Our Mutual Friend

ry churches, scrolls in stained-glass windows, and generally the De Wilfers who came over with the Con

ving a limited salary and an unlimited family, that he had never yet attained the modest object of his ambition: which was, to wear a complete new suit of clothes, hat and boots included, at one time. His black hat was brown before he could afford a coat, his pantaloon

stranger entering his own poor house at about ten o’clock P.M. might have been surprised to find him sitting up to supper. So boyish was he in his curves and proportions, that his old schoolmaster meeting him in Cheapside, might have been un

unding Mincing Lane of making christian names for him of adjectives and participles beginning with R. Some of these were more or less appropriate: as Rusty, Retiring, Ruddy, Round, Ripe, Ridiculous, Ruminative; others, derived their point from their want of application: as Raging, Rattling, Roaring, Raffish. But, his p

dity, row

y, teedlely,

s on business, as ‘Dear Rumty’; in answer to which,

absorbed in Veneering, once their traveller or commission agent: who had signalized his accession to supreme power by bringing i

fields and trees. Between Battle Bridge and that part of the Holloway district in which he dwelt, was a tract of suburban Sahara, where tiles and bricks were burnt, bones were boiled, carpets were beat, rubbish was

‘what might have b

n experience of it not exclusively his own, he ma

otted under the chin. This head-gear, in conjunction with a pair of gloves worn within doors, she seemed to consider as at once a kind of armour against misfortune (invariably assuming it when in low spirits or difficulties), and as a species o

ouse-door, for R. Wilfer stopped on

l-l

away. He said that as he had no expectation of ever being paid for it, and as he had an order for

, my dear; what

It is as you think; not as I do. Perhaps it might

ldn’t have done

ldn’

dear! C

in her shoulders (which in her sex and at her age are very expressive of discontent), sat playing draughts with a younger girl, who was the youngest of the House of Wilfer. Not to encumber this page by telling off the Wilfers in detail and casting them up in the gross, it is enough for the present that the rest were wha

rs Wilfer already seated in a corner with folded gloves, ‘was, that as we have let our first

a suitable establishment, and he took a card,’ interposed Mrs Wilfer, with severe monotony, as if

y more of it, ma,’ sai

r husband urged, ‘if you have no pl

oung persons. Two young ladies of the highest respectabili

it is the

ilfer, with the same impre

ch I do not doubt, where are those youthful fellow-creatures to be accommodated? I carry it no further than that. And solely looking at it,’ said her husband, making t

fer, with a meek renunciatory action of her gl

ated by the coronation of an opponent, led to that young lady’s jerking the draught

a!’ said M

, perhaps, my dea

’ said Mrs

power of gratifying her splenetic or wordly-minded humours by extollin

orne, I will say, Nobly. When you see your daughter Bella in her black dress, which she alone of all the family wears, and when you remember the circumstances whi

tion under the table, put in that she didn’

assed. I have now in my pocket a letter from your sister Cecilia, received this morning — received three months after her marriage, poor child! — in which she tells me that her husband must unexpectedly shelter under their roof his reduced aunt. “But I will be true to him, mamma,” she touchingly writes

er brown eyes on the fire and a handful of her brown curls i

re’ (it is probable he did, having some reason to know it!), ‘and what a glimpse of wealth I had, and how it melted away, and how I am here i

to pull him down from his chair in an attitude highly favourable to

to feel for me,

ear,

would have mattered much less. But that nasty Mr Lightwood feels it his duty, as he says, to w

the last draughtman rescued, interposed, ‘

rls in her mouth; ‘George Sampson was very fond of me, and ad

ugh to him,’ Lavin

up to be sentimental about George Sampson. I o

you thought even that,’

to have an inclination of our own, either of us. It was ridiculous enough to know I shouldn’t like him — how COULD I like him, left to him in a will, like a dozen of spoons, with everything cut and dried beforehand, like orange chips. Talk of orange flowers indeed! I declare again it’s a shame! Those ridiculous points would have been smoothed away by the money, for I love money, and want money — want it dreadfully. I hate to be poor, and we are degradingly poor, offensively poor, miserably poor, beastly poor. But here I am, left with all the ridiculous parts of the situation remaining, and, added to them all, this ridiculous dress!

nuckle, knocking at the half-open door of the room. The knuckle

ilfer, in her Act-of-Pa

p exclamation, scrambled off the hearth-rug and massed t

and directed me to this room, telling me I was expecte

W., this is the gentleman who has taken your firstfloor. He was so go

ad manner. In the last degree constrained, reserved, diffident, troubled. His eyes were on Mi

on, and with their price, I suppose a memorandum between us of two or three lines, a

s a chair. The gentleman now took it, laying a hesitating hand on a corner of the table, and with

proposes to take your apartments by the qu

dlord, expecting it to be received as a ma

re no reference from you, and perhaps, therefore, you will require none from me. That will be fair on both sides. Indeed, I show the greater confidence of the two, for I

from a corner (she always got into stately corners

n I— might

erfully, ‘money and goods are c

Bella, in a low voice, and without looking over h

he best,

so easy to add the usual kind of one,

ged his attitude. He sat, still and silent, until his future landlord accepted his proposals, and br

conventionally called a doubtful, which means a not at all doubtful, Old Master), it was signed by the contracting

but narrowly. He looked at the pretty figure bending down over the paper and saying, ‘Where am I to go, pa? Here, in this corner?’ He looked at the beautiful

ed to you,

lig

en you so m

ertainly. But I am your

arrival of his furniture and himself, and go, Mr Rokesmith did that as awkwardly as it might be done, and was escorted by his l

‘we have got a Mur

inia, ‘we have

ok anybody in the face!’ said Bella.

fident gentleman, and I should say particul

Bella, impatiently. ‘What

f the same age:— which

o ask such questions. Pa, mark my words! Between Mr Rokesmith and me, there

smith and me, there is a matter of eight sovereigns, and somethin

ame before the family in a state of apologetic perspiration. After some discussion on the relative merits of veal-cutlet, sweetbread, and lobster, a decision was pronounced in favour of veal-cutlet. Mrs Wilfer then solemnly divested herself of her handkerchief and gloves, as a preliminary sacrifice to preparing the frying-pan, and R. W. hims

r hair an additional wave while sitting in the easiest chair, and occasionally threw in a direction touching the sup

s knife and fork, remarked that six of those sovereigns came just in time for th

landlord!’

ching up his hair with the handle of a fork. It was one of the girl’s spoilt ways to be always arran

a house of your own

it better than

if you say (as you want to say; I know you want to say so, pa) “that’s neither reasonable nor honest, Bella,” then I answer, “Maybe not, pa — very likely — but it’s one of the consequences of being poor, and of thoroughly hating and

whereof one held Scotch ale and the other rum. The latter perfume, with the fostering aid of boiling water and lemon-peel, diffused itself throughout the room, and became so highly concentrat

ourite ankle; ‘when old Mr Harmon made such a fool of me (not to m

s brought to light, I doubt if I ever exchanged a hundred words with the old gentlem

en he first took notice of me; was I?’ said B

urpose,’ returned her father, as if the remembrance gave a relish to the rum; ‘you were doing this one Sunday morning when I took you out, because I didn’t go the e

asked my name

on other Sunday mornings, when we walked his wa

upside down on his nose and upper lip, it might have been charitable in Mrs Wilfer to suggest replenishment. But that heroine briefly suggesting ‘Bedtime’ instead

girls were alone in their room, ‘we shall have Mr Rokesm

s another of the consequences of being poor! The idea of a girl with a really fine

with it, Bella, bad as your

it! Don’t talk about catching people, miss, till y

’ muttered Lavvy, wit

d Bella, very sharply. ‘

, nothing to go out in, nothing to dress by, only a nasty box to dress at instead of a commodious dressing-table, and being obliged to take in suspicious lodgers. On the last grievance