Mrs General gravely inclined her head. 'I cannot, therefore, put a price

upon services which it is a pleasure to me to render if I can render

them spontaneously, but which I could not render in mere return for any

consideration. Neither do I know how, or where, to find a case parallel

to my own. It is peculiar.' No doubt. But how then (Mr Dorrit not unnaturally hinted) could the

subject be approached. 'I cannot object,' said Mrs General--'though even

that is disagreeable to me--to Mr Dorrit's inquiring, in confidence of

my friends here, what amount they have been accustomed, at quarterly

intervals, to pay to my credit at my bankers'.' Mr Dorrit bowed his acknowledgements.

'Permit me to add,' said Mrs General, 'that beyond this, I can never

resume the topic. Also that I can accept no second or inferior position.

If the honour were proposed to me of becoming known to Mr Dorrit's

family--I think two daughters were mentioned?--'

'Two daughters.' 'I could only accept it on terms of perfect equality, as a companion,

protector, Mentor, and friend.' Mr Dorrit, in spite of his sense of his importance, felt as if it would

be quite a kindness in her to accept it on any conditions. He almost

said as much. 'I think,' repeated Mrs General, 'two daughters were mentioned?' 'Two daughters,' said Mr Dorrit again. 'It would therefore,' said Mrs General, 'be necessary to add a third

more to the payment (whatever its amount may prove to be), which my

friends here have been accustomed to make to my bankers'.

' Mr Dorrit lost no time in referring the delicate question to the

county-widower, and finding that he had been accustomed to pay three

hundred pounds a-year to the credit of Mrs General, arrived, without any

severe strain on his arithmetic, at the conclusion that he himself must

pay four. Mrs General being an article of that lustrous surface which

suggests that it is worth any money, he made a formal proposal to be

allowed to have the honour and pleasure of regarding her as a member of

his family. Mrs General conceded that high privilege, and here she was.

In person, Mrs General, including her skirts which had much to do with

it, was of a dignified and imposing appearance; ample, rustling, gravely

voluminous; always upright behind the proprieties. She might have

been taken--had been taken--to the top of the Alps and the bottom of

Herculaneum, without disarranging a fold in her dress, or displacing

a pin. If her countenance and hair had rather a floury appearance, as

though from living in some transcendently genteel Mill, it was rather

because she was a chalky creation altogether, than because she mended

her complexion with violet powder, or had turned grey. If her eyes had

no expression, it was probably because they had nothing to express. If

she had few wrinkles, it was because her mind had never traced its name

or any other inscription on her face. A cool, waxy, blown-out woman, who

had never lighted well.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024