Page:Bleak House.djvu/289

 because lie mutters violent imprecations against JNIi's. Smallweed; and thii'dly, because the contrast between those powerful expressions and his powerless figure is suggestive of a baleful old malignant, who would be ver}"^ wicked if he could. All this, however, is so common in tlie Small- weed family cii-cle, that it produces no impression. The old gentleman is merely shaken, and has his internal feathers beaten up ; the cushion is restored to its usual place beside him ; and the old lady, perhaps with her cap adjusted, and perhaps not, is planted in her chair again, ready to be bowled down like a ninepin. Some time elapses, in the present instance, before the old gentleman is sufficiently cool to resume his discom'se ; and even then he mixes it up with several edifying expletives addressed to the unconscious partner oi his bosom, who holds communication with nothing on earth but the trivets. As thus : " If youi* father, Bart, had lived longer, he might have been wortn a deal of money — you brimstone chatterer ! — but just as he was beginning to build up the house that he had been making the foundations for, tlirough many a year — you jade of a mag-pie, jackdaw, and poll-paiTot, what do you mean ! — he took ill and died of a low fever, always being a sparing and a spare man, full of business care — I slioidd like to throw a cat at you instead of a cushion, and I will too if you make such a con- founded fool of yourself ! — and your mother, who was a prudent woman as dry as a chip, just dwindled away like touchwood after you and Judy were born. — You are an old pig. You are a brimstone pig. You're a head of swine ! " Judy, not interested in what she has often heard, begins to coUect in a basin various tributary streams of tea, from the bottoms of cups and saucers and from the bottom of the teapot, for the little charwoman's evening meal. In Kke manner she gets together, in the iron bread-basket, as many outside fi*agments and worn- down heels of loaves as the rigid economy of the house has left in existence. " But, your father and me were partners, Bart," says the old gentleman ; " and when I am gone, you and Judy will have aU there is. It's rare for you both, that you went out early in life — Judy to the flower business, and you to the law. You won't want to spend it. You'R get your living without it, and put more to it. When I am gone, Judy wiU go back to the flower business, and you'U still stick to the law." One might infer, from Judy's appearance, that her business rather lay with the thorns than the flowers ; but, she has, in her time, been apprenticed to the art and mystery of artificial flower-making. A close observer might per- haps detect both in her eye and her brother's, when their venerable grand- sire anticipates his being gone, some little impatience to know when he may be going, and some resentful opmion that it is time he went. " Now, if everybody has done," says Judy, completing her preparations, " I'll have that girl in to her tea. She would never leave off, if she took it by herself in the kitchen." Charley is accordingly introduced, and, under a heavy fire of eyes, sits down to her basin and a Druidical niin of bread and butter. In the active superintendence of this yomig person, Judy Smallweed appears to attain a perfectly geological age, and to date from the remotest periods. Her systematic manner of flying at her and pouncing on her, with or