Old Mr. Turveydrop, his father, was a fat man with a false complexion,
false teeth, false whiskers, a wig and a padded chest. He always carried
a cane, eye-glass and snuff-box and was so tightly buttoned up that when
he bowed you could almost see creases come into the whites of his eyes.
He thought himself a model of politeness and stood about to show off his
clothes while he made his son, Prince, do all the teaching.
Caddy was so tired of hearing about Africa that at last she married
Prince and moved into the Turveydrop dancing school, and Mrs. Jellyby
had to hire a boy to help her with her great plans for the education of
the natives of Borrioboola-Gha.
Once Esther and Ada went with Mr. Jarndyce to visit Mr. Boythorn--the
man with the tremendous laugh and the pet canary--at his country house
where he lived in one perpetual quarrel with his neighbor, Sir Leicester
Dedlock. Esther had often heard of the beauty of Lady Dedlock, and one
Sunday in the village church she saw her. There was something strangely
familiar in her look that reminded Esther of her godmother. An odd
sensation came over her then and she felt her heart beat quickly. But
this was before Lady Dedlock had guessed the truth, and Esther and she
did not meet.
Richard Carstone had soon begun to be a source of great anxiety to all
at Bleak House. It was plainly to be seen that he loved Ada dearly, and
that she loved him as well, but to Mr. Jarndyce's regret he had begun to
think and dream of the famous chancery suit and of the fortune that
would be his when it ended. Mr. Jarndyce, from his own bitter
experience, hated the Chancery Court and everything connected with it,
and saw with grief that Richard was growing to be a ne'er-do-well, who
found it easier to trust in the future than to labor in the present.
In spite of all advice Richard went from bad to worse. He began the
study of medicine, soon changed this for law, and lastly decided to
enter the army. He was naturally a spendthrift, and as long as his money
lasted Harold Skimpole found him a very fine friend and helped him spend
it.
Skimpole also introduced to him a knavish lawyer named Vholes, who made
him believe the great chancery suit must soon end in his favor, and who
(when Richard had put the case in his hands) proceeded to rob him of all
he had. He poisoned his mind, too, against Mr. Jarndyce, so that Richard
began to think his truest friend deceitful.
Ada saw this with pain, but she loved Richard above all else, and the
more so when she saw him so wretched and deceived; and at last, without
telling either Mr. Jarndyce or Esther what she was going to do, she
went to Richard one day and married him, so that, as her husband, he
could take the little fortune she possessed to pay Vholes to go on with
the chancery suit.
A great misfortune befell Esther about this time--a misfortune that came
to her, strangely enough, through little Joe, the crossing sweeper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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