 writes on one occasion to his brother in
reference to a gravy-spoon, the brother's property, which he (Diggory) would
appear to have borrowed or otherwise possessed himself of: »Do not be angry, I
have parted with it - to my uncle.« On another occasion he expresses himself in
a similar manner with regard to a child's mug which had been entrusted to him to
get repaired. On another occasion he says, »I have bestowed upon that
irresistible uncle of mine everything I ever possessed.« And that he was in the
habit of paying long and constant visits to this gentleman at his mansion, if,
indeed, he did not wholly reside there, is manifest from the following sentence:
»With the exception of the suit of clothes I carry about with me, the whole of
my wearing apparel is at present at my uncle's.« This gentleman's patronage and
influence must have been very extensive, for his nephew writes, »His interest is
too high« - »It is too much« - »It is tremendous« - and the like. Still it does
not appear (which is strange) to have procured for him any lucrative post at
court or elsewhere, or to have conferred upon him any other distinction than
that which was necessarily included in the countenance of so great a man, and
the being invited by him to certain entertainments, so splendid and costly in
their nature, that he calls them Golden Balls.
    It is needless to multiply instances of the high and lofty station, and the
vast importance of the Chuzzlewits, at different periods. If it came within the
scope of reasonable probability that further proofs were required, they might be
heaped upon each other until they formed an Alps of testimony, beneath which the
boldest scepticism should be crushed and beaten flat. As a goodly tumulus is
already collected, and decently battened up above the Family grave, the present
chapter is content to leave it as it is: merely adding, by way of a final
spadeful, that many Chuzzlewits, both male and female, are proved to
demonstration, on the faith of letters written by their own mothers, to have had
chiselled noses, undeniable chins, forms that might have served the sculptor for
a model, exquisitely-turned limbs, and polished foreheads of so transparent a
texture that the blue veins might be seen branching off in various directions,
like so many roads on an ethereal map. This fact in itself, though it had been a
solitary one, would have utterly settled and clenched the business in hand; for
it
