Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day PeopleDickens, Charles
General
Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People
Dickens, Charles
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
It was very extraordinary. They were so completely identified, the one
with the other, that the curiosity of the whole row—even of the old
lady herself—was roused almost beyond endurance. The subject was
discussed at every little card-table and tea-drinking. The old
gentleman of silk-worm notoriety did not hesitate to express his
decided opinion that Mr. Robinson was of Eastern descent, and
contemplated marrying the whole family at once; and the row, generally,
shook their heads with considerable gravity, and declared the business
to be very mysterious. They hoped it might all end well;—it certainly
had a very singular appearance, but still it would be uncharitable to
express any opinion without good grounds to go upon, and certainly the
Miss Willises were _quite_ old enough to judge for themselves, and to
be sure people ought to know their own business best, and so forth.
At last, one fine morning, at a quarter before eight o’clock, a.m., two
glass-coaches drove up to the Miss Willises’ door, at which Mr.
Robinson had arrived in a cab ten minutes before, dressed in a
light-blue coat and double-milled kersey pantaloons, white neckerchief,
pumps, and dress-gloves, his manner denoting, as appeared from the
evidence of the housemaid at No. 23, who was sweeping the door-steps at
the time, a considerable degree of nervous excitement. It was also
hastily reported on the same testimony, that the cook who opened the
door, wore a large white bow of unusual dimensions, in a much smarter
head-dress than the regulation cap to which the Miss Willises
invariably restricted the somewhat excursive tastes of female servants
in general.
The intelligence spread rapidly from house to house. It was quite clear
that the eventful morning had at length arrived; the whole row
stationed themselves behind their first and second floor blinds, and
waited the result in breathless expectation.
At last the Miss Willises’ door opened; the door of the first
glass-coach did the same. Two gentlemen, and a pair of ladies to
correspond—friends of the family, no doubt; up went the steps, bang
went the door, off went the first class-coach, and up came the second.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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