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ᐸsamples n="ENG18530"ᐳ
ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG185304803"ᐳ“Encourager!” returned my guardian again. “Who could be encouraged by Skimpole?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304804"ᐳ“Not Richard?” I asked.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304805"ᐳ“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.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304806"ᐳ“Pray, cousin John,” said Ada, who had just joined us, and now looked over my shoulder, “what made him such a child?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304807"ᐳ“What made him such a child?” inquired my guardian, rubbing his head, a little at a loss.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304808"ᐳ“Yes, cousin John.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304809"ᐳ“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?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304810"ᐳAda, glancing at me, said she thought it was a pity he should be an expense to Richard.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304811"ᐳ“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.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304812"ᐳAnd I said I thought it was to be regretted that he had ever introduced Richard to Mr. Vholes, for a present of five pounds.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304813"ᐳ“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, I'll be bound, my dear?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304814"ᐳ“O yes!” said I.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185304815"ᐳ“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 wouldn't tell it. He tells it as he does it, in mere simplicity. But you shall see him in his own home, and then you'll 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!”ᐸ/pᐳ
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ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG185303311"ᐳ“You may bring the letters,” she repeats, in the same tone, “if you——please.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185303312"ᐳ“It shall be done. I wish your ladyship good day.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185303313"ᐳOn 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.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185303314"ᐳ“Oh! I assure your ladyship I am not actuated by any motives of that sort,” says Mr. Guppy; “and I couldn't accept of anything of the kind. I wish your ladyship good day, and am much obliged to you all the same.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185303315"ᐳSo the young man makes his bow, and goes down-stairs; where the supercilious Mercury does not consider himself called upon to leave his Olympus by the hall-fire, to let the young man out.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185303316"ᐳAs 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?ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185303317"ᐳNo. 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 trumpet-tongued indeed by my Lady in her chamber, to carry any faint vibration to Sir Leicester's ears; and yet this cry is in the house, going upward from a wild figure on its knees.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185303318"ᐳ“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!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185303319"ᐳRICHARD 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 Allan's 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.ᐸ/pᐳ
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ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG185301951"ᐳ“I did mean you, child,” replied her mistress, calmly. “Put that shawl on me.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301952"ᐳShe 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.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301953"ᐳ“I am sorry,” said Lady Dedlock to Mr. Jarndyee, “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.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301954"ᐳBut, 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.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301955"ᐳ“Come in, child!” she said to the pretty girl, “I shall want you. Go on!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301956"ᐳThe carriage rolled away; and the Frenchwoman, with the wrappers she had brought hanging over her arm, remained standing where she had alighted.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301957"ᐳI 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.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301958"ᐳ“Is that young woman mad?” said my guardian.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301959"ᐳ“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 head-piece as the best. But, she's mortal high and passionate—powerful high and passionate; and what with having notice to leave, and having others put above her, she don't take kindly to it.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301960"ᐳ“But why should she walk, shoeless, through all that water?” said my guardian.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301961"ᐳ“Why, indeed, sir, unless it is to cool her down!” said the man.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301962"ᐳ“Or unless she fancies it's blood,” said the woman. “She'd as soon walk through that as anything else, I think, when her own's up!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185301963"ᐳWe 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.ᐸ/pᐳ
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ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG185305608"ᐳ“Nay, my dears,” he would remonstrate; and when I saw Caddy's 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.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185305609"ᐳHe 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 expence of Caddy and her husband, from top to toe.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185305610"ᐳLast 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.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG185305611"ᐳI have not counted Mr. Woodcourt among our visitors, because he was now Caddy's 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.ᐸ/pᐳ
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ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG18530398"ᐳThe 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.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18530399"ᐳ“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 that's 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 all's fish that comes to my net. And I can't 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. That's the way I've got the ill name of Chancery. I don't mind. I go to see my noble and learned brother pretty well every day, when he sits in the Inn. He don't notice me, but I notice him. There's no great odds betwixt us. We both grub on in a muddle. Hi, Lady Jane!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18530400"ᐳA large grey cat leaped from some neighbouring shelf on his shoulder, and startled us all.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18530401"ᐳ“Hi! Shew 'em how you scratch. Hi! Tear, my lady!” said her master.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18530402"ᐳThe 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.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18530403"ᐳ“She'd do as much for any one I was to set her on,” said the old man. “I deal in cat-skins among other general matters, and hers was offered to me. It's a very fine skin, as you may see, but I didn't have it stripped off! That warn't like Chancery practice though, says you!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18530404"ᐳHe had by this time led us across the shop, and now opened a door in the back part of it, leading to the house-entry. As he stood with his hand upon the lock, the little old lady graciously observed to him before passing out:ᐸ/pᐳ
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