Page:Bleak House.djvu/216

 " Yes, Charley," said Tom, " almost quite bright." " Then he's as good as gold," said the little creature—O! in such a motherly, womanly way ! " And when Emma's tired, he puts her to bed. And when he's tired, he goes to bed himself. And when I come home and light the candle, and has a bit of supper, he sits up again and has it with me. Don't you, Tom ? "

"O yes, Charley ! " said Tom. " That I do ! " And either in this glimpse of the great pleasure of his life, or in gratitude and love for Charley, who was all in all to him, he laid his face among the scantyfolds of her frock, and passed from laughing into crying.

It was the first time since our entry, that a tear had been shed among these children. The little orphan girl had spoken of their father, and their mother, as if all that sorrow were subdued by the necessity of taking courage, and by her childish importance in being able to work, and by her bustling busy way. But, now, when Tom cried ; although she sat quite tranquil, looking quietly at us, and did not by any movement disturb a hair of the head of either of her little charges ; I saw two silent tears fall down her face.

I stood at the window with Ada, pretending to look at the housetops, and the blackened stacks of chimnies, and the poor plants, and the birds in little cages belonging to the neighbours, when I found that Mrs. Blinder, from the shop below, had come in (perhaps it had taken her all this time to get up stairs) and was talking to my Guardian.

" It's not much to forgive 'em the rent, sir," she said : " who could take it from them ! "

" Well, well ! " said my Guardian to us two. " It is enough that the time will come when this good woman will find that it was much, and that forasmuch as she did it unto the least of these — ! This child," he added, after a few moments, " coidd she possibly continue this ? "

" Really, sir, I think she might," said Mrs. Blinder, getting her heavy breath by painful degrees. " She's as handy as it's possible to be. Bless you, sir, the way she tended them two children, after the mother died, was the talk of the yard ! And it was a wonder to see her with him after he was took ill, it really was ! ' Mrs. Blinder,' he said to me the very last he spoke—he was lying there—' Mrs. Blinder, whatever my calling may have been, I see a Angel sitting in this room last night along with my child, and I trust her to Our Father ! ' "

" He had no other calling? " said my Guardian.

" No, sir," returned Mrs. Blinder, " he was nothing but a follerer. When he first came to lodge here, I didn't know what he was, and I confess that when I found out I gave him notice. It wasn't liked in the yard. It wasn't approved by the other lodgers. It is not a genteel calling," said Mrs. Blinder, " and most people do object to it. Mr. Gridley objected to it, very strong; and he is a good lodger, though his temper has been hard tried."

" So you gave him notice? " said my Guardian.

" So I gave him notice," said Mrs. Blinder. " But really when the time came, and I knew no other ill of him, I was in doubts. He was punctual and diligent ; he did what he had to do, sir," said Mrs. Blinder, unconsciously fixing Mr. Skimpole with her eye ; " and it's something, in this world, even to do that."