00 David Copperfield
have done what I thowt should be done, but I never looked
fur any good to come of my stan’ning where I do. This has
been too evil a house fur me and mine, fur me to be in my
right senses and expect it.’
With this, we departed; leaving her standing by her el-
bow-chair, a picture of a noble presence and a handsome
face.
We had, on our way out, to cross a paved hall, with glass
sides and roof, over which a vine was trained. Its leaves and
shoots were green then, and the day being sunny, a pair of
glass doors leading to the garden were thrown open. Rosa
Dartle, entering this way with a noiseless step, when we
were close to them, addressed herself to me:
‘You do well,’ she said, ‘indeed, to bring this fellow here!’
Such a concentration of rage and scorn as darkened
her face, and flashed in her jet-black eyes, I could not have
thought compressible even into that face. The scar made by
the hammer was, as usual in this excited state of her fea-
tures, strongly marked. When the throbbing I had seen
before, came into it as I looked at her, she absolutely lifted
up her hand, and struck it.
‘This is a fellow,’ she said, ‘to champion and bring here, is
he not? You are a true man!’
‘Miss Dartle,’ I returned, ‘you are surely not so unjust as
to condemn ME!’
‘Why do you bring division between these two mad crea-
tures?’ she returned. ‘Don’t you know that they are both
mad with their own self-will and pride?’
‘Is it my doing?’ I returned.