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Updated: May 26, 2025
She continued to sidle at Mr Chuffey with looks of sharp hostility, and to defy him with many other ironical remarks, uttered in that low key which commonly denotes suppressed indignation; until the entrance of the teaboard, and a request from Mrs Jonas that she would make tea at a side-table for the party that had unexpectedly assembled, restored her to herself.
'Where is our dear friend, Mr Chuffey? asked Pecksniff, looking round the chamber, and winking both his eyes at once for he was overcome by his feelings. But here he was interrupted by Mrs Gamp, who, divested of her bonnet and shawl, came sidling and bridling into the room; and with some sharpness demanded a conference outside the door with Mr Pecksniff.
But he sat down once more without having made it, and breathing on his shrivelled hands to warm them, remained with his poor blue nose immovable above his plate, looking at nothing, with eyes that saw nothing, and a face that meant nothing. Take him in that state, and he was an embodiment of nothing. Nothing else. 'Our clerk, said Mr Jonas, as host and master of the ceremonies: 'Old Chuffey.
He pursued the theme no further; for Chuffey, somehow discovering, from his old corner by the fireside, that Anthony was in the attitude of a listener, and that Jonas appeared to be speaking, suddenly cried out, like one inspired: 'He is your own son, Mr Chuzzlewit. Your own son, sir!
She therefore assumed an air of greater patronage and importance, as she went on to answer Mrs Prig a little more in detail. 'Mr Chuffey, Betsey, said Mrs Gamp, 'is weak in his mind.
I'll take care of him. But Chuffey put it to the test no farther. He said not a word more, and being left to himself for a little while, crept back again to the coach. It has been said that Mr Jonas turned pale when the behaviour of the old clerk attracted general attention; his discomposure, however, was but momentary, and he soon recovered.
For it was one thing to want Mr Chuffey, and another thing to get at him; and to do that without alarming him, or without alarming Jonas, or without being discomfited by the difficulty of striking, in an instrument so out of tune and so unused, the note they sought, was an end as far from their reach as ever.
A scream from Chuffey, rendered a hundred times more loud and formidable by his silent habits, made the house ring from roof to cellar; and, looking round, they saw Anthony Chuzzlewit extended on the floor, with the old clerk upon his knees beside him.
As matters stood, nobody thought or said anything upon the subject; so Chuffey fell back into a dark corner on one side of the fireplace, where he always spent his evenings, and was neither seen nor heard again that night; save once, when a cup of tea was given him, in which he was seen to soak his bread mechanically.
Not being quite sure of her reception after interfering in the quarrel, Mrs Gamp, as a means of interesting and propitiating her patron, affected a deep solicitude in Mr Chuffey. 'How is he now, sir? she said. 'Who? cried Jonas, raising his head, and staring at her. 'To be sure! returned the matron with a smile and a curtsey. 'What am I thinking of!
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