Little Dorrit Vol.1 f.035 recto

her immovable face, as stiff rigid and stoney as the folds of her stoney [???b???s] head-dress,— her being beyond the [works] of the reach of the seasons ??? seemed but an af??? a fit sequence to ?pp??o???? of her having been so long h??ng?????? being beyond the reach of all ???????????????????????????????????????? changing emotions.

On her little table lay the old ?? book two or three books, ??her handkerchief, a pair of steel spectacles newly taken off, and ????t?lan old-fashioned gold watch in a ?i??y heavy double- case. Upon this last object ???her son’s eyes and her own now rested together.

“I see that you received the not??ask????youthe packet I sent you on my father’s death , safely, mother.”

“You see.”

“I never ???knew my father ?????????? to show so much anxiety on any subject, as that ???????his ?????watch should ?? be sent straight to you.”

“I ??????????keep it ??his tabl? ? ?e here ??h???? here, as a ?????l remembrance of your father.”

“It was ?? not until the ??? last, that he expressed the wish.; When he could only put his hand upon it, and ????very indistinctly say to me “your mother.” A moment before, I thought him wandering in his mind —, as he had been for many hours; — ??????????phize h?? illnes?????I think he had no consciousness of pain in his pro?? short illness—when I saw him turn himself in his bed and try to open open it.”

“Was ??el?di?dyour father, then, ????not t?? ???y????????????? wandering wandering in his ????mind when he tried to open it.?”

“No. He was quite sensible when ???? what ??? ?????? at that time.”

?????????? which ??????????? ????d Mrs Clennam shook her head; whether in ?????? dismissal of the departed deceased or in disp??le of her ??????????????? opposing herself to her son’s opinion, was not fully clearly expressed.

“After my father’s my ?? father’s death, andI opened t???????????? it myself, thinking there might be, for anything I knew, some ????? memorandum there. He was ohwever, working However, ???u? as I need not tell you, mother, there was nothing but the ofthe old silk watch-paper worked in beads, which you found (no doubt) [?????]in its place between the cases, where I found and left it.”

Mrs Clennam signified [???????????????????????]assent; then added, “[D????no]No more of business on this day,” ???? and then added, “[????]Affery, it is halfpast nine o’clock.”

Upon this, the old woman cleared the little table, ?????????????????went out of the room, and quickly returned with a tray on which was a dish of little rusks and a small precise pat of butter, cool, symmetrical, white, and plump. The old man who had been standing by the door in one attitude during the whole interview, looking at the mother up-stairs as he had looked at the son down-stairs, went out at the same time, and, after a longer absence, returned with another tray on which was the greater part of a bottle of port wine (which, to judge by his panting, he had brought from the cellar), a lemon, a sugar-basin, and a spice box. With these materials and the aid of the kettle, he filled a tumbler with a hot and odorous mixture, measured out and compounded with as much nicety as a physician’s prescription. Into this mixture Mrs Clennam dipped certain of the rusks, and ate them; while the old woman buttered certain other of the rusks, which were to be eaten alone. When the invalid had eaten all the rusks and drunk all the mixture, the two trays were removed; and the books and