Page 116 - bleak-house

pole with his agreeable candour, ‘I never was in a situation
in which that excellent sense and quiet habit of method and
usefulness, which anybody must observe in you who has
the happiness of being a quarter of an hour in your society,
was more needed.’
The person on the sofa, who appeared to have a cold in
his head, gave such a very loud snort that he startled me.
‘Are you arrested for much, sir?’ I inquired of Mr. Skim-
pole.
‘My dear Miss Summerson,’ said he, shaking his head
pleasantly, ‘I don’t know. Some pounds, odd shillings, and
halfpence, I think, were mentioned.’
‘It’s twenty-four pound, sixteen, and sevenpence
ha’penny,’ observed the stranger. ‘That’s wot it is.’
‘And it sounds—somehow it sounds,’ said Mr. Skimpole,
‘like a small sum?’
The strange man said nothing but made another snort.
It was such a powerful one that it seemed quite to lift him
out of his seat.
‘Mr. Skimpole,’ said Richard to me, ‘has a delicacy in ap-
plying to my cousin Jarndyce because he has lately—I think,
sir, I understood you that you had lately—‘
‘Oh, yes!’ returned Mr. Skimpole, smiling. ‘Though I
forgot how much it was and when it was. Jarndyce would
readily do it again, but I have the epicure-like feeling that I
would prefer a novelty in help, that I would rather,’ and he
looked at Richard and me, ‘develop generosity in a new soil
and in a new form of flower.’
‘What do you think will be best, Miss Summerson?’ said

116 Bleak House