BLEAK
HOUSE
BY
CHARLES
DICKENS
.
WITH
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
H
.
K
.
BROWNE
.
LONDON
:
BRADBURY
+
EVANS
,
BOUVERIE
STREET
.
AGENTS
:
J
.
MENZIES
,
EDINBURGH
;
MURRAY
AND
SON
,
GLASGOW
;
J
.
M'GLASHAN
,
DUBLIN
.
NOTICE
is
hereby
given
that
the
Author
of
“
BLEAK
HOUSE
”
,
reserves
to
himself
the
right
of
publishing
a
Translation
in
France
.
DEDICATED
,
AS
A
REMEMBRANCE
OF
OUR
FRIENDLY
UNION
,
TO
MY
COMPANIONS
IN
THE
GUILD
OF
LITERATURE
AND
ART
.
PREFACE
.
A
FEW
months
ago
,
on
a
public
occasion
,
a
Chancery
Judge
had
the
kindness
to
inform
me
,
as
one
of
a
company
of
some
hundred
and
fifty
men
and
women
not
laboring
under
any
suspicions
of
lunacy
,
that
the
Court
of
Chancery
,
though
the
shining
subject
of
much
popular
prejudice
(
at
which
point
I
thought
the
Judge
's
eye
had
a
cast
in
my
direction
)
,
was
almost
immaculate
.
There
had
been
,
he
admitted
,
a
trivial
blemish
or
so
in
its
rate
of
progress
,
but
this
was
exaggerated
,
and
had
been
entirely
owing
to
the
“
parsimony
of
the
public
;
”
which
guilty
public
,
it
appeared
,
had
been
until
lately
bent
in
the
most
determined
manner
on
by
no
means
enlarging
the
number
of
Chancery
Judges
appointed
—
I
believe
by
Richard
the
Second
,
but
any
other
King
will
do
as
well
.
This
seemed
to
me
too
profound
a
joke
to
be
inserted
in
the
body
of
this
book
,
or
I
should
have
restored
it
to
Conversation
Kenge
or
to
Mr.
Vholes
,
with
one
or
other
of
whom
I
think
it
must
have
originated
.
In
such
mouths
I
might
have
coupled
it
with
an
apt
quotation
from
one
of
SHAKSPEARE
'S
Sonnets
:
My
nature
is
subdued
To
what
it
works
in
,
like
the
dyer
's
hand
:
Pity
me
then
,
and
wish
I
were
renew
'd
!
But
as
it
is
wholesome
that
the
parsimonious
public
should
know
what
has
been
doing
,
and
still
is
doing
,
in
this
connexion
,
I
mention
here
that
everything
set
forth
in
these
pages
concerning
the
Court
of
Chancery
is
substantially
true
,
and
within
the
truth
.
The
case
of
Gridley
is
in
no
essential
altered
from
one
of
actual
occurrence
,
made
public
by
a
disinterested
person
who
was
professionally
acquainted
with
the
whole
of
the
monstrous
wrong
from
beginning
to
end
.
At
the
present
moment
there
is
a
suit
before
the
Court
which
was
commenced
nearly
twenty
years
ago
;
in
which
from
thirty
to
forty
counsel
have
been
known
to
appear
at
one
time
;
in
which
costs
have
been
incurred
to
the
amount
of
seventy
thousand
pounds
;
which
is
a
friendly
suit
;
and
which
is
(
I
am
assured
)
no
nearer
to
its
termination
now
than
when
it
was
begun
.
There
is
another
well-known
suit
in
Chancery
,
not
yet
decided
,
which
was
commenced
before
the
close
of
the
last
century
,
and
in
which
more
than
double
the
amount
of
seventy
thousand
pounds
has
been
swallowed
up
in
costs
.
If
I
wanted
other
authorities
for
JARNDYCE
AND
JARNDYCE
,
I
could
rain
them
on
these
pages
,
to
the
shame
of
—
a
parsimonious
public
.
There
is
only
one
other
point
on
which
I
offer
a
word
of
remark
.
The
possibility
of
what
is
called
Spontaneous
Combustion
has
been
denied
since
the
death
of
Mr.
Krook
;
and
my
good
friend
MR.
LEWES
(
quite
mistaken
,
as
he
soon
found
,
in
supposing
the
thing
to
have
been
abandoned
by
all
authorities
)
published
some
ingenious
letters
to
me
at
the
time
when
that
event
was
chronicled
,
arguing
that
Spontaneous
Combustion
could
not
possibly
be
.
I
have
no
need
to
observe
that
I
do
not
wilfully
or
negligently
mislead
my
readers
,
and
that
before
I
wrote
that
description
I
took
pains
to
investigate
the
subject
.
There
are
about
thirty
cases
on
record
,
of
which
the
most
famous
,
that
of
the
Countess
Cornelia
de
Bandi
Cesenate
was
minutely
investigated
and
described
by
Giuseppe
Bianchini
,
a
prebendary
of
Verona
,
otherwise
distinguished
in
letters
,
who
published
an
account
of
it
at
Verona
,
in
1731
,
which
he
afterwards
republished
at
Rome
.
The
appearances
beyond
all
rational
doubt
observed
in
that
case
,
are
the
appearances
observed
in
Mr.
Krook
's
case
.
The
next
most
famous
instance
happened
at
Rheims
,
six
years
earlier
;
and
the
historian
in
that
case
is
LE
CAT
,
one
of
the
most
renowned
surgeons
produced
by
France
.
The
subject
was
a
woman
,
whose
husband
was
ignorantly
convicted
of
having
murdered
her
;
but
,
on
solemn
appeal
to
a
higher
court
,
he
was
acquitted
,
because
it
was
shown
upon
the
evidence
that
she
had
died
the
death
to
which
this
name
of
Spontaneous
Combustion
is
given
.
I
do
not
think
it
necessary
to
add
to
these
notable
facts
,
and
that
general
reference
to
the
authorities
which
will
be
found
at
page
329
,
the
recorded
opinions
and
experiences
of
distinguished
medical
professors
,
French
,
English
,
and
Scotch
,
in
more
modern
days
;
contenting
myself
with
observing
,
that
I
shall
not
abandon
the
facts
until
there
shall
have
been
a
considerable
Spontaneous
Combustion
of
the
testimony
on
which
human
occurrences
are
usually
received
.
In
Bleak
House
,
I
have
purposely
dwelt
upon
the
romantic
side
of
familiar
things
.
I
believe
I
have
never
had
so
many
readers
as
in
this
book
.
May
we
meet
again
!
LONDON
,
August
,
1853.
CHAPTER
I
.
IN
CHANCERY
.
LONDON
.
Michaelmas
Term
lately
over
,
and
the
Lord
Chancellor
sitting
in
Lincoln
's
Inn
Hall
.
Implacable
November
weather
.
As
much
mud
in
the
streets
,
as
if
the
waters
had
but
newly
retired
from
the
face
of
the
earth
,
and
it
would
not
be
wonderful
to
meet
a
Megalosaurus
,
forty
feet
long
or
so
,
waddling
like
an
elephantine
lizard
up
Holborn-hill
.
Smoke
lowering
down
from
chimney-pots
,
making
a
soft
black
drizzle
,
with
flakes
of
soot
in
it
as
big
as
full-grown
snow-flakes
—
gone
into
mourning
,
one
might
imagine
,
for
the
death
of
the
sun
.
Dogs
,
undistinguishable
in
mire
.
Horses
,
scarcely
better
;
splashed
to
their
very
blinkers
.
Foot
passengers
,
jostling
one
another
's
umbrellas
,
in
a
general
infection
of
ill-temper
,
and
losing
their
foot-hold
at
street-corners
,
where
tens
of
thousands
of
other
foot
passengers
have
been
slipping
and
sliding
since
the
day
broke
(
if
the
day
ever
broke
)
,
adding
new
deposits
to
the
crust
upon
crust
of
mud
,
sticking
at
those
points
tenaciously
to
the
pavement
,
and
accumulating
at
compound
interest
.
Fog
everywhere
.
Fog
up
the
river
,
where
it
flows
among
green
aits
and
meadows
;
fog
down
the
river
,
where
it
rolls
defiled
among
the
tiers
of
shipping
,
and
the
waterside
pollutions
of
a
great
(
and
dirty
)
city
.
Fog
on
the
Essex
marshes
,
fog
on
the
Kentish
heights
.
Fog
creeping
into
the
cabooses
of
collier-brigs
;
fog
lying
out
on
the
yards
,
and
hovering
in
the
rigging
of
great
ships
;
fog
drooping
on
the
gunwales
of
barges
and
small
boats
.
Fog
in
the
eyes
and
throats
of
ancient
Greenwich
pensioners
,
wheezing
by
the
firesides
of
their
wards
;
fog
in
the
stem
and
bowl
of
the
afternoon
pipe
of
the
wrathful
skipper
,
down
in
his
close
cabin
;
fog
cruelly
pinching
the
toes
and
fingers
of
his
shivering
little
'
prentice
boy
on
deck
.
Chance
people
on
the
bridges
peeping
over
the
parapets
into
a
nether
sky
of
fog
,
with
fog
all
round
them
,
as
if
they
were
up
in
a
balloon
,
and
hanging
in
the
misty
clouds
.
Gas
looming
through
the
fog
in
divers
places
in
the
streets
,
much
as
the
sun
may
,
from
the
spongey
fields
,
be
seen
to
loom
by
husbandman
and
ploughboy
.
Most
of
the
shops
lighted
two
hours
before
their
time
—
as
the
gas
seems
to
know
,
for
it
has
a
haggard
and
unwilling
look
.
The
raw
afternoon
is
rawest
,
and
the
dense
fog
is
densest
,
and
the
muddy
streets
are
muddiest
,
near
that
leaden-headed
old
obstruction
,
appropriate
ornament
for
the
threshold
of
a
leaden-headed
old
corporation
:
Temple
Bar
.
And
hard
by
Temple
Bar
,
in
Lincoln
's
Inn
Hall
,
at
the
very
heart
of
the
fog
,
sits
the
Lord
High
Chancellor
in
his
High
Court
of
Chancery
.
Never
can
there
come
fog
too
thick
,
never
can
there
come
mud
and
mire
too
deep
,
to
assort
with
the
groping
and
floundering
condition
which
this
High
Court
of
Chancery
,
most
pestilent
of
hoary
sinners
,
holds
,
this
day
,
in
the
sight
of
heaven
and
earth
.
On
such
an
afternoon
,
if
ever
,
the
Lord
High
Chancellor
ought
to
be
sitting
here
—
as
here
he
is
—
with
a
foggy
glory
round
his
head
,
softly
fenced
in
with
crimson
cloth
and
curtains
,
addressed
by
a
large
advocate
with
great
whiskers
,
a
little
voice
,
and
an
interminable
brief
,
and
outwardly
directing
his
contemplation
to
the
lantern
in
the
roof
,
where
he
can
see
nothing
but
fog
.
On
such
an
afternoon
,
some
score
of
members
of
the
High
Court
of
Chancery
bar
ought
to
be
—
as
here
they
are
—
mistily
engaged
in
one
of
the
ten
thousand
stages
of
an
endless
cause
,
tripping
one
another
up
on
slippery
precedents
,
groping
knee-deep
in
technicalities
,
running
their
goat-hair
and
horse-hair
warded
heads
against
walls
of
words
,
and
making
a
pretence
of
equity
with
serious
faces
,
as
players
might
.
On
such
an
afternoon
,
the
various
solicitors
in
the
cause
,
some
two
or
three
of
whom
have
inherited
it
from
their
fathers
,
who
made
a
fortune
by
it
,
ought
to
be
—
as
are
they
not
?
—
ranged
in
a
line
,
in
a
long
matted
well
(
but
you
might
look
in
vain
for
Truth
at
the
bottom
of
it
)
,
between
the
registrar
's
red
table
and
the
silk
gowns
,
with
bills
,
cross-bills
,
answers
,
rejoinders
,
injunctions
,
affidavits
,
issues
,
references
to
masters
,
masters
'
reports
,
mountains
of
costly
nonsense
,
piled
before
them
.
Well
may
the
court
be
dim
,
with
wasting
candles
here
and
there
;
well
may
the
fog
hang
heavy
in
it
,
as
if
it
would
never
get
out
;
well
may
the
stained
glass
windows
lose
their
color
,
and
admit
no
light
of
day
into
the
place
;
well
may
the
uninitiated
from
the
streets
,
who
peep
in
through
the
glass
panes
in
the
door
,
be
deterred
from
entrance
by
its
owlish
aspect
,
and
by
the
drawl
languidly
echoing
to
the
roof
from
the
padded
dais
where
the
Lord
High
Chancellor
looks
into
the
lantern
that
has
no
light
in
it
,
and
where
the
attendant
wigs
are
all
stuck
in
a
fog-bank
!
This
is
the
Court
of
Chancery
;
which
has
its
decaying
houses
and
its
blighted
lands
in
every
shire
;
which
has
its
worn-out
lunatic
in
every
madhouse
,
and
its
dead
in
every
churchyard
;
which
has
its
ruined
suitor
,
with
his
slipshod
heels
and
threadbare
dress
,
borrowing
and
begging
through
the
round
of
every
man
's
acquaintance
;
which
gives
to
monied
might
the
means
abundantly
of
wearying
out
the
right
;
which
so
exhausts
finances
,
patience
,
courage
,
hope
;
so
overthrows
the
brain
and
breaks
the
heart
;
that
there
is
not
an
honorable
man
among
its
practitioners
who
would
not
give
—
who
does
not
often
give
—
the
warning
,
“
Suffer
any
wrong
that
can
be
done
you
,
rather
than
come
here
!
”
Who
happen
to
be
in
the
Lord
Chancellor
's
court
this
murky
afternoon
besides
the
Lord
Chancellor
,
the
counsel
in
the
cause
,
two
or
three
counsel
who
are
never
in
any
cause
,
and
the
well
of
solicitors
before
mentioned
?
There
is
the
registrar
below
the
Judge
,
in
wig
and
gown
;
and
there
are
two
or
three
maces
,
or
petty-bags
,
or
privy-purses
,
or
whatever
they
may
be
,
in
legal
court
suits
.
These
are
all
yawning
;
for
no
crumb
of
amusement
ever
falls
from
JARNDYCE
AND
JARNDYCE
(
the
cause
in
hand
)
,
which
was
squeezed
dry
years
upon
years
ago
.
The
short-hand
writers
,
the
reporters
of
the
court
,
and
the
reporters
of
the
newspapers
,
invariably
decamp
with
the
rest
of
the
regulars
when
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
comes
on
.
Their
places
are
a
blank
.
Standing
on
a
seat
at
the
side
of
the
hall
,
the
better
to
peer
into
the
curtained
sanctuary
,
is
a
little
mad
old
woman
in
a
squeezed
bonnet
,
who
is
always
in
court
,
from
its
sitting
to
its
rising
,
and
always
expecting
some
incomprehensible
judgment
to
be
given
in
her
favor
.
Some
say
she
really
is
,
or
was
,
a
party
to
a
suit
;
but
no
one
knows
for
certain
,
because
no
one
cares
.
She
carries
some
small
litter
in
a
reticule
which
she
calls
her
documents
;
principally
consisting
of
paper
matches
and
dry
lavender
.
A
sallow
prisoner
has
come
up
,
in
custody
,
for
the
half-dozenth
time
,
to
make
a
personal
application
“
to
purge
himself
of
his
contempt
;
”
which
,
being
a
solitary
surviving
executor
who
has
fallen
into
a
state
of
conglomeration
about
accounts
of
which
it
is
not
pretended
that
he
had
ever
any
knowledge
,
he
is
not
at
all
likely
ever
to
do
.
In
the
meantime
his
prospects
in
life
are
ended
.
Another
ruined
suitor
,
who
periodically
appears
from
Shropshire
,
and
breaks
out
into
efforts
to
address
the
Chancellor
at
the
close
of
the
day
's
business
,
and
who
can
by
no
means
be
made
to
understand
that
the
Chancellor
is
legally
ignorant
of
his
existence
after
making
it
desolate
for
a
quarter
of
a
century
,
plants
himself
in
a
good
place
and
keeps
an
eye
on
the
Judge
,
ready
to
call
out
“
My
lord
!
”
in
a
voice
of
sonorous
complaint
,
on
the
instant
of
his
rising
.
A
few
lawyers
'
clerks
and
others
who
know
this
suitor
by
sight
,
linger
,
on
the
chance
of
his
furnishing
some
fun
,
and
enlivening
the
dismal
weather
a
little
.
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
drones
on
.
This
scarecrow
of
a
suit
has
,
in
course
of
time
,
become
so
complicated
,
that
no
man
alive
knows
what
it
means
.
The
parties
to
it
understand
it
least
;
but
it
has
been
observed
that
no
two
Chancery
lawyers
can
talk
about
it
for
five
minutes
,
without
coming
to
a
total
disagreement
as
to
all
the
premises
.
Innumerable
children
have
been
born
into
the
cause
;
innumerable
young
people
have
married
into
it
;
innumerable
old
people
have
died
out
of
it
.
Scores
of
persons
have
deliriously
found
themselves
made
parties
in
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
,
without
knowing
how
or
why
;
whole
families
have
inherited
legendary
hatreds
with
the
suit
.
The
little
plaintiff
or
defendant
,
who
was
promised
a
new
rocking-horse
when
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
should
be
settled
,
has
grown
up
,
possessed
himself
of
a
real
horse
,
and
trotted
away
into
the
other
world
.
Fair
wards
of
court
have
faded
into
mothers
and
grandmothers
;
a
long
procession
of
Chancellors
has
come
in
and
gone
out
;
the
legion
of
bills
in
the
suit
have
been
transformed
into
mere
bills
of
mortality
;
there
are
not
three
Jarndyces
left
upon
the
earth
perhaps
,
since
old
Tom
Jarndyce
in
despair
blew
his
brains
out
at
a
coffee-house
in
Chancery-lane
;
but
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
still
drags
its
dreary
length
before
the
Court
,
perennially
hopeless
.
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
has
passed
into
a
joke
.
That
is
the
only
good
that
has
ever
come
of
it
.
It
has
been
death
to
many
,
but
it
is
a
joke
in
the
profession
.
Every
master
in
Chancery
has
had
a
reference
out
of
it
.
Every
Chancellor
was
“
in
it
,
”
for
somebody
or
other
,
when
he
was
counsel
at
the
bar
.
Good
things
have
been
said
about
it
by
blue-nosed
,
bulbous-shoed
old
benchers
,
in
select
port-wine
committee
after
dinner
in
hall
.
Articled
clerks
have
been
in
the
habit
of
fleshing
their
legal
wit
upon
it
.
The
last
Lord
Chancellor
handled
it
neatly
,
when
,
correcting
Mr.
Blowers
the
eminent
silk
gown
who
said
that
such
a
thing
might
happen
when
the
sky
rained
potatoes
,
he
observed
,
“
or
when
we
get
through
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
,
Mr.
Blowers
;
”
—
a
pleasantry
that
particularly
tickled
the
maces
,
bags
,
and
purses
.
How
many
people
out
of
the
suit
,
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
has
stretched
forth
its
unwholesome
hand
to
spoil
and
corrupt
,
would
be
a
very
wide
question
.
From
the
master
,
upon
whose
impaling
files
reams
of
dusty
warrants
in
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
have
grimly
writhed
into
many
shapes
;
down
to
the
copying
clerk
in
the
Six
Clerks
'
Office
,
who
has
copied
his
tens
of
thousands
of
Chancery-folio-pages
under
that
eternal
heading
;
no
man
's
nature
has
been
made
the
better
by
it
.
In
trickery
,
evasion
,
procrastination
,
spoliation
,
botheration
,
under
false
pretences
of
all
sorts
,
there
are
influences
that
can
never
come
to
good
.
The
very
solicitors
'
boys
who
have
kept
the
wretched
suitors
at
bay
,
by
protesting
time
out
of
mind
that
Mr.
Chizzle
,
Mizzle
,
or
otherwise
,
was
particularly
engaged
and
had
appointments
until
dinner
,
may
have
got
an
extra
moral
twist
and
shuffle
into
themselves
out
of
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
.
The
receiver
in
the
cause
has
acquired
a
goodly
sum
of
money
by
it
,
but
has
acquired
too
a
distrust
of
his
own
mother
,
and
a
contempt
for
his
own
kind
.
Chizzle
,
Mizzle
,
and
otherwise
,
have
lapsed
into
a
habit
of
vaguely
promising
themselves
that
they
will
look
into
that
outstanding
little
matter
,
and
see
what
can
be
done
for
Drizzle
—
who
was
not
well
used
—
when
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
shall
be
got
out
of
the
office
.
Shirking
and
sharking
,
in
all
their
many
varieties
,
have
been
sown
broadcast
by
the
ill-fated
cause
;
and
even
those
who
have
contemplated
its
history
from
the
outermost
circle
of
such
evil
,
have
been
insensibly
tempted
into
a
loose
way
of
letting
bad
things
alone
to
take
their
own
bad
course
,
and
a
loose
belief
that
if
the
world
go
wrong
,
it
was
,
in
some
off-hand
manner
,
never
meant
to
go
right
.
Thus
,
in
the
midst
of
the
mud
and
at
the
heart
of
the
fog
,
sits
the
Lord
High
Chancellor
in
his
High
Court
of
Chancery
.
“
Mr.
Tangle
,
”
says
the
Lord
High
Chancellor
,
latterly
something
restless
under
the
eloquence
of
that
learned
gentleman
.
“
Mlud
,
”
says
Mr.
Tangle
.
Mr.
Tangle
knows
more
of
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
than
anybody
.
He
is
famous
for
it
—
supposed
never
to
have
read
anything
else
since
he
left
school
.
“
Have
you
nearly
concluded
your
argument
?
”
“
Mlud
,
no
—
variety
of
points
—
feel
it
my
duty
tsubmit
—
ludship
,
”
is
the
reply
that
slides
out
of
Mr.
Tangle
.
“
Several
members
of
the
bar
are
still
to
be
heard
,
I
believe
?
”
says
the
Chancellor
,
with
a
slight
smile
.
Eighteen
of
Mr.
Tangle
's
learned
friends
,
each
armed
with
a
little
summary
of
eighteen
hundred
sheets
,
bob
up
like
eighteen
hammers
in
a
piano-forte
,
make
eighteen
bows
,
and
drop
into
their
eighteen
places
of
obscurity
.
“
We
will
proceed
with
the
hearing
on
Wednesday
fortnight
,
”
says
the
Chancellor
.
For
,
the
question
at
issue
is
only
a
question
of
costs
,
a
mere
bud
on
the
forest
tree
of
the
parent
suit
,
and
really
will
come
to
a
settlement
one
of
these
days
.
The
Chancellor
rises
;
the
bar
rises
;
the
prisoner
is
brought
forward
in
a
hurry
;
the
man
from
Shropshire
cries
,
“
My
lord
!
”
Maces
,
bags
,
and
purses
,
indignantly
proclaim
silence
,
and
frown
at
the
man
from
Shropshire
.
“
In
reference
,
”
proceeds
the
Chancellor
,
still
on
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
,
“
to
the
young
girl
—
”
“
Begludship
's
pardon
—
boy
,
”
says
Mr.
Tangle
,
prematurely
.
“
In
reference
,
”
proceeds
the
Chancellor
,
with
extra
distinctness
,
“
to
the
young
girl
and
boy
,
the
two
young
people
,
”
(
Mr.
Tangle
crushed
.
)
“
Whom
I
directed
to
be
in
attendance
to-day
,
and
who
are
now
in
my
private
room
,
I
will
see
them
and
satisfy
myself
as
to
the
expediency
of
making
the
order
for
their
residing
with
their
uncle
.
”
Mr.
Tangle
on
his
legs
again
.
“
Begludship
's
pardon
—
dead
.
”
“
With
their
,
”
Chancellor
looking
through
his
double
eye-glass
at
the
papers
on
his
desk
,
“
grandfather
.
”
“
Begludship
's
pardon
—
victim
of
rash
action
—
brains
.
”
Suddenly
a
very
little
counsel
,
with
a
terrific
bass
voice
,
arises
,
fully
inflated
,
in
the
back
settlements
of
the
fog
,
and
says
,
“
Will
your
lordship
allow
me
?
I
appear
for
him
.
He
is
a
cousin
,
several
times
removed
.
I
am
not
at
the
moment
prepared
to
inform
the
Court
in
what
exact
remove
he
is
a
cousin
;
but
he
is
a
cousin
.
”
Leaving
this
address
(
delivered
like
a
sepulchral
message
)
ringing
in
the
rafters
of
the
roof
,
the
very
little
counsel
drops
,
and
the
fog
knows
him
no
more
.
Everybody
looks
for
him
.
Nobody
can
see
him
.
“
I
will
speak
with
both
the
young
people
,
”
says
the
Chancellor
anew
,
“
and
satisfy
myself
on
the
subject
of
their
residing
with
their
cousin
.
I
will
mention
the
matter
to-morrow
morning
when
I
take
my
seat
.
”
The
Chancellor
is
about
to
bow
to
the
bar
,
when
the
prisoner
is
presented
.
Nothing
can
possibly
come
of
the
prisoner
's
conglomeration
,
but
his
being
sent
back
to
prison
;
which
is
soon
done
.
The
man
from
Shropshire
ventures
another
remonstrative
“
My
lord
!
”
but
the
Chancellor
,
being
aware
of
him
,
has
dexterously
vanished
.
Everybody
else
quickly
vanishes
too
.
A
battery
of
blue
bags
is
loaded
with
heavy
charges
of
papers
and
carried
off
by
clerks
;
the
little
mad
old
woman
marches
off
with
her
documents
;
the
empty
court
is
locked
up
.
If
all
the
injustice
it
has
committed
,
and
all
the
misery
it
has
caused
,
could
only
be
locked
up
with
it
,
and
the
whole
burnt
away
in
a
great
funeral
pyre
,
—
why
,
so
much
the
better
for
other
parties
than
the
parties
in
Jarndyce
and
Jarndyce
!
CHAPTER
II
.
IN
FASHION
.
IT
is
but
a
glimpse
of
the
world
of
fashion
that
we
want
on
this
same
miry
afternoon
.
It
is
not
so
unlike
the
Court
of
Chancery
,
but
that
we
may
pass
from
the
one
scene
to
the
other
,
as
the
crow
flies
.
Both
the
world
of
fashion
and
the
Court
of
Chancery
are
things
of
precedent
and
usage
;
over-sleeping
Rip
Van
Winkles
,
who
have
played
at
strange
games
through
a
deal
of
thundery
weather
;
sleeping
beauties
,
whom
the
Knight
will
wake
one
day
,
when
all
the
stopped
spits
in
the
kitchen
shall
begin
to
turn
prodigiously
!
It
is
not
a
large
world
.
Relatively
even
to
this
world
of
ours
,
which
has
its
limits
too
(
as
your
Highness
shall
find
when
you
have
made
the
tour
of
it
,
and
are
come
to
the
brink
of
the
void
beyond
)
,
it
is
a
very
little
speck
.
There
is
much
good
in
it
;
there
are
many
good
and
true
people
in
it
;
it
has
its
appointed
place
.
But
the
evil
of
it
is
,
that
it
is
a
world
wrapped
up
in
too
much
jeweller
's
cotton
and
fine
wool
,
and
cannot
hear
the
rushing
of
the
larger
worlds
,
and
cannot
see
them
as
they
circle
round
the
sun
.
It
is
a
deadened
world
,
and
its
growth
is
sometimes
unhealthy
for
want
of
air
.
My
Lady
Dedlock
has
returned
to
her
house
in
town
for
a
few
days
previous
to
her
departure
for
Paris
,
where
her
ladyship
intends
to
stay
some
weeks
;
after
which
her
movements
are
uncertain
.
The
fashionable
intelligence
says
so
,
for
the
comfort
of
the
Parisians
,
and
it
knows
all
fashionable
things
.
To
know
things
otherwise
,
were
to
be
unfashionable
.
My
Lady
Dedlock
has
been
down
at
what
she
calls
,
in
familiar
conversation
,
her
“
place
”
in
Lincolnshire
.
The
waters
are
out
in
Lincolnshire
.
An
arch
of
the
bridge
in
the
park
has
been
sapped
and
sopped
away
.
The
adjacent
low-lying
ground
,
for
half
a
mile
in
breadth
,
is
a
stagnant
river
,
with
melancholy
trees
for
islands
in
it
,
and
a
surface
punctured
all
over
,
all
day
long
,
with
falling
rain
.
My
Lady
Dedlock
's
“
place
”
has
been
extremely
dreary
.
The
weather
,
for
many
a
day
and
night
,
has
been
so
wet
that
the
trees
seem
wet
through
,
and
the
soft
loppings
and
prunings
of
the
woodman
's
axe
can
make
no
crash
or
crackle
as
they
fall
.
The
deer
,
looking
soaked
,
leave
quagmires
,
where
they
pass
.
The
shot
of
a
rifle
loses
its
sharpness
in
the
moist
air
,
and
its
smoke
moves
in
a
tardy
little
cloud
towards
the
green
rise
,
coppice-topped
,
that
makes
a
back-ground
for
the
falling
rain
.
The
view
from
my
Lady
Dedlock
's
own
windows
is
alternately
a
lead-colored
view
,
and
a
view
in
Indian
ink
.
The
vases
on
the
stone
terrace
in
the
foreground
catch
the
rain
all
day
;
and
the
heavy
drops
fall
,
drip
,
drip
,
drip
,
upon
the
broad
flagged
pavement
,
called
,
from
old
time
,
the
Ghost
's
Walk
,
all
night
.
On
Sundays
,
the
little
church
in
the
park
is
mouldy
;
the
oaken
pulpit
breaks
out
into
a
cold
sweat
;
and
there
is
a
general
smell
and
taste
as
of
the
ancient
Dedlocks
in
their
graves
.
My
Lady
Dedlock
(
who
is
childless
)
,
looking
out
in
the
early
twilight
from
her
boudoir
at
a
keeper
's
lodge
,
and
seeing
the
light
of
a
fire
upon
the
latticed
panes
,
and
smoke
rising
from
the
chimney
,
and
a
child
,
chased
by
a
woman
,
running
out
into
the
rain
to
meet
the
shining
figure
of
a
wrapped-up
man
coming
through
the
gate
,
has
been
put
quite
out
of
temper
.
My
Lady
Dedlock
says
she
has
been
“
bored
to
death
.
”
Therefore
my
Lady
Dedlock
has
come
away
from
the
place
in
Lincolnshire
,
and
has
left
it
to
the
rain
,
and
the
crows
,
and
the
rabbits
,
and
the
deer
,
and
the
partridges
and
pheasants
.
The
pictures
of
the
Dedlocks
past
and
gone
have
seemed
to
vanish
into
the
damp
walls
in
mere
lowness
of
spirits
,
as
the
housekeeper
has
passed
along
the
old
rooms
,
shutting
up
the
shutters
.
And
when
they
will
next
come
forth
again
,
the
fashionable
intelligence
—
which
,
like
the
fiend
,
is
omniscient
of
the
past
and
present
,
but
not
the
future
—
cannot
yet
undertake
to
say
.
Sir
Leicester
Dedlock
is
only
a
baronet
,
but
there
is
no
mightier
baronet
than
he
.
His
family
is
as
old
as
the
hills
,
and
infinitely
more
respectable
.
He
has
a
general
opinion
that
the
world
might
get
on
without
hills
,
but
would
be
done
up
without
Dedlocks
.
He
would
on
the
whole
admit
Nature
to
be
a
good
idea
(
a
little
low
,
perhaps
,
when
not
enclosed
with
a
park-fence
)
,
but
an
idea
dependent
for
its
execution
on
your
great
county
families
.
He
is
a
gentleman
of
strict
conscience
,
disdainful
of
all
littleness
and
meanness
,
and
ready
,
on
the
shortest
notice
,
to
die
any
death
you
may
please
to
mention
rather
than
give
occasion
for
the
least
impeachment
of
his
integrity
.
He
is
an
honorable
,
obstinate
,
truthful
,
high-spirited
,
intensely
prejudiced
,
perfectly
unreasonable
man
.
Sir
Leicester
is
twenty
years
,
full
measure
,
older
than
my
Lady
.
He
will
never
see
sixty-five
again
,
nor
perhaps
sixty-six
,
nor
yet
sixty-seven
.
He
has
a
twist
of
the
gout
now
and
then
,
and
walks
a
little
stiffly
.
He
is
of
a
worthy
presence
,
with
his
light
grey
hair
and
whiskers
,
his
fine
shirt-frill
,
his
pure
white
waistcoat
,
and
his
blue
coat
with
bright
buttons
always
buttoned
.
He
is
ceremonious
,
stately
,
most
polite
on
every
occasion
to
my
Lady
,
and
holds
her
personal
attractions
in
the
highest
estimation
.
His
gallantry
to
my
Lady
,
which
has
never
changed
since
he
courted
her
,
is
the
one
little
touch
of
romantic
fancy
in
him
.
Indeed
,
he
married
her
for
love
.
A
whisper
still
goes
about
,
that
she
had
not
even
family
;
howbeit
,
Sir
Leicester
had
so
much
family
that
perhaps
he
had
enough
,
and
could
dispense
with
any
more
.
But
she
had
beauty
,
pride
,
ambition
,
insolent
resolve
,
and
sense
enough
to
portion
out
a
legion
of
fine
ladies
.
Wealth
and
station
,
added
to
these
,
soon
floated
her
upward
;
and
for
years
,
now
,
my
Lady
Dedlock
has
been
at
the
centre
of
the
fashionable
intelligence
,
and
at
the
top
of
the
fashionable
tree
.
How
Alexander
wept
when
he
had
no
more
worlds
to
conquer
,
everybody
knows
—
or
has
some
reason
to
know
by
this
time
,
the
matter
having
been
rather
frequently
mentioned
.
My
Lady
Dedlock
,
having
conquered
her
world
,
fell
,
not
into
the
melting
but
rather
into
the
freezing
mood
.
An
exhausted
composure
,
a
worn-out
placidity
,
an
equanimity
of
fatigue
not
to
be
ruffled
by
interest
or
satisfaction
,
are
the
trophies
of
her
victory
.
She
is
perfectly
well
bred
.
If
she
could
be
translated
to
Heaven
to-morrow
,
she
might
be
expected
to
ascend
without
any
rapture
.
She
has
beauty
still
,
and
,
if
it
be
not
in
its
heyday
,
it
is
not
yet
in
its
autumn
.
She
has
a
fine
face
—
originally
of
a
character
that
would
be
rather
called
very
pretty
than
handsome
,
but
improved
into
classicality
by
the
acquired
expression
of
her
fashionable
state
.
Her
figure
is
elegant
,
and
has
the
effect
of
being
tall
.
Not
that
she
is
so
,
but
that
“
the
most
is
made
,
”
as
the
Honorable
Bob
Stables
has
frequently
asserted
upon
oath
,
“
of
all
her
points
.
”
The
same
authority
observes
,
that
she
is
perfectly
got
up
;
and
remarks
,
in
commendation
of
her
hair
especially
,
that
she
is
the
best-groomed
woman
in
the
whole
stud
.
With
all
her
perfections
on
her
head
,
my
Lady
Dedlock
has
come
up
from
her
place
in
Lincolnshire
(
hotly
pursued
by
the
fashionable
intelligence
)
,
to
pass
a
few
days
at
her
house
in
town
previous
to
her
departure
for
Paris
,
where
her
ladyship
intends
to
stay
some
weeks
,
after
which
her
movements
are
uncertain
.
And
at
her
house
in
town
,
upon
this
muddy
,
murky
afternoon
,
presents
himself
an
old-fashioned
old
gentleman
,
attorney-at-law
,
and
eke
solicitor
of
the
High
Court
of
Chancery
,
who
has
the
honor
of
acting
as
legal
adviser
of
the
Dedlocks
,
and
has
as
many
cast-iron
boxes
in
his
office
with
that
name
outside
,
as
if
the
present
baronet
were
the
coin
of
the
conjuror
's
trick
,
and
were
constantly
being
juggled
through
the
whole
set
.
Across
the
hall
,
and
up
the
stairs
,
and
along
the
passages
,
and
through
the
rooms
,
which
are
very
brilliant
in
the
season
and
very
dismal
out
of
it
—
Fairy-land
to
visit
,
but
a
desert
to
live
in
—
the
old
gentleman
is
conducted
,
by
a
Mercury
in
powder
,
to
my
Lady
's
presence
.
The
old
gentleman
is
rusty
to
look
at
,
but
is
reputed
to
have
made
good
thrift
out
of
aristocratic
marriage
settlements
and
aristocratic
wills
,
and
to
be
very
rich
.
He
is
surrounded
by
a
mysterious
halo
of
family
confidences
;
of
which
he
is
known
to
be
the
silent
depository
.
There
are
noble
Mausoleums
rooted
for
centuries
in
retired
glades
of
parks
,
among
the
growing
timber
and
the
fern
,
which
perhaps
hold
fewer
noble
secrets
than
walk
abroad
among
men
,
shut
up
in
the
breast
of
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
.
He
is
of
what
is
called
the
old
school
—
a
phrase
generally
meaning
any
school
that
seems
never
to
have
been
young
—
and
wears
knee
breeches
tied
with
ribbons
,
and
gaiters
or
stockings
.
One
preculiarity
of
his
black
clothes
,
and
of
his
black
stockings
,
be
they
silk
or
worsted
,
is
,
that
they
never
shine
.
Mute
,
close
,
irresponsive
to
any
glancing
light
,
his
dress
is
like
himself
.
He
never
converses
,
when
not
professionally
consulted
.
He
is
found
sometimes
,
speechless
but
quite
at
home
,
at
corners
of
dinnertables
in
great
country
houses
,
and
near
doors
of
drawing-rooms
,
concerning
which
the
fashionable
intelligence
is
eloquent
:
where
everybody
knows
him
,
and
where
half
the
Peerage
stops
to
say
“
How
do
you
do
,
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
?
”
He
receives
these
salutations
with
gravity
,
and
buries
them
along
with
the
rest
of
his
knowledge
.
Sir
Leicester
Dedlock
is
with
my
Lady
,
and
is
happy
to
see
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
.
There
is
an
air
of
prescription
about
him
which
is
always
agreeable
to
Sir
Leicester
;
he
receives
it
as
a
kind
of
tribute
.
He
likes
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
's
dress
;
there
is
a
kind
of
tribute
in
that
too
.
It
is
eminently
respectable
,
and
likewise
,
in
a
general
way
,
retainer-like
.
It
expresses
,
as
it
were
,
the
steward
of
the
legal
mysteries
,
the
butler
of
the
legal
cellar
,
of
the
Dedlocks
.
Has
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
any
idea
of
this
himself
?
It
may
be
so
,
or
it
may
not
;
but
there
is
this
remarkable
circumstance
to
be
noted
in
everything
associated
with
my
Lady
Dedlock
as
one
of
a
class
—
as
one
of
the
leaders
and
representatives
of
her
little
world
.
She
supposes
herself
to
be
an
inscrutable
Being
,
quite
out
of
the
reach
and
ken
of
ordinary
mortals
—
seeing
herself
in
her
glass
,
where
indeed
she
looks
so
.
Yet
,
every
dim
little
star
revolving
about
her
,
from
her
maid
to
the
manager
of
the
Italian
Opera
,
knows
her
weaknesses
,
prejudices
,
follies
,
haughtinesses
,
and
caprices
;
and
lives
upon
as
accurate
a
calculation
and
as
nice
a
measure
of
her
moral
nature
,
as
her
dress-maker
takes
of
her
physical
proportions
.
Is
a
new
dress
,
a
new
custom
,
a
new
singer
,
a
new
dancer
,
a
new
form
of
jewellery
,
a
new
dwarf
or
giant
,
a
new
chapel
,
a
new
anything
,
to
be
set
up
?
There
are
deferential
people
,
in
a
dozen
callings
,
whom
my
Lady
Dedlock
suspects
of
nothing
but
prostration
before
her
,
who
can
tell
you
how
to
manage
her
as
if
she
were
a
baby
;
who
do
nothing
but
nurse
her
all
their
lives
;
who
,
humbly
affecting
to
follow
with
profound
subservience
,
lead
her
and
her
whole
troop
after
them
;
who
,
in
hooking
one
,
hook
all
and
bear
them
off
,
as
Lemuel
Gulliver
bore
away
the
stately
fleet
of
the
majestic
Lilliput
.
“
If
you
want
to
address
our
people
,
sir
,
”
say
Blaze
and
Sparkle
the
jewellers
—
meaning
by
our
people
,
Lady
Dedlock
and
the
rest
—
“
you
must
remember
that
you
are
not
dealing
with
the
general
public
;
you
must
hit
our
people
in
their
weakest
place
,
and
their
weakest
place
is
such
a
place
.
”
“
To
make
this
article
go
down
,
gentlemen
,
”
say
Sheen
and
Gloss
the
mercers
,
to
their
friends
the
manufacturers
,
“
you
must
come
to
us
,
because
we
know
where
to
have
the
fashionable
people
,
and
we
can
make
it
fashionable
.
”
“
If
you
want
to
get
this
print
upon
the
tables
of
my
high
connexion
,
sir
,
”
says
Mr.
Sladdery
the
librarian
,
“
or
if
you
want
to
get
this
dwarf
or
giant
into
the
houses
of
my
high
connexion
,
sir
,
or
if
you
want
to
secure
to
this
entertainment
the
patronage
of
my
high
connexion
,
sir
,
you
must
leave
it
,
if
you
please
,
to
me
;
for
I
have
been
accustomed
to
study
the
leaders
of
my
high
connexion
,
sir
;
and
I
may
tell
you
,
without
vanity
,
that
I
can
turn
them
round
my
finger
,
”
—
in
which
Mr.
Sladdery
,
who
is
an
honest
man
,
does
not
exaggerate
at
all
.
Therefore
,
while
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
may
not
know
what
is
passing
in
the
Dedlock
mind
at
present
,
it
is
very
possible
that
he
may
.
“
My
Lady
's
cause
has
been
again
before
the
Chancellor
,
has
it
,
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
?
”
says
Sir
Leicester
,
giving
him
his
hand
.
“
Yes
.
It
has
been
on
again
to-day
,
”
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
replies
;
making
one
of
his
quiet
bows
to
my
Lady
who
is
on
a
sofa
near
the
fire
,
shading
her
face
with
a
hand-screen
.
“
It
would
be
useless
to
ask
,
”
says
my
Lady
,
with
the
dreariness
of
the
place
in
Lincolnshire
still
upon
her
,
“
whether
anything
has
been
done
.
”
“
Nothing
that
you
would
call
anything
,
has
been
done
to-day
,
”
replies
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
.
“
Nor
ever
will
be
,
”
says
my
Lady
.
Sir
Leicester
has
no
objection
to
an
interminable
Chancery
suit
.
It
is
a
slow
,
expensive
,
British
,
constitutional
kind
of
thing
.
To
be
sure
,
he
has
not
a
vital
interest
in
the
suit
in
question
,
her
part
in
which
was
the
only
property
my
Lady
brought
him
;
and
he
has
a
shadowy
impression
that
for
his
name
—
the
name
of
Dedlock
—
to
be
in
a
cause
,
and
not
in
the
title
of
that
cause
,
is
a
most
ridiculous
accident
.
But
he
regards
the
Court
of
Chancery
,
even
if
it
should
involve
an
occasional
delay
of
justice
and
a
trifling
amount
of
confusion
,
as
a
something
,
devised
in
conjunction
with
a
variety
of
other
somethings
,
by
the
perfection
of
human
wisdom
,
for
the
eternal
settlement
(
humanly
speaking
)
of
every
thing
.
And
he
is
upon
the
whole
of
a
fixed
opinion
,
that
to
give
the
sanction
of
his
countenance
to
any
complaints
respecting
it
,
would
be
to
encourage
some
person
in
the
lower
classes
to
rise
up
somewhere
—
like
Wat
Tyler
.
“
As
a
few
fresh
affidavits
have
been
put
upon
the
file
,
”
says
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
,
“
and
as
they
are
short
,
and
as
I
proceed
upon
the
troublesome
principle
of
begging
leave
to
possess
my
clients
with
any
new
proceedings
in
a
cause
;
”
cautious
man
,
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
,
taking
no
more
responsibility
than
necessary
;
“
and
further
,
as
I
see
you
are
going
to
Paris
;
I
have
brought
them
in
my
pocket
.
”
(
Sir
Leicester
was
going
to
Paris
too
,
by-the-bye
,
but
the
delight
of
the
fashionable
intelligence
was
in
his
Lady
.
)
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
takes
out
his
papers
,
asks
permission
to
place
them
on
a
golden
talisman
of
a
table
at
my
Lady
's
elbow
,
puts
on
his
spectacles
,
and
begins
to
read
by
the
light
of
a
shaded
lamp
.
“
‘In
Chancery
.
Between
John
Jarndyce
—
’
”
My
Lady
interrupts
,
requesting
him
to
miss
as
many
of
the
formal
horrors
as
he
can
.
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
glances
over
his
spectacles
,
and
begins
again
lower
down
.
My
Lady
carelessly
and
scornfully
abstracts
her
attention
.
Sir
Leicester
in
a
great
chair
looks
at
the
fire
,
and
appears
to
have
a
stately
liking
for
the
legal
repetitions
and
prolixities
,
as
ranging
among
the
national
bulwarks
.
It
happens
that
the
fire
is
hot
,
where
my
Lady
sits
;
and
that
the
hand-screen
is
more
beautiful
than
useful
,
being
priceless
,
but
small
.
My
Lady
,
changing
her
position
,
sees
the
papers
on
the
table
—
looks
at
them
nearer
—
looks
at
them
nearer
still
—
asks
impulsively
:
“
Who
copied
that
?
”
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
stops
short
,
surprised
by
my
Lady
's
animation
and
her
unusual
tone
.
“
Is
it
what
you
people
call
law-hand
?
”
she
asks
,
looking
full
at
him
in
her
careless
way
again
,
and
toying
with
her
screen
.
“
Not
quite
.
Probably
”
—
Mr
.
Tulkinghorn
examines
it
as
he
speaks
—
“
the
legal
character
it
has
,
was
acquired
after
the
original
hand
was
formed
.
Why
do
you
ask
?
”
“
Anything
to
vary
this
detestable
monotony
.
O
,
go
on
,
do
!
”
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
reads
again
.
The
heat
is
greater
,
my
Lady
screens
her
face
.
Sir
Leicester
doses
,
starts
up
suddenly
,
and
cries
“
Eh
?
what
do
you
say
?
”
“
I
say
I
am
afraid
,
”
says
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
,
who
has
risen
hastily
,
“
that
Lady
Dedlock
is
ill.
”
“
Faint
,
”
my
Lady
murmurs
,
with
white
lips
,
“
only
that
;
but
it
is
like
the
faintness
of
death
.
Do
n't
speak
to
me
.
Ring
,
and
take
me
to
my
room
!
”
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
retires
into
another
chamber
;
bells
ring
,
feet
shuffle
and
patter
,
silence
ensues
.
Mercury
at
last
begs
Mr.
Tulkinghorn
to
return
.
“
Better
now
,
”
quoth
Sir
Leicester
,
motioning
the
lawyer
to
sit
down
and
read
to
him
alone
.
“
I
have
been
quite
alarmed
.
I
never
knew
my
Lady
swoon
before
.
But
the
weather
is
extremely
trying
—
and
she
really
has
been
bored
to
death
down
at
our
place
in
Lincolnshire
.
”
CHAPTER
III
.
A
PROGRESS
.
I
HAVE
a
great
deal
of
difficulty
in
beginning
to
write
my
portion
of
these
pages
,
for
I
know
I
am
not
clever
.
I
always
knew
that
.
I
can
remember
,
when
I
was
a
very
little
girl
indeed
,
I
used
to
say
to
my
doll
,
when
we
were
alone
together
,
“
Now
,
Dolly
,
I
am
not
clever
,
you
know
very
well
,
and
you
must
be
patient
with
me
,
like
a
dear
!
”
And
so
she
used
to
sit
propped
up
in
a
great
arm-chair
,
with
her
beautiful
complexion
and
rosy
lips
,
staring
at
me
—
or
not
so
much
at
me
,
I
think
,
as
at
nothing
—
while
I
busily
stitched
away
,
and
told
her
every
one
of
my
secrets
.
My
dear
old
doll
!
I
was
such
a
shy
little
thing
that
I
seldom
dared
to
open
my
lips
,
and
never
dared
to
open
my
heart
,
to
anybody
else
.
It
almost
makes
me
cry
to
think
what
a
relief
it
used
to
be
to
me
,
when
I
came
home
from
school
of
a
day
,
to
run
upstairs
to
my
room
,
and
say
,
“
O
you
dear
faithful
Dolly
,
I
knew
you
would
be
expecting
me
!
”
and
then
to
sit
down
on
the
floor
,
leaning
on
the
elbow
of
her
great
chair
,
and
tell
her
all
I
had
noticed
since
we
parted
.
I
had
always
rather
a
noticing
way
—
not
a
quick
way
,
O
no
!
—
a
silent
way
of
noticing
what
passed
before
me
,
and
thinking
I
should
like
to
understand
it
better
.
I
have
not
by
any
means
a
quick
understanding
.
When
I
love
a
person
very
tenderly
indeed
,
it
seems
to
brighten
.
But
even
that
may
be
my
vanity
.
I
was
brought
up
,
from
my
earliest
remembrance
—
like
some
of
the
princesses
in
the
fairy
stories
,
only
I
was
not
charming
—
by
my
godmother
.
At
least
I
only
knew
her
as
such
.
She
was
a
good
,
good
woman
!
She
went
to
church
three
times
every
Sunday
,
and
to
morning
prayers
on
Wednesdays
and
Fridays
,
and
to
lectures
whenever
there
were
lectures
;
and
never
missed
.
She
was
handsome
;
and
if
she
had
ever
smiled
,
would
have
been
(
I
used
to
think
)
like
an
angel
—
but
she
never
smiled
.
She
was
always
grave
,
and
strict
.
She
was
so
very
good
herself
,
I
thought
,
that
the
badness
of
other
people
made
her
frown
all
her
life
.
I
felt
so
different
from
her
,
even
making
every
allowance
for
the
differences
between
a
child
and
a
woman
;
I
felt
so
poor
,
so
trifling
,
and
so
far
off
;
that
I
never
could
be
unrestrained
with
her
—
no
,
could
never
even
love
her
as
I
wished
.
It
made
me
very
sorry
to
consider
how
good
she
was
,
and
how
unworthy
of
her
I
was
;
and
I
used
ardently
to
hope
that
I
might
have
a
better
heart
;
and
I
talked
it
over
very
often
with
the
dear
old
doll
;
but
I
never
loved
my
godmother
as
I
ought
to
have
loved
her
,
and
as
I
felt
I
must
have
loved
her
if
I
had
been
a
better
girl
.
This
made
me
,
I
dare
say
,
more
timid
and
retiring
than
I
naturally
was
,
and
cast
me
upon
Dolly
as
the
only
friend
with
whom
I
felt
at
ease
.
But
something
happened
when
I
was
still
quite
a
little
thing
,
that
helped
it
very
much
.
I
had
never
heard
my
mama
spoken
of
.
I
had
never
heard
of
my
papa
either
,
but
I
felt
more
interested
about
my
mama
.
I
had
never
worn
a
black
frock
,
that
I
could
recollect
.
I
had
never
been
shown
my
mama
's
grave
.
I
had
never
been
told
where
it
was
.
Yet
I
had
never
been
taught
to
pray
for
any
relation
but
my
godmother
.
I
had
more
than
once
approached
this
subject
of
my
thoughts
with
Mrs.
Rachael
,
our
only
servant
,
who
took
my
light
away
when
I
was
in
bed
(
another
very
good
woman
,
but
austere
to
me
)
,
and
she
had
only
said
,
“
Esther
,
good
night
!
”
and
gone
away
and
left
me
.
Although
there
were
seven
girls
at
the
neighbouring
school
where
I
was
a
day
boarder
,
and
although
they
called
me
little
Esther
Summerson
,
I
knew
none
of
them
at
home
.
All
of
them
were
older
than
I
,
to
be
sure
(
I
was
the
youngest
there
by
a
good
deal
)
,
but
there
seemed
to
be
some
other
separation
between
us
besides
that
,
and
besides
their
being
far
more
clever
than
I
was
,
and
knowing
much
more
than
I
did
.
One
of
them
,
in
the
first
week
of
my
going
to
the
school
(
I
remember
it
very
well
)
,
invited
me
home
to
a
little
party
,
to
my
great
joy
.
But
my
godmother
wrote
a
stiff
letter
declining
for
me
,
and
I
never
went
.
I
never
went
out
at
all
.
It
was
my
birthday
.
There
were
holidays
at
school
on
other
birthdays
—
none
on
mine
.
There
were
rejoicings
at
home
on
other
birthdays
,
as
I
knew
from
what
I
heard
the
girls
relate
to
one
another
—
there
were
none
on
mine
.
My
birthday
was
the
most
melancholy
day
at
home
,
in
the
whole
year
.
I
have
mentioned
,
that
,
unless
my
vanity
should
deceive
me
(
as
I
know
it
may
,
for
I
may
be
very
vain
,
without
suspecting
it
—
though
indeed
I
do
n't
)
,
my
comprehension
is
quickened
when
my
affection
is
.
My
disposition
is
very
affectionate
;
and
perhaps
I
might
still
feel
such
a
wound
,
if
such
a
wound
could
be
received
more
than
once
,
with
the
quickness
of
that
birthday
.
Dinner
was
over
,
and
my
godmother
and
I
were
sitting
at
the
table
before
the
fire
.
The
clock
ticked
,
the
fire
clicked
;
not
another
sound
had
been
heard
in
the
room
,
or
in
the
house
,
for
I
do
n't
know
how
long
.
I
happened
to
look
timidly
up
from
my
stitching
,
across
the
table
,
at
my
godmother
,
and
I
saw
in
her
face
,
looking
gloomily
at
me
,
“
It
would
have
been
far
better
,
little
Esther
,
that
you
had
had
no
birthday
;
that
you
had
never
been
born
!
”
I
broke
out
crying
and
sobbing
,
and
I
said
,
“
O
,
dear
godmother
,
tell
me
,
pray
do
tell
me
,
did
mama
die
on
my
birthday
?
”
“
No
,
”
she
returned
.
“
Ask
me
no
more
,
child
!
”
“
O
,
do
pray
tell
me
something
of
her
.
Do
now
,
at
last
,
dear
godmother
,
if
you
please
!
What
did
I
do
to
her
?
How
did
I
lose
her
?
Why
am
I
so
different
from
other
children
,
and
why
is
it
my
fault
,
dear
godmother
?
No
,
no
,
no
,
do
n't
go
away
.
O
,
speak
to
me
!
”
I
was
in
a
kind
of
fright
beyond
my
grief
;
and
I
had
caught
hold
of
her
dress
,
and
was
kneeling
to
her
.
She
had
been
saying
all
the
while
,
“
Let
me
go
!
”
But
now
she
stood
still
.
Her
darkened
face
had
such
power
over
me
,
that
it
stopped
me
in
the
midst
of
my
vehemence
.
I
put
up
my
trembling
little
hand
to
clasp
hers
,
or
to
beg
her
pardon
with
what
earnestness
I
might
,
but
withdrew
it
as
she
looked
at
me
,
and
laid
it
on
my
fluttering
heart
.
She
raised
me
,
sat
in
her
chair
,
and
standing
me
before
her
,
said
,
slowly
,
in
a
cold
,
low
voice
—
I
see
her
knitted
brow
,
and
pointed
finger
:
“
Your
mother
,
Esther
,
is
your
disgrace
,
and
you
were
hers
.
The
time
will
come
—
and
soon
enough
—
when
you
will
understand
this
better
,
and
will
feel
it
too
,
as
no
one
save
a
woman
can
.
I
have
forgiven
her
;
”
but
her
face
did
not
relent
;
“
the
wrong
she
did
to
me
,
and
I
say
no
more
of
it
,
though
it
was
greater
than
you
will
ever
know
—
than
any
one
will
ever
know
,
but
I
,
the
sufferer
.
For
yourself
,
unfortunate
girl
,
orphaned
and
degraded
from
the
first
of
these
evil
anniversaries
,
pray
daily
that
the
sins
of
others
be
not
visited
upon
your
head
,
according
to
what
is
written
.
Forget
your
mother
,
and
leave
all
other
people
to
forget
her
who
will
do
her
unhappy
child
that
greatest
kindness
.
Now
,
go
!
”
She
checked
me
,
however
,
as
I
was
about
to
depart
from
her
—
so
frozen
as
I
was
!
—
and
added
this
:
“
Submission
,
self-denial
,
diligent
work
,
are
the
preparations
for
a
life
begun
with
such
a
shadow
on
it
.
You
are
different
from
other
children
,
Esther
,
because
you
were
not
born
,
like
them
,
in
common
sinfulness
and
wrath
.
You
are
set
apart
.
”
I
went
up
to
my
room
,
and
crept
to
bed
,
and
laid
my
doll
's
cheek
against
mine
wet
with
tears
;
and
holding
that
solitary
friend
upon
my
bosom
,
cried
myself
to
sleep
.
Imperfect
as
my
understanding
of
my
sorrow
was
,
I
knew
that
I
had
brought
no
joy
,
at
any
time
,
to
anybody
's
heart
,
and
that
I
was
to
no
one
upon
earth
what
Dolly
was
to
me
.
Dear
,
dear
,
to
think
how
much
time
we
passed
alone
together
afterwards
,
and
how
often
I
repeated
to
the
doll
the
story
of
my
birthday
,
and
confided
to
her
that
I
would
try
,
as
hard
as
ever
I
could
,
to
repair
the
fault
I
had
been
born
with
(
of
which
I
confusedly
felt
guilty
and
yet
innocent
)
,
and
would
strive
as
I
grew
up
to
be
industrious
,
contented
and
kind-hearted
,
and
to
do
some
good
to
some
one
,
and
win
some
love
to
myself
if
I
could
.
I
hope
it
is
not
self-indulgent
to
shed
these
tears
as
I
think
of
it
.
I
am
very
thankful
,
I
am
very
cheerful
,
but
I
cannot
quite
help
their
coming
to
my
eyes
.
There
!
I
have
wiped
them
away
now
,
and
can
go
on
again
properly
.
I
felt
the
distance
between
my
godmother
and
myself
so
much
more
after
the
birthday
,
and
felt
so
sensible
of
filling
a
place
in
her
house
which
ought
to
have
been
empty
,
that
I
found
her
more
difficult
of
approach
,
though
I
was
fervently
grateful
to
her
in
my
heart
,
than
ever
.
I
felt
in
the
same
way
towards
my
school
companions
;
I
felt
in
the
same
way
towards
Mrs.
Rachael
,
who
was
a
widow
;
and
O
,
towards
her
daughter
,
of
whom
she
was
proud
,
who
came
to
see
her
once
a
fortnight
!
I
was
very
retired
and
quiet
,
and
tried
to
be
very
diligent
.
One
sunny
afternoon
,
when
I
had
come
home
from
school
with
my
books
and
portfolio
,
watching
my
long
shadow
at
my
side
,
and
as
I
was
gliding
up
stairs
to
my
room
as
usual
,
my
godmother
looked
out
of
the
parlor
door
,
and
called
me
back
.
Sitting
with
her
,
I
found
—
which
was
very
unusual
indeed
—
a
stranger
.
A
portly
important-looking
gentleman
,
dressed
all
in
black
,
with
a
white
cravat
,
large
gold
watch
seals
,
a
pair
of
gold
eyeglasses
,
and
a
large
seal-ring
upon
his
little
finger
.
“
This
,
”
said
my
godmother
in
an
under
tone
,
“
is
the
child
.
”
Then
she
said
,
in
her
naturally
stern
way
of
speaking
,
“
This
is
Esther
,
sir
.
”
The
gentleman
put
up
his
eye-glasses
to
look
at
me
,
and
said
,
“
Come
here
,
my
dear
!
”
He
shook
hands
with
me
,
and
asked
me
to
take
off
my
bonnet
—
looking
at
me
all
the
while
.
When
I
had
complied
,
he
said
,
“
Ah
!
”
and
afterwards
“
Yes
!
”
And
then
,
taking
off
his
eye-glasses
and
folding
them
in
a
red
case
,
and
leaning
back
in
his
arm-chair
,
turning
the
case
about
in
his
two
hands
he
gave
my
godmother
a
nod
.
Upon
that
,
my
godmother
said
,
“
You
may
go
upstairs
,
Esther
!
”
and
I
made
him
my
curtsey
and
left
him
.
It
must
have
been
two
years
afterwards
,
and
I
was
almost
fourteen
,
when
one
dreadful
night
my
godmother
and
I
sat
at
the
fireside
.
I
was
reading
aloud
,
and
she
was
listening
.
I
had
come
down
at
nine
o'clock
,
as
I
always
did
,
to
read
the
Bible
to
her
;
and
was
reading
,
from
St.
John
,
how
our
Saviour
stooped
down
,
writing
with
his
finger
in
the
dust
,
when
they
brought
the
sinful
woman
to
him
.
“
‘So
when
they
continued
asking
him
,
he
lifted
up
himself
and
said
unto
them
,
He
that
is
without
sin
among
you
,
let
him
first
cast
a
stone
at
her
!
’
”
I
was
stopped
by
my
godmother
's
rising
,
putting
her
hand
to
her
head
,
and
crying
out
,
in
an
awful
voice
,
from
quite
another
part
of
the
book
:
“
‘Watch
ye
therefore
!
