Bleak House Charles Dickens (classic books to read .TXT) đ
- Author: Charles Dickens
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Lady Dedlock looks imperiously at her visitor when the servant has left the room, casting her eyes over him from head to foot. She suffers him to stand by the door and asks him what he wants.
âThat your ladyship would have the kindness to oblige me with a little conversation,â returns Mr. Guppy, embarrassed.
âYou are, of course, the person who has written me so many letters?â
âSeveral, your ladyship. Several before your ladyship condescended to favour me with an answer.â
âAnd could you not take the same means of rendering a Conversation unnecessary? Can you not still?â
Mr. Guppy screws his mouth into a silent âNo!â and shakes his head.
âYou have been strangely importunate. If it should appear, after all, that what you have to say does not concern meâ âand I donât know how it can, and donât expect that it willâ âyou will allow me to cut you short with but little ceremony. Say what you have to say, if you please.â
My Lady, with a careless toss of her screen, turns herself towards the fire again, sitting almost with her back to the young man of the name of Guppy.
âWith your ladyshipâs permission, then,â says the young man, âI will now enter on my business. Hem! I am, as I told your ladyship in my first letter, in the law. Being in the law, I have learnt the habit of not committing myself in writing, and therefore I did not mention to your ladyship the name of the firm with which I am connected and in which my standingâ âand I may add incomeâ âis tolerably good. I may now state to your ladyship, in confidence, that the name of that firm is Kenge and Carboy, of Lincolnâs Inn, which may not be altogether unknown to your ladyship in connection with the case in Chancery of Jarndyce and Jarndyce.â
My Ladyâs figure begins to be expressive of some attention. She has ceased to toss the screen and holds it as if she were listening.
âNow, I may say to your ladyship at once,â says Mr. Guppy, a little emboldened, âit is no matter arising out of Jarndyce and Jarndyce that made me so desirous to speak to your ladyship, which conduct I have no doubt did appear, and does appear, obtrusiveâ âin fact, almost blackguardly.â
After waiting for a moment to receive some assurance to the contrary, and not receiving any, Mr. Guppy proceeds, âIf it had been Jarndyce and Jarndyce, I should have gone at once to your ladyshipâs solicitor, Mr. Tulkinghorn, of the Fields. I have the pleasure of being acquainted with Mr. Tulkinghornâ âat least we move when we meet one anotherâ âand if it had been any business of that sort, I should have gone to him.â
My Lady turns a little round and says, âYou had better sit down.â
âThank your ladyship.â Mr. Guppy does so. âNow, your ladyshipââ âMr. Guppy refers to a little slip of paper on which he has made small notes of his line of argument and which seems to involve him in the densest obscurity whenever he looks at itâ ââIâ âOh, yes!â âI place myself entirely in your ladyshipâs hands. If your ladyship was to make any complaint to Kenge and Carboy or to Mr. Tulkinghorn of the present visit, I should be placed in a very disagreeable situation. That, I openly admit. Consequently, I rely upon your ladyshipâs honour.â
My Lady, with a disdainful gesture of the hand that holds the screen, assures him of his being worth no complaint from her.
âThank your ladyship,â says Mr. Guppy; âquite satisfactory. Nowâ âIâ âdash it!â âThe fact is that I put down a head or two here of the order of the points I thought of touching upon, and theyâre written short, and I canât quite make out what they mean. If your ladyship will excuse me taking it to the window half a moment, Iâ ââ
Mr. Guppy, going to the window, tumbles into a pair of lovebirds, to whom he says in his confusion, âI beg your pardon, I am sure.â This does not tend to the greater legibility of his notes. He murmurs, growing warm and red and holding the slip of paper now close to his eyes, now a long way off, âC.S. Whatâs C.S. for? Oh! C.S.! Oh, I know! Yes, to be sure!â And comes back enlightened.
âI am not aware,â says Mr. Guppy, standing midway between my Lady and his chair, âwhether your ladyship ever happened to hear of, or to see, a young lady of the name of Miss Esther Summerson.â
My Ladyâs eyes look at him full. âI saw a young lady of that name not long ago. This past autumn.â
âNow, did it strike your ladyship that she was like anybody?â asks Mr. Guppy, crossing his arms, holding his head on one side, and scratching the corner of his mouth with his memoranda.
My Lady removes her eyes from him no more.
âNo.â
âNot like your ladyshipâs family?â
âNo.â
âI think your ladyship,â says Mr. Guppy, âcan hardly remember Miss Summersonâs face?â
âI remember the young lady very well. What has this to do with me?â
âYour ladyship, I do assure you that having Miss Summersonâs image imprinted on my âeartâ âwhich I mention in confidenceâ âI found, when I had the honour of going over your ladyshipâs mansion of Chesney Wold while on a short out in the county of Lincolnshire with a friend, such a resemblance between Miss Esther Summerson and your ladyshipâs own portrait that it completely knocked me over, so much so that I didnât at the moment even know what it was that knocked me over. And now I have the honour of beholding your ladyship near (I have often, since that, taken the liberty of looking at your ladyship in your carriage in the park, when I dare say you was not aware of me, but I never saw your ladyship so near), itâs really more surprising than I thought it.â
Young man of the name of Guppy! There have been times, when ladies lived in strongholds and had unscrupulous attendants within call, when that poor life of
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