Page 1022 - middlemarch

CHAPTER LXXI

Clown…. ‘Twas in the Bunch of Grapes, where, indeed,
you have a delight to sit, have you not?
Froth. I have so: because it is an open room, and good for
winter.
Clo. Why, very well then: I hope here be truths.
—Measure for Measure.

ive days after the death of Raffles, Mr. Bambridge was
Fstanding at his leisure under the large archway leading
into the yard of the Green Dragon. He was not fond of soli-
tary contemplation, but he had only just come out of the
house, and any human figure standing at ease under the
archway in the early afternoon was as certain to attract
companionship as a pigeon which has found something
worth peeking at. In this case there was no material ob-
ject to feed upon, but the eye of reason saw a probability
of mental sustenance in the shape of gossip. Mr. Hopkins,
the meek-mannered draper opposite, was the first to act on
this inward vision, being the more ambitious of a little mas-
culine talk because his customers were chiefly women. Mr.
Bambridge was rather curt to the draper, feeling that Hop-
kins was of course glad to talk to HIM, but that he was not
going to waste much of his talk on Hopkins. Soon, however,

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