Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com
ing racked him in every joint; but while Peggotty’s eyes
were full of compassion for him, she said his generous im-
pulse would do him good, and it was better not to check it.
So he groaned on, until he had got into bed again, suffering,
I have no doubt, a martyrdom; and then called us in, pre-
tending to have just woke up from a refreshing sleep, and to
produce a guinea from under his pillow. His satisfaction in
which happy imposition on us, and in having preserved the
impenetrable secret of the box, appeared to be a sufficient
compensation to him for all his tortures.
I prepared Peggotty for Steerforth’s arrival and it was
not long before he came. I am persuaded she knew no dif-
ference between his having been a personal benefactor of
hers, and a kind friend to me, and that she would have re-
ceived him with the utmost gratitude and devotion in any
case. But his easy, spirited good humour; his genial manner,
his handsome looks, his natural gift of adapting himself to
whomsoever he pleased, and making direct, when he cared
to do it, to the main point of interest in anybody’s heart;
bound her to him wholly in five minutes. His manner to me,
alone, would have won her. But, through all these causes
combined, I sincerely believe she had a kind of adoration for
him before he left the house that night.
He stayed there with me to dinner - if I were to say will-
ingly, I should not half express how readily and gaily. He
went into Mr. Barkis’s room like light and air, brightening
and refreshing it as if he were healthy weather. There was
no noise, no effort, no consciousness, in anything he did;
but in everything an indescribable lightness, a seeming im-