Charles Dickens

“ I mean a man whose hopes and aims may sometimes lie (as most men’s sometimes do, I dare say) above the ordinary level, but to whom the ordinary level will be high enough after all if it should prove to be a way of usefulness and good service leading to no other. All generous spirits are ambitious, I suppose, but the ambition that calmly trusts itself to such a road, instead of spasmodically trying to fly over it, is of the kind I care for. It is Woodcourt’s kind. ”

“ C.’s affairs in a very bad way, that I consider Mr. C. himself in a very bad way, and that I regard this as an exceedingly ill- advised marriage. Am I here, sir? Yes, I thank you; I am here, Mr. C., and enjoying the pleasure of some agreeable conversation with Miss Summerson, for which I have to thank you very much, sir!”
He broke off thus in answer to Richard, who addressed him as he came into the room. By this time I too well understood Mr. Vholes’s scrupulous way of saving himself and his respectability not to feel that our worst fears did but keep pace with his client’s progress. ”

“ And besides, I wish to hear as much and as often of Ada as I can in this condition of estrangement from poor Rick. Not of her alone, but of him too, poor fellow.”
“Have you seen Mr. Woodcourt, this morning, guardian?”
“I see Mr. Woodcourt every morning, Dame Durden.”
“Does he still say the same of Richard?”
“Just the same. He knows of no direct bodily illness that he has; on the contrary, he believes that he has none. Yet he is not easy about him; who can be?”
My dear girl had been to see us lately every day, some times twice in a day. ”

“ How do you do! So glad to see you. And you are going to visit our interesting Jarndyce wards? To be sure! Our beauty is at home, my dear, and will be charmed to see you.”
“Then Richard is not come in yet?” said I. “I am glad of that, for I was afraid of being a little late.”
“No, he is not come in,” returned Miss Flite. “He has had a long day in court. I left him there with Vholes. You don’t like Vholes, I hope? Don’t like Vholes. Dan-gerous man!” ”

“ Vholes, though he occasionally made a gasp which I believe was his smile. He rose shortly after dinner and said that with the permission of the ladies he would retire to his office.
“Always devoted to business, Vholes!” cried Richard.
“Yes, Mr. C.,” he returned, “the interests of clients are never to be neglected, sir. They are paramount in the thoughts of a professional man like myself, who wishes to preserve a good name among his fellow-practitioners and society at large. ”

“ To go on, my dear. This rock we must leave to time, chance, and hopeful circumstance. We must not shipwreck Ada upon it. She cannot afford, and he cannot afford, the remotest chance of another separation from a friend. Therefore I have particularly begged of Woodcourt, and I now particularly beg of you, my dear, not to move this subject with Rick. ”

“ She carefully opened her reticule a little way and showed me a folded piece of paper inside as the appointment of which she spoke.
“Another secret, my dear. I have added to my collection of birds.”
“Really, Miss Flite?” said I, knowing how it pleased her to have her confidence received with an appearance of interest.
She nodded several times, and her face became overcast and gloomy. “Two more. I call them the Wards in Jarndyce. They are caged up with all the others. ”

“ His reputation stands very high; there were people from that part of the country in the shipwreck; and strange to say, I believe the best man has the best chance. You must not suppose it to be a fine endowment. It is a very, very commonplace affair, my dear, an appointment to a great amount of work and a small amount of pay; but better things will gather about it, it may be fairly hoped.”
“The poor of that place will have reason to bless the choice if it falls on Mr. Woodcourt, guardian.” ”

“ About half a year hence or so, there is a medical attendant for the poor to be appointed at a certain place in Yorkshire. It is a thriving place, pleasantly situated—streams and streets, town and country, mill and moor—and seems to present an opening for such a man. ”