; 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
Leicester's in rainbow-coloured 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
high-backed chairs, a table and cover, long-necked bottle (containing wine), one
flask, one Spanish female's costume, three-quarter 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 senator's 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