Striking, characteristic, and
complete.'
The auctioneer inclines his head, as one accepting his due and
giving a receipt; and invites the entering Durdles to take off that
glass of wine (handing the same), for it will warm him.
Durdles is a stonemason; chiefly in the gravestone, tomb, and
monument way, and wholly of their colour from head to foot. No man
is better known in Cloisterham. He is the chartered libertine of
the place. Fame trumpets him a wonderful workman - which, for
aught that anybody knows, he may be (as he never works); and a
wonderful sot - which everybody knows he is. With the Cathedral
crypt he is better acquainted than any living authority; it may
even be than any dead one. It is said that the intimacy of this
acquaintance began in his habitually resorting to that secret
place, to lock-out the Cloisterham boy-populace, and sleep off
fumes of liquor: he having ready access to the Cathedral, as
contractor for rough repairs. Be this as it may, he does know much
about it, and, in the demolition of impedimental fragments of wall,
buttress, and pavement, has seen strange sights. He often speaks
of himself in the third person; perhaps, being a little misty as to
his own identity, when he narrates; perhaps impartially adopting
the Cloisterham nomenclature in reference to a character of
acknowledged distinction. Thus he will say, touching his strange
sights: 'Durdles come upon the old chap,' in reference to a buried
magnate of ancient time and high degree, 'by striking right into
the coffin with his pick.
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