Page 131 - bleak-house

The present representative of the Dedlocks is an excellent
master. He supposes all his dependents to be utterly bereft
of individual characters, intentions, or opinions, and is per-
suaded that he was born to supersede the necessity of their
having any. If he were to make a discovery to the contrary,
he would be simply stunned—would never recover himself,
most likely, except to gasp and die. But he is an excellent
master still, holding it a part of his state to be so. He has a
great liking for Mrs. Rouncewell; he says she is a most re-
spectable, creditable woman. He always shakes hands with
her when he comes down to Chesney Wold and when he
goes away; and if he were very ill, or if he were knocked
down by accident, or run over, or placed in any situation
expressive of a Dedlock at a disadvantage, he would say if
he could speak, ‘Leave me, and send Mrs. Rouncewell here!’
feeling his dignity, at such a pass, safer with her than with
anybody else.
Mrs. Rouncewell has known trouble. She has had two
sons, of whom the younger ran wild, and went for a soldier,
and never came back. Even to this hour, Mrs. Rouncewell’s
calm hands lose their composure when she speaks of him,
and unfolding themselves from her stomacher, hover about
her in an agitated manner as she says what a likely lad, what
a fine lad, what a gay, good-humoured, clever lad he was!
Her second son would have been provided for at Chesney
Wold and would have been made steward in due season, but
he took, when he was a schoolboy, to constructing steam-
engines out of saucepans and setting birds to draw their
own water with the least possible amount of labour, so as-

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