Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIV, May 1852, Vol. IVVarious
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIV, May 1852, Vol. IV
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
"Jarndyce!" said the old man, with a start.
"Jarndyce and Jarndyce. The great suit, Krook," returned his lodger.
"Hi!" exclaimed the old man, in a tone of thoughtful amazement, and with
a wider stare than before. "Think of it!"
He seemed so rapt all in a moment, and looked so curiously at us, that
Richard said:
"Why, you appear to trouble yourself a good deal about the causes before
your noble and learned brother, the other Chancellor!"
"Yes," said the old man, abstractedly. "Sure! _Your_ name now will be--"
"Richard Carstone."
"Carstone," he repeated, slowly checking off that name upon his
forefinger; and each of the others he went on to mention, upon a
separate finger. "Yes. There was the name of Barbary, and the name of
Clare, and the name of Dedlock, too, I think."
"He knows as much of the cause as the real salaried Chancellor!" said
Richard, quite astonished, to Ada and me.
"Ay!" said the old man, coming slowly out of his abstraction. "Yes! Tom
Jarndyce--you'll excuse me, being related; but he was never known about
court by any other name, and was as well known there, as--she is now;"
nodding slightly at his lodger; "Tom Jarndyce was often in here. He got
into a restless habit of strolling about when the cause was on, or
expected, talking to the little shopkeepers, and telling 'em to keep
out of Chancery, whatever they did. 'For,' says he, 'it's being ground
to bits in a slow mill; it's being roasted at a slow fire; it's being
stung to death by single bees; it's being drowned by drops; it's going
mad by grains.' He was as near making away with himself, just where the
young lady stands, as near could be."
We listened with horror.
"He come in at the door," said the old man, slowly pointing an imaginary
track along the shop, "on the day he did it--the whole neighborhood had
said for months before, that he would do it, of a certainty, sooner or
later--he come in at the door that day, and walked along there, and sat
himself on a bench that stood there, and asked me (you'll judge I was a
mortal sight younger then) to fetch him a pint of wine. 'For,' says he,
'Krook, I am much depressed; my cause is on again, and I think I'm
nearer Judgment than I ever was.' I hadn't a mind to leave him alone;
and I persuaded him to go to the tavern over the way there, t'other side
my lane (I mean Chancery-lane); and I followed and looked in at the
window, and saw him, comfortable as I thought, in the arm-chair by the
fire, and company with him. I hadn't hardly got back here, when I heard
a shot go echoing and rattling right away into the inn. I ran
out--neighbors ran out--twenty of us cried at once, 'Tom Jarndyce!'"
The old man stopped, looked hard at us, looked down into the lantern,
blew the light out, and shut the lantern up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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