to raise himself a little Allan raised him so that she could hold
him on her bosom which was what he wanted
»I have done you many wrongs my own I have fallen like a poor stray shadow
on your way I have married you to poverty and trouble I have scattered your
means to the winds You will forgive me all this my Ada before I begin the
world«
A smile irradiated his face as she bent to kiss him He slowly laid his
face down upon her bosom drew his arms closer round her neck and with one
parting sob began the world Not this world O not this The world that sets
this right
When all was still at a late hour poor crazed Miss Flite came weeping to
me and told me she had given her birds their liberty
Chapter LXVI
Down in Lincolnshire
There is a hush upon Chesney Wold in these altered days as there is upon a
portion of the family history The story goes that Sir Leicester paid some who
could have spoken out to hold their peace but it is a lame story feebly
whispering and creeping about and any brighter spark of life it shows soon dies
away It is known for certain that the handsome Lady Dedlock lies in the
mausoleum in the park where the trees arch darkly overhead and the owl is
heard at night making the woods ring but whence she was brought home to be
laid among the echoes of that solitary place or how she died is all mystery
Some of her old friends principally to be found among the peachycheeked
charmers with the skeleton throats did once occasionally say as they toyed in
a ghastly manner with large fans like charmers reduced to flirting with grim
Death after losing all their other beaux did once occasionally say when the
World assembled together that they wondered the ashes of the Dedlocks entombed
in the mausoleum never rose against the profanation of her company But the
deadandgone Dedlocks take it very calmly and have never been known to object
Up from among the fern in the hollow and winding by the bridleroad among
the trees comes sometimes to this lonely spot the sound of horses hoofs Then
may be seen Sir Leicester invalided bent and almost blind but of worthy
presence yet riding with a stalwart man beside him constant to his
bridlerein When they come to a certain spot before the mausoleumdoor Sir
Leicesters accustomed horse stops of his own accord and Sir Leicester pulling
off his hat is still for a few moments before they ride away
War rages yet with the audacious Boythorn though at uncertain intervals
and now hotly and now coolly flickering like an unsteady fire The truth is
said to be that when Sir Leicester came down to Lincolnshire for good Mr
Boythorn showed a manifest desire to abandon his right of way and do whatever
Sir Leicester would which Sir Leicester conceiving to be a condescension to
his illness or misfortune took in such high dudgeon and was so magnificently
aggrieved by that Mr Boythorn found himself under the necessity of committing
a flagrant trespass to restore his neighbour to himself Similarly Mr Boythorn
continues to post tremendous placards on the disputed thoroughfare and with
his bird upon his head to hold forth vehemently against Sir Leicester in the
sanctuary of his own home similarly also he defies him as of old in the
little church by testifying a bland unconsciousness of his existence But it is
whispered that when he is most ferocious towards his old foe he is really most
considerate and that Sir Leicester in the dignity of being implacable little
supposes how much he is humoured As little does he think how near together he
and his antagonist have suffered in the fortunes of two sisters and his
antagonist who knows it now is not the man to tell him So the quarrel goes on
to the satisfaction of both
In one of the lodges of the park that lodge within sight of the house
where once upon a time when the waters were out down in Lincolnshire my Lady
used to see the Keepers child the stalwart man the trooper formerly is
housed Some relics of his old calling hang upon the walls and these it is the
chosen recreation of a little lame man about the stableyard to keep gleaming
bright A busy little man he always is in the polishing at harnesshouse doors
of stirrupirons bits curbchains harness bosses anything in the way of a
stableyard that will take a polish leading a life of friction A shaggy little
damaged man withal not unlike an old dog of some mongrel breed who has been
considerably knocked about He answers to the name of Phil
A goodly sight it is to see the grand old housekeeper harder of hearing
now going to church on the arm of her son and to observe which few do for
the house is scant of company in these times the relations of both towards Sir
Leicester and his towards them They have visitors in the high summer weather
when a grey cloak and umbrella unknown to Chesney Wold at other periods are
seen among the leaves when two young ladies are occasionally found gambolling
in sequestered sawpits and such nooks of the park and when the smoke of two
pipes wreathes away into the fragrant evening air from the troopers door Then
is a fife heard trolling within the lodge on the inspiring topic of the British
Grenadiers and as the evening closes in a gruff inflexible voice is heard to
say while two men pace together up and down »But I never own to it before the
old girl Discipline must be maintained«
The greater part of the house is shut up and it is a showhouse no longer
yet Sir Leicester holds his shrunken state in the long drawingroom for all
that and reposes in his old place before my Ladys picture Closed in by night
with broad screens and illumined only in that part the light of the
drawingroom seems gradually contracting and dwindling until it shall be no
more A little more in truth and it will be all extinguished for Sir
Leicester and the damp door in the mausoleum which shuts so tight and looks so
obdurate will have opened and relieved him
Volumnia growing with the flight of time pinker as to the red in her face
and yellower as to the white reads to Sir Leicester in the long evenings and
is driven to various artifices to conceal her yawns of which the chief and most
efficacious is the insertion of the pearl necklace between her rosy lips
Longwinded treatises on the Buffy and Boodle question showing how Buffy is
immaculate and Boodle villainous and how the country is lost by being all
Boodle and no Buffy or saved by being all Buffy and no Boodle it must be one
of the two and cannot be anything else are the staple of her reading Sir
Leicester is not particular what it is and does not appear to follow it very
closely further than that he always comes broad awake the moment Volumnia
ventures to leave off and sonorously repeating her last word begs with some
displeasure to know if she finds herself fatigued However Volumnia in the
course of her birdlike hopping about and pecking at papers has alighted on a
memorandum concerning herself in the event of anything happening to her
kinsman which is handsome compensation for an extensive course of reading and
holds even the dragon Boredom at bay
The cousins generally are rather shy of Chesney Wold in its dulness but
take to it a little in the shooting season when guns are heard in the
plantations and a few scattered beaters and keepers wait at the old places of
appointment for lowspirited twos and threes of cousins The debilitated
cousin more debilitated by the dreariness of the place gets into a fearful
state of depression groaning under penitential sofapillows in his gunless
hours and protesting that such fernal old jails nough tsew fler up
frever
The only great occasions for Volumnia in this changed aspect of the place
in Lincolnshire are those occasions rare and widelyseparated when something
is to be done for the county or the country in the way of gracing a public
ball Then indeed does the tuckered sylph come out in fairy form and proceed
with joy under cousinly escort to the exhausted old assemblyroom fourteen
heavy miles off which during three hundred and sixtyfour days and nights of
every ordinary year is a kind of Antipodean lumberroom full of old chairs and
tables upside down Then indeed does she captivate all hearts by her
condescension by her girlish vivacity and by her skipping about as in the days
when the hideous old general with the mouth too full of teeth had not cut one
of them at two guineas each Then does she twirl and twine a pastoral nymph of
good family through the mazes of the dance Then do the swains appear with tea
with lemonade with sandwiches with homage Then is she kind and cruel stately
and unassuming various beautifully wilful Then is there a singular kind of
parallel between her and the little glass chandeliers of another age
embellishing that assemblyroom which with their meagre stems their spare
little drops their disappointing knobs where no drops are their bare little
stalks from which knobs and drops have both departed and their little feeble
prismatic twinkling all seem Volumnias
For the rest Lincolnshire life to Volumnia is a vast blank of overgrown
house looking out upon trees sighing wringing their hands bowing their heads
and casting their tears upon the windowpanes in monotonous depression A
labyrinth of grandeur less the property of an old family of human beings and
their ghostly likenesses than of an old family of echoings and thunderings
which start out of their hundred graves at every sound and go resounding
through the building A waste of unused passages and staircases in which to
drop a comb upon a bedroom floor at night is to send a stealthy footfall on an
errand through the house A place where few people care to go about alone where
a maid screams if an ash drops from the fire takes to crying at all times and
seasons becomes the victim of a low disorder of the spirits and gives warning
and departs
Thus Chesney Wold With so much of itself abandoned to darkness and vacancy
with so little change under the summer shining or the wintry lowering so sombre
and motionless always no flag flying now by day no rows of lights sparkling
by night with no family to come and go no visitors to be the souls of pale
cold shapes of rooms no stir of life about it passion and pride even to the
strangers eye have died away from the place in Lincolnshire and yielded it to
dull repose
Chapter LXVII
The Close of Esthers Narrative
Full seven happy years I have been the mistress of Bleak House The few words
that I have to add to what I have written are soon penned then I and the
unknown friend to whom I write will part for ever Not without much dear
remembrance on my side Not without some I hope on his or hers
They gave my darling into my arms and through many weeks I never left her
The little child who was to have done so much was born before the turf was
planted on its fathers grave It was a boy and I my husband and my guardian
gave him his fathers name
The help that my dear counted on did come to her though it came in the
Eternal wisdom for another purpose Though to bless and restore his mother not
his father was the errand of this baby its power was mighty to do it When I
saw the strength of the weak little hand and how its touch could heal my
darlings heart and raise up hope within her I felt a new sense of the
goodness and the tenderness of God
They throve and by degrees I saw my dear girl pass into my country garden
and walk there with her infant in her arms I was married then I was the
happiest of the happy
It was at this time that my guardian joined us and asked Ada when she would
come home
»Both houses are your home my dear« said he »but the older Bleak House
claims priority When you and my boy are strong enough to do it come and take
possession of your home«
Ada called him her dearest cousin John But he said No it must be
guardian now He was her guardian henceforth and the boys and he had an old
association with the name So she called him guardian and has called him
guardian ever since The children know him by no other name I say the
children I have two little daughters
It is difficult to believe that Charley roundeyed still and not at all
grammatical is married to a miller in our neighbourhood yet so it is and even
now looking up from my desk as I write early in the morning at my summer
window I see the very mill beginning to go round I hope the miller will not
spoil Charley but he is very fond of her and Charley is rather vain of such a
match for he is well to do and was in great request So far as my small maid
is concerned I might suppose Time to have stood for seven years as still as the
mill did half an hour ago since little Emma Charleys sister is exactly what
Charley used to be As to Tom Charleys brother I am really afraid to say what
he did at school in cyphering but I think it was Decimals He is apprenticed to
the miller whatever it was and is a good bashful fellow always falling in
love with somebody and being ashamed of it
Caddy Jellyby passed her very last holidays with us and was a dearer
creature than ever perpetually dancing in and out of the house with the
children as if she had never given a dancinglesson in her life Caddy keeps
her own little carriage now instead of hiring one and lives full two miles
further westward than Newman Street She works very hard her husband an
excellent one being lame and able to do very little Still she is more than
contented and does all she has to do with all her heart Mr Jellyby spends his
evenings at her new house with his head against the wall as he used to do in
her old one I have heard that Mrs Jellyby was understood to suffer great
mortification from her daughters ignoble marriage and pursuits but I hope she
got over it in time She has been disappointed in BorrioboolaGha which turned
out a failure in consequence of the King of Borrioboola wanting to sell
everybody who survived the climate for Rum but she has taken up with the
rights of women to sit in Parliament and Caddy tells me it is a mission
involving more correspondence than the old one I had almost forgotten Caddys
poor little girl She is not such a mite now but she is deaf and dumb I
believe there never was a better mother than Caddy who learns in her scanty
intervals of leisure innumerable deaf and dumb arts to soften the affliction
of her child
As if I were never to have done with Caddy I am reminded here of Peepy and
old Mr Turveydrop Peepy is in the Custom House and doing extremely well Old
Mr Turveydrop very apoplectic still exhibits his Deportment about town still
enjoys himself in the old manner is still believed in in the old way He is
constant in his patronage of Peepy and is understood to have bequeathed him a
favourite French clock in his dressingroom which is not his property
With the first money we saved at home we added to our pretty house by
throwing out a little Growlery expressly for my guardian which we inaugurated
with great splendour the next time he came down to see us I try to write all
this lightly because my heart is full in drawing to an end but when I write of
him my tears will have their way
I never look at him but I hear our poor dear Richard calling him a good
man To Ada and her pretty boy he is the fondest father to me he is what he
has ever been and what name can I give to that He is my husbands best and
dearest friend he is our childrens darling he is the object of our deepest
love and veneration Yet while I feel towards him as if he were a superior
being I am so familiar with him and so easy with him that I almost wonder at
myself I have never lost my old names nor has he lost his nor do I ever when
he is with us sit in any other place than in my old chair at his side Dame
Trot Dame Durden Little Woman all just the same as ever and I answer Yes
dear Guardian just the same
I have never known the wind to be in the East for a single moment since the
day when he took me to the porch to read the name I remarked to him once that
the wind seemed never in the East now and he said No truly it had finally
departed from that quarter on that very day
I think my darling girl is more beautiful than ever The sorrow that has
been in her face for it is not there now seems to have purified even its
innocent expression and to have given it a diviner quality Sometimes when I
raise my eyes and see her in the black dress that she still wears teaching my
Richard I feel it is difficult to express as if it were so good to know
that she remembers her dear Esther in her prayers
I call him my Richard But he says that he has two mamas and I am one
We are not rich in the bank but we have always prospered and we have quite
enough I never walk out with my husband but I hear the people bless him I
never go into a house of any degree but I hear his praises or see them in
grateful eyes I never lie down at night but I know that in the course of that
day he has alleviated pain and soothed some fellowcreature in the time of
need I know that from the beds of those who were past recovery thanks have
often often gone up in the last hour for his patient ministration Is not
this to be rich
The people even praise Me as the doctors wife The people even like Me as I
go about and make so much of me that I am quite abashed I owe it all to him
my love my pride They like me for his sake as I do everything I do in life
for his sake
A night or two ago after bustling about preparing for my darling and my
guardian and little Richard who are coming tomorrow I was sitting out in the
porch of all places that dearly memorable porch when Allan came home So he
said »My precious little woman what are you doing here« And I said »The moon
is shining so brightly Allan and the night is so delicious that I have been
sitting here thinking«
»What have you been thinking about my dear« said Allan then
»How curious you are« said I »I am almost ashamed to tell you but I will
I have been thinking about my old looks such as they were«
»And what have you been thinking about them my busy bee« said Allan
»I have been thinking that I thought it was impossible that you could have
loved me any better even if I had retained them«
» Such as they were« said Allan laughing
»Such as they were of course«
»My dear Dame Durden« said Allan drawing my arm through his »do you ever
look in the glass«
»You know I do you see me do it«
»And dont you know that you are prettier than you ever were«
I did not know that I am not certain that I know it now But I know that my
dearest little pets are very pretty and that my darling is very beautiful and
that my husband is very handsome and that my guardian has the brightest and
most benevolent face that ever was seen and that they can very well do without
much beauty in me even supposing
Notes
1 In August 1853
2 Another case very clearly described by a dentist occurred at the town of
Columbus in the United States of America quite recently The subject was a
German who kept a liquorshop and was an inveterate drunkard