Page 153 - bleak-house

Only a concluding word. Esther, my dear, do you wish to
ask me anything?’
He looked so attentively at me that I looked attentively at
him and felt sure I understood him.
‘About myself, sir?’ said I.
‘Yes.’
‘Guardian,’ said I, venturing to put my hand, which was
suddenly colder than I could have wished, in his, ‘nothing! I
am quite sure that if there were anything I ought to know or
had any need to know, I should not have to ask you to tell it
to me. If my whole reliance and confidence were not placed
in you, I must have a hard heart indeed. I have nothing to
ask you, nothing in the world.’
He drew my hand through his arm and we went away to
look for Ada. From that hour I felt quite easy with him, quite
unreserved, quite content to know no more, quite happy.
We lived, at first, rather a busy life at Bleak House, for we
had to become acquainted with many residents in and out
of the neighbourhood who knew Mr. Jarndyce. It seemed
to Ada and me that everybody knew him who wanted to
do anything with anybody else’s money. It amazed us when
we began to sort his letters and to answer some of them for
him in the growlery of a morning to find how the great ob-
ject of the lives of nearly all his correspondents appeared
to be to form themselves into committees for getting in
and laying out money. The ladies were as desperate as the
gentlemen; indeed, I think they were even more so. They
threw themselves into committees in the most impassioned
manner and collected subscriptions with a vehemence quite

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