Page 774 - bleak-house

‘My love,’ said Richard, ‘there is no one with whom I
have a greater wish to talk than you, for I want you to un-
derstand me.’
‘And I want you, Richard,’ said I, shaking my head, ‘to
understand some one else.’
‘Since you refer so immediately to John Jarndyce,’ said
Richard, ‘ —I suppose you mean him?’
‘Of course I do.’
‘Then I may say at once that I am glad of it, because it is
on that subject that I am anxious to be understood. By you,
mind—you, my dear! I am not accountable to Mr. Jarndyce
or Mr. Anybody.’
I was pained to find him taking this tone, and he ob-
served it.
‘Well, well, my dear,’ said Richard, ‘we won’t go into that
now. I want to appear quietly in your country-house here,
with you under my arm, and give my charming cousin a
surprise. I suppose your loyalty to John Jarndyce will al-
low that?’
‘My dear Richard,’ I returned, ‘you know you would be
heartily welcome at his house—your home, if you will but
consider it so; and you are as heartily welcome here!’
‘Spoken like the best of little women!’ cried Richard gai-
ly.
I asked him how he liked his profession.
‘Oh, I like it well enough!’ said Richard. ‘It’s all right. It
does as well as anything else, for a time. I don’t know that I
shall care about it when I come to be settled, but I can sell
out then and—however, never mind all that botheration at

774 Bleak House