I cannot bear it,' said Rosa, at
once with a burst of tears, and a stamp of her little foot; 'I
shudder with horror of him, and I have come to you to protect me
and all of us from him, if you will?'
'I will,' cried Mr. Grewgious, with a sudden rush of amazing
energy. 'Damn him!
"Confound his politics!
Frustrate his knavish tricks!
On Thee his hopes to fix?
Damn him again!"'
After this most extraordinary outburst, Mr. Grewgious, quite beside
himself, plunged about the room, to all appearance undecided
whether he was in a fit of loyal enthusiasm, or combative
denunciation.
He stopped and said, wiping his face: 'I beg your pardon, my dear,
but you will be glad to know I feel better. Tell me no more just
now, or I might do it again. You must be refreshed and cheered.
What did you take last? Was it breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, or
supper? And what will you take next? Shall it be breakfast,
lunch, dinner, tea, or supper?'
The respectful tenderness with which, on one knee before her, he
helped her to remove her hat, and disentangle her pretty hair from
it, was quite a chivalrous sight. Yet who, knowing him only on the
surface, would have expected chivalry - and of the true sort, too;
not the spurious - from Mr. Grewgious?
'Your rest too must be provided for,' he went on; 'and you shall
have the prettiest chamber in Furnival's. Your toilet must be
provided for, and you shall have everything that an unlimited head
chambermaid - by which expression I mean a head chambermaid not
limited as to outlay - can procure.
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