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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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question, with an apology for digressing. No, I have not been able to dispose of Mr. Jack Maldon yet. I believe,' he said this with some hesitation, 'I penetrate your motive, and it makes the thing more difficult.' 'My motive,' returned Doctor Strong, 'is to make some suitable provision for a cousin, and an old playfellow, of Annie's.' 'Yes, I know,' said Mr. Wickfield; 'at home or abroad.' 'Aye!' replied the Doctor, apparently wondering why he emphasized those words so much. 'At home or abroad.' 'Your own expression, you know,' said Mr. Wickfield. 'Or abroad.' 'Surely,' the Doctor answered. 'Surely. One or other.' 'One or other? Have you no choice?' asked Mr. Wickfield. 'No,' returned the Doctor. 'No?' with astonishment. 'Not the least.' 'No motive,' said Mr. Wickfield, 'for meaning abroad, and not at home?' 'No,' returned the Doctor. 'I am bound to believe you, and of course I do believe you,' said Mr. Wickfield. 'It might have simplified my office very much, if I had known it before. But I confess I entertained another impression.' Doctor Strong regarded him with a puzzled and doubting look, which almost immediately subsided into a smile that gave me great encouragement; for it was full of amiability and sweetness, and there was a simplicity in it, and indeed in his whole manner, when the studious, pondering frost upon it was got through, very attractive and hopeful to a young scholar like me. Repeating 'no', and 'not the least', and other short assurances to the same purport, Doctor Strong jogged on before us, at a queer, uneven pace; and we followed: Mr. Wickfield, looking grave, I observed, and shaking his head to himself, without knowing that I saw him. |
