Page:Bleak House.djvu/108

 get an out ; and when we do, we like to make the most of it, you know.”

The old housekeeper, with a gracious severity of deportment, waves her hand towards the great staircase. Mr. Guppy and his friend follow Rosa, Mrs. Rouncewell and her grandson follow them, a young gardener goes before to open the shutters.

As is usually the case with people who go over houses, Mr. Guppy and his friend are dead beat before they have well begun. They straggle about in wrong places, look at wrong things, don′t care for the right things, gape when more rooms are opened, exhibit profound depression of spirits, and are clearly knocked up. In each successive chamber that they enter, Mrs. Rouncewell, who is as upright as the house itself, rests apart in a window seat, or other such nook, and listens with stately approval to Rosa′s exposition. Her grandson is so attentive to it, that Rosa is shyer than ever—and prettier. Thus they pass on from room to room, raising the pictured Dedlocks for a few brief minutes as the young gardener admits the light, and reconsigning them to their graves as he shuts it out again. It appears to the afflicted Mr. Guppy and his inconsolable friend, that there is no end to the Dedlocks, whose family greatness seems to consist in their never having done anything to distinguish themselves, for seven hundred years.

Even the long drawing-room of Chesney Wold cannot revive Mr. Guppy′s spirits. He is so low that he droops on the threshhold, and has hardly strength of mind to enter. But a portrait over the chimney-piece, painted by the fashionable artist of the day, acts upon him like a charm. He recovers in a moment. He stares at it with uncommon interest ; he seems to be fixed and fascinated by it.

“Dear me !” says Mr. Guppy. “Who′s that ?”

“The picture over the fire-place,” says Rosa, “is the portrait of the present Lady Dedlock. It is considered a perfect likeness, and the best work of the master.”

“′Blest !” says Mr. Guppy, staring in a kind of dismay at his friend, “if I can ever have seen her. Yet I know her ! Has the picture been engraved, miss?”

“The picture has never been engraved. Sir Leicester has always refused pennission.”

“Well !” says Mr. Guppy in a low voice, “I′ll be shot if it an′t very curious how well I know that picture ! So that′s Lady Dedlock, is it !”

“The picture on the right is the present Sir Leicester Dedlock. The picture on the left is his father, the late Sir Leicester.”

Mr. Guppy has no eyes for either of these magnates. “It′s unaccountable to me,” he says, still staring at the portrait, “how well I know that picture ! I′m dashed !” adds Mr. Guppy, looking round, “if I don′t think I must have had a dream of that picture, you know !”

As no one present takes any especial interest in Mr. Guppy′s dreams, the probability is not pursued. But he still remains so absorbed by the portrait, that he stands immoveable before it until the young gardener has closed the shutters ; when he comes out of the room in a dazed state, that is an odd though a sufficient substitute for interest, and follows into the succeeding rooms with a confused stare, as if he were looking everywhere for Lady Dedlock again.

He sees no more of her. He sees her rooms, which are the last