 I asked. »Ey!« he said,
»it was as good as anoother; that was a' a matther of opinion;« and fell to
looking at the fire, staring round the room, and whistling a little. On my
reverting to some other topic that we had been discussing, he recovered
immediately; but, though I tried him again and again, I never approached the
question of the school, even if he were in the middle of a laugh, without
observing that his countenance fell, and that he became uncomfortable. At last,
when we had passed a couple of hours or so, very agreeably, he suddenly took up
his hat, and leaning over the table and looking me full in the face, said, in a
low voice: »Weel Misther, we've been vara pleasant toogather, and ar'll spak' my
moind tiv'ee. Dinnot let the weedur send her lattle boy to yan o' our
school-measthers, while there's a harse to hoold in a' Lunnun, or a gootther to
lie asleep in. Ar wouldn't mak' ill words amang my neeburs, and ar speak tiv'ee
quiet loike. But I'm dom'd if ar can gang to bed and not tellee, for weedur's
sak', to keep the lattle boy from a' sike scoondrels while there's a harse to
hoold in a' Lunnun, or a gootther to lie asleep in!« Repeating these words with
great heartiness, and with a solemnity on his jolly face that made it look twice
as large as before, he shook hands and went away. I never saw him afterwards,
but I sometimes imagine that I descry a faint reflection of him in John Browdie.
    In reference to these gentry, I may here quote a few words from the original
preface to this book.
    »It has afforded the Author great amusement and satisfaction, during the
progress of this work, to learn, from country friends and from a variety of
ludicrous statements concerning himself in provincial newspapers, that more than
one Yorkshire schoolmaster lays claim to being the original of Mr. Squeers. One
worthy, he has reason to believe, has actually consulted authorities learned in
the law, as to his having good grounds on which to rest an action for libel;
another, has meditated a journey to London, for the express purpose of
committing an assault and battery on his traducer; a third, perfectly remembers
being waited on, last January twelve month, by two gentlemen, one of whom held
him in conversation while
