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92 |
THE CHIMES. |
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" See how he leaves it cooling on the step!" said Richard. " Meg don't know what he likes. Not she ! "
Trotty, all action and enthusiasm, immediately reached up his hand to Richard, and was going to address him in a great hurry, when the house-door opened without any warning, and a footman very nearly put his foot in the tripe.
" Out of the vays here, will you ! You must always go and be a settin' on our steps, must you ! You can't go and give a turn to none of the neighbours never, can't you ! Will you clear the road, or won't you ?"
Strictly speaking, the last question was irrelevant, as they had already done it.
" What's the matter, what's the matter !" said the gentleman for whom the door was opened: coming out of the house at that kind of light-heavy pace—that peculiar compromise between a walk and a jog-trot—with which a gentleman upon the smooth down-hill of life, wearing creaking boots, a watch-chain, and clean linen, may come out of his house: not only without any abatement of.his dignity, but with an expression of having important and wealthy engagements elsewhere. "What's the matter. What's the matter!"
" You're always a being begged, and prayed, upon your bended knees you are," said the footman with great emphasis to Trotty Veck, " to let our door-steps be. Why don't you let 'em be ? Can't you let 'em be ?"
" There! That'll do, that'll do!" said the gentleman. "Halloa there ! Porter ! " beckoning with his head to Trotty Veck. " Come here. What's that ? Your dinner ?"
"Yes Sir," said Trotty, leaving it behind him in a corner.
"Don't leave it there," exclaimed the gentleman. "Bring it here, bring it here. So ! This is your dinner, is it ?"
"Yes Sir," repeated Trotty, looking, with a fixed eye and a watery mouth, at the piece of tripe he had reserved for a last delicious tit-bit; which the gentleman was now turning over and over on the end of the fork.
Two other gentlemen had come out with him. One was a low-spirited gentleman of middle age, of a meagre habit, and a disconsolate face; who kept his hands continually in the pockets of his scanty pepper-and-salt trousers, very large and dog's-eared from that custom; and. was not particularly well brushed or washed. The other, a fnll-sized, sleek, well-conditioned gentleman, in a blue coat with bright buttons, and a white cravat. This gentleman had a very red face, as if an undue proportion of the blood in his body were squeezed up into his head; which perhaps accounted for his |
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