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Your ladyship, I do assure you, that having Miss Summersons image imprinted on my art which I mention in confidence I found, when I had the honour of going over your ladyships mansion of Chesney Wold, while on a short out in the county of Lincolnshire with a friend, such a resemblance between Miss Esther Summerson and your ladyships own portrait, that it completely knocked me over; so much so, that I didnt at the moment even know what it was that knocked me over. And now I have the honour of beholding your ladyship near, (I have often, since that, taken the liberty of looking at your ladyship in your carriage in the park, when I dare say you was not aware of me, but I never saw your ladyship so near), its really more surprising than I thought it. Young man of the name of Guppy! There have been times, when ladies lived in strongholds, and had unscrupulous attendants within call, when that poor life of yours would NOT have been worth a minutes purchase, with those beautiful eyes looking at you as they look at this moment. My Lady, slowly using her little hand-screen as a fan, asks him again what he supposes that his taste for likenesses has to do with her. Your ladyship, replies Mr Guppy, again referring to his paper, I am coming to that. Dash these notes! O! Mrs Chadband. Yes. Mr Guppy draws his chair a little forward, and seats himself again. My Lady reclines in her chair composedly, though with a trifle less of graceful ease than usual, perhaps; and never falters in her steady gaze. A stop a minute, though! Mr Guppy refers again. E.S. twice? O, yes! Yes, I see my way now, right on. Rolling up the slip of paper as an instrument to point his speech with, Mr Guppy proceeds. Your ladyship, there is a mystery about Miss Esther Summersons birth and bringing up. I am informed of that fact, because which I mention in confidence I know it in the way of my profession at Kenge and Carboys. Now, as I have already mentioned to your ladyship, Miss Summersons image is imprinted on my art. If I could clear this mystery for her, or prove her to be well related, or find that having the honour to be a remote branch of your ladyships family she had a right to be made a party in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, why, I might make a sort of a claim upon Miss Summerson to look with an eye of more dedicated favour on my proposals than she has exactly done as yet. In fact, as yet she hasnt favoured them at all. A kind of angry smile just dawns upon my Ladys face. Now, its a very singular circumstance, your ladyship, says Mr Guppy, though one of those circumstances that do fall in the way of us professional men which I may call myself, for though not admitted, yet I have had a present of my articles made to me by Kenge and Carboy, on my mothers advancing from the principal of her little income the money for the stamp, which comes heavy that I have encountered the person, who lived as servant with the lady who brought Miss Summerson up, before Mr Jarndyce took charge of her. That lady was a Miss Barbary, your ladyship. Is the dead colour on my Ladys face, reflected from the screen which has a green silk ground, and which she holds in her raised hand as if she had forgotten it; or is it a dreadful paleness that has fallen on her? Did your ladyship, says Mr Guppy, ever happen to hear of Miss Barbary? I dont know. I think so. Yes. Was Miss Barbary at all connected with your ladyships family? My Ladys lips move, but they utter nothing. She shakes her head. |
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