 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
Volumnia's 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 hall-fire - bright and warm on the early winter
night - admiring Mercury.
    »Why, you're six foot two, I suppose?« says Mr. Bucket.
    »Three,« says Mercury.
    »Are you so much? But then, you see, you're broad in proportion, and don't
look it. You're not one of the weak-legged ones, you ain't. 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 you'll hear of one day as a Royal Academy Sculptor, would stand something
handsome to make a drawing of your proportions for the marble. My Lady's out,
ain't she?«
    »Out to dinner.«
    »Goes out pretty well every day, don't 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
dinner-table, 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. I've a brother in service, and a
brother-in-law. My
