Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1852-03-25
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BLEAK HOUa : f..
BY CHARLES DICKENS.
CHAPTER II.
CONTINUED
THE ASH olNs.

|
| CONTINUED. ~
| The old gentleman is rusty to look at, but is
reputed 10 have made good thrift out ofaristocrat-
ic marriage settlements and arisocratic wills and
to be very rich. He is surrounded by a mystei
rous halo of family condolences; of which
| he is known TO be the silent depository
| There are noble Mausoleums rooted for CEN
| turtles 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..
Tukinghorn. 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 breaches tied with ribbons,s and CATERS or
stockings One peculiarly of his black clothes,
and Of his black stockings be they silk or worsted,
is, that they never shine. Mute, close, irrespon-
sive to any glancing light, his dress is like him
self. He never converses, when not profession
ally consulted. He is found sometimes speech
less, but quite at home, at corners of dinner ia.
bles in great country houses, and near drawing
rooms, concerning which, the fashionable intelli-
gence is eloquent; where everybody knows him,
and where half the Peerage stops to say, ''How
do you do, Mr. Tulkinghorn He receives these
saIutations 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. Tukinghorn. There is an air
of prescription about him which is always agree
able 10 Sir Leicester; he receives it kind of
| tribute He likes Mr. Tulkinghorn's dress; there
is kind of tribute in that too. 1t is emnently
respectable, and likewise, in general way, re-
taiuer-like 1t expresses, as were, the steward
of the legal Mysteries the butler of the legal cell
| lar Of the Dedlocks. 8s
! Has Mr. Tulkinghorn any idea of this HIMSELF
| 1t may be so, or it may not; but there is this re-
| IL oir IN hon tod
4 associated with my Lady Dedlock as one OF ii
| cass-as one of the leaders and representatives
of her little world-she supposes herself to be an
inscrutabe being, quite out oft 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 weak
nesses, prejudlces, foles, haughinesses, and ca
| prices; and lives upon as accurate a calculation
| and as nice measure Of her moral nature, her
dreesmaker takes of her physical proportions. Is
| new dress, new custom, new singer, new
| dancer, new form of jewelry, new dwarf, or
giant, new chapel, anew anything to be set up9
] There are deferentia people, in 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 baby; who do moth
ing but nurse her all their lives; who, humbly af-
fecting to follow with profound subservience, lead
i hooking one hook all, and bear them off, as Lems
uel CULVER bore away the stately feet of the
majestic Lilhput. sslf you want 10 address our
people, sir, = say Blaze and Sparkle, the jewell
lers; meaning by our people, Lady Dedlock and
the rest; 'syou 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 place. s'To make this article
go down, gentlemen" say Sheen and Gloss, the
| IN fho man fact
must come to US, because we know where to have
the fashionable people, and we can make it
| fashionable"
eff you want to get this print upon the tables
of my high connection, sir, says Mr.. Saddery
the librarian, 'sor If you want to get this dwarf or
giant into the houses of my high connection, sir,
or if you want to secure to this entertainment the
patronage of my high connection, sir, you must
leave it, if you please, to me; for have been ac-
customed to study the leaders of my high con-
nection, sir; and may tell you without vanity,
that can turn them round my finger '--in which
Mr. Sladdery, who is an honest man, does not ex-
aggerate at all
know what is passing in the Dedlock mind at
present, it is very possible that he may.
'sMy Lady's cause has been again before the
Chancellor, has it, Mr. Tulkmghorn!'' says Sir
Leicester, giving him his hand.
inghorn replies, making one of his quiet bows 10
my Lady, who is on sofa near the lire, shading
her face with hand-screen.
ssIt would be useless to ask, - says my Lady,
with the dreariness Of the place 10 Lincolnshire
still upon her, whether anything has been done.'
sNothing that you would call anything, has
been done to-day replies Mrs. Tukinghorn.'
sNor ever will be- says my Lady. -
Sir Leicester has no objection 10 an intermina-
H. fyh,n,ary II il sotxys Rrit
ish. constitutional kind of thing To be sure, he
has not vital interest in the suit in question, the
part in which was the only property my Lady
brought him; and he has a shadowy impression
that for his name, the name of Dedlocl, to be in
cause. and not in the title Of that cause, is
most ridiculous accident. But he regards the
Court of Chancery, even lift should involve an
occasional delay of justice and lihlng amount
\ of confusion, as something, devised in conjunc-
ton with avariety Of other something's, by the
perfection Of human wisdom, for the eternal set
tlement (humaney speaking) of everything, And
he is. upon the whole, of a fixed opinion, that to
give The sanction of his countenance to any COM
,DIaints respecting it, would be to encourage some
person of the lower orders to rise up somewhere
like Wat Tyler. 'is34 ana
sAs a lew fresh afidavits have been put upon
the 6le,' says Mr. Tulkinghorn, 'and as they are
short, and as l proceed upon the troublesome
principle Of begging leave 70 possess my clients
with any new proceedings in cause;' cautious
man, Mr. Tukinghorn, taking no more response
bility than necessary sand further, as see you
are going TO Paris; have brought them in my
pocket lit t eea less.yr ias s
(Sir Leicester was going to Paris, too, by the
by the by, but the delight Of the fashionable intel
ligence was in his LADY,
81. ~ 1eg 9