smile.
'Bleak House,' he repeated-and his tone did NOT sound sorrowful, I found-'must learn to take care of itself. It is a long way from Ada, my dear, and Ada stands much in need of you.'
'It's like you, guardian,' said I, 'to have been taking that into consideration for a happy surprise to both of us.'
'Not so disinterested either, my dear, if you mean to extol me for that virtue, since if you were generally on the road, you could be seldom with me. And besides, I wish to hear as much and as often of Ada as I can in this condition of estrangement from poor Rick.
Not of her alone, but of him too, poor fellow.'
'Have you seen Mr. Woodcourt, this morning, guardian?'
'I see Mr. Woodcourt every morning, Dame Durden.'
'Does he still say the same of Richard?'
'Just the same. He knows of no direct bodily illness that he has; on the contrary, he believes that he has none. Yet he is not easy about him; who CAN be?'
My dear girl had been to see us lately every day, some times twice in a day. But we had foreseen, all along, that this would only last until I was quite myself. We knew full well that her fervent heart was as full of affection and gratitude towards her cousin John as it had ever been, and we acquitted Richard of laying any injunctions upon her to stay away; but we knew on the other hand that she felt it a part of her duty to him to be sparing of her visits at our house. My guardian's delicacy had soon perceived this and had tried to convey to her that he thought she was right.
'Dear, unfortunate, mistaken Richard,' said I. 'When will he awake from his delusion!'
'He is not in the way to do so now, my dear,' replied my guardian.
'The more he suffers, the more averse he will be to me, having made me the principal representative of the great occasion of his suffering.'
I could not help adding, 'So unreasonably!'
'Ah, Dame Trot, Dame Trot,' returned my guardian, 'what shall we find reasonable in Jarndyce and Jarndyce! Unreason and injustice at the top, unreason and injustice at the heart and at the bottom, unreason and injustice from beginning to end-if it ever has an end-how should poor Rick, always hovering near it, pluck reason out of it? He no more gathers grapes from thorns or figs from thistles than older men did in old times.'
His gentleness and consideration for Richard whenever we spoke of him touched me so that I was always silent on this subject very soon.
'I suppose the Lord Chancellor, and the Vice Chancellors, and the whole Chancery battery of great guns would be infinitely astonished by such unreason and injustice in one of their suitors,' pursued my guardian. 'When those learned gentlemen begin to raise moss-roses from the powder they sow in their wigs, I shall begin to be astonished too!'
He checked himself in glancing towards the window to look where the wind was and leaned on the back of my chair instead.
'Well, well, little woman! To go on, my dear. This rock we must leave to time, chance, and hopeful circumstance. We must not shipwreck Ada upon it. She cannot afford, and he cannot afford, the remotest chance of another separation from a friend. Therefore I have particularly begged of Woodcourt, and I now particularly beg of you, my dear, not to move this subject with Rick. Let it rest.
Next week, next month, next year, sooner or later, he will see me with clearer eyes. I can wait.'
But I had already discussed it with him, I confessed; and so, I thought, had Mr. Woodcourt.
'So he tells me,' returned my guardian. 'Very good. He has made his protest, and Dame Durden has made hers, and there is nothing more to be said about it. Now I come to Mrs. Woodcourt. How do you like her, my dear?'
In answer to this question, which was oddly abrupt, I said I liked her very much and thought she was more agreeable than she used to be.
'I think so too,' said my guardian. 'Less pedigree? Not so much of Morgan ap-what's his name?'
That was what I meant, I acknowledged, though he was a very harmless person, even when we had had more of him.
'Still, upon the whole, he is as well in his native mountains,' said my guardian. 'I agree with you. Then, little woman, can I do better for a time than retain Mrs. Woodcourt here?'
No. And yet-My guardian looked at me, waiting for what I had to say.
I had nothing to say. At least I had nothing in my mind that I could say. I had an undefined impression that it might have been better if we had had some other inmate, but I could hardly have explained why even to myself. Or, if to myself, certainly not to anybody else.
'You see,' said my guardian, 'our neighbourhood is in Woodcourt's way, and he can come here to see her as often as he likes, which is agreeable to them both; and she is familiar to us and fond of you.'
Yes. That was undeniable. I had nothing to say against it. I could not have suggested a better arrangement, but I was not quite easy in my mind. Esther, Esther, why not? Esther, think!
'It is a very good plan indeed, dear guardian, and we could not do better.'
'Sure, little woman?'
Quite sure. I had had a moment's time to think, since I had urged that duty on myself, and I was quite sure.
'Good,' said my guardian. 'It shall be done. Carried unanimously.'
'Carried unanimously,' I repeated, going on with my work.
It was a cover for his book-table that I happened to be ornamenting. It had been laid by on the night preceding my sad journey and never resumed. I showed it to him now, and he admired it highly. After I had explained the pattern to him and all the great effects that were to come out by and by, I thought I would go back to our last theme.
'You said, dear guardian, when we spoke of Mr. Woodcourt before Ada left us, that you thought he would give a long trial to another country. Have you been advising him since?'
'Yes, little woman, pretty often.'
'Has he decided to do so?'
'I rather think not.'
'Some other prospect has opened to him, perhaps?' said I.
'Why-yes-perhaps,' returned my guardian, beginning his answer in a very deliberate manner. 'About half a year hence or so, there is a medical attendant for the poor to be appointed at a certain place in Yorkshire. It is a thriving place, pleasantly situated-streams and streets, town and country, mill and moor-and seems to present an opening for such a man. I mean a man whose hopes and aims may sometimes lie (as most men's sometimes do, I dare say) above the ordinary level, but to whom the ordinary level will be high enough after all if it should prove to be a way of usefulness and good service leading to no other. All generous spirits are ambitious, I suppose, but the ambition that calmly trusts itself to such a road, instead of spasmodically trying to fly over it, is of the kind I care for. It is Woodcourt's kind.'
'And will he get this appointment?' I asked.
'Why, little woman,' returned my guardian, smiling, 'not being an oracle, I cannot confidently say, but I think so. His reputation stands very high; there were people from that part of the country in the shipwreck; and strange to say, I believe the best man has the best chance. You must not suppose it to be a fine endowment.
It is a very, very commonplace affair, my dear, an appointment to a great amount of work and a small amount of pay; but better things will gather about it, it may be fairly hoped.'
'The poor of that place will have reason to bless the choice if it falls on Mr. Woodcourt, guardian.'
'You are right, little woman; that I am sure they will.'
We said no more about it, nor did he say a word about the future of Bleak House. But it was the first time I had taken my seat at his side in my mourning dress, and that accounted for it, I considered.
I now began to visit my dear girl every day in the dull dark corner where she lived. The morning was my usual time, but whenever I found I had an hour or so to spare, I put on my bonnet and bustled off to Chancery Lane. They were both so glad to see me at all hours, and used to brighten up so when they heard me opening the door and coming in (being quite at home, I never knocked), that I had no fear of becoming troublesome just yet.
