bottle, a later will than the one he has proved, and under which he has entered upon possession of the estate. By this document, every thing is given to him absolutely, excluding and reviling the son by name. But, with rare disinterestedness and munificence, Mr. Boffin transfers the entire property to the rightful heir, reserving for him. self only the house occupied by his late master, which is popu larly called "Harmon's Jail," on account of his solitary manner cf life, or "Harmony Jail," on account of his never agreeing with anybody; but which Mrs. Boffin renames 'Boffin's Bower."

66

With respect to his personal appearance, Mr. Boffin is described

as

A broad, round-shouldered, one-sided old fellow . . . dressed in a pea overcoat, and carrying a large stick. He wore thick shoes, and thick leather gaiters, and thick gloves like a hedger's. Both as to his dress and to himself, he was of an overlapping, rhinoceros build, with folds in his cheeks, and his forehead, and his eyelids, and his lips, and his ears, but with bright, eager, childishlyinquiring gray eyes under his ragged eyebrows and broad-brimmed hat. A very odd-looking old fellow altogether.

These two ignorant and unpolished people [Mr. and Mrs. Boffin] had guided themselves... so far in their journey of life by a religious sense of duty and desire to do right. Ten thousand weaknesses and absurdities might have been detected in the breasts of both; ten thousand vanities additional, possi. bly, in the breast of the woman. But the hard, wrathful, and sordid nature that nad wrung as much work out of them as could be got in their best days for as little money as could be paid to hurry on their worst had never been so warped but that it knew their moral straightness, and respected it. In its own despite, in a constant conflict with itself and them, it had done so. And this is the eternal law. For evil often stops short at itself, and dies with the doer of it; but good never.

(Bk. I, ch. v, viii, ix, xv-xvii ; Bk. II, ch. vii, viii, x, xiv; Bk. III, ch. iv-vii, xiv, xv; Bk. IV, ch. ii, iii, xii-xiv, xvi.) See HARMON (JOHN), WEGG (SILAS).

Boots, Mr.
Brewer, Mr.

Fashionable toadies; friends of the Veneerings. (Bk. I, ch. ii, x; Bk. II, ch. iii, xvi; Bk. III, ch. xvii; Bk. IV, ch. xvi.)

Cherub, The. See WILFER, REGINALD.

Cleaver, Fanny, called JENNY Wren. A doll's dressmaker. Lizzie Hexam, after her father's death, has temporary lodgings with her; and one day her brother calls to see her.

The boy knocked at a door; and the door promptly opened with a spring and

a click. A parlor-door within a small entry stood open, and disclosed a child,

a dwarf, a girl, a something, sitting on a little low old-fashioned arm-chair, which had a kind of little working-bench before it.

- A1. Indeed?” said the person of the house. -I thought it might be. Your Water will be in in about a quarter of an hour. I am very fond of your sister. Boe's my parimar friend. Take a seat. And this gentleman's name ? ❤

- Mr. Headricone, my schoolmaster.”

-Take a seat. And would you please to shat the street-door first? I can't very well do it myseɗf, because my back is so bad, and my legs are so queer."

They complied in tƐence, and the little figure went on with its work of gamming or giving together with a camel's-hair brush certain pieces of cardboard and thin wood, previonaly ent into various shapes. The scissors and knives upon the bench showed that the child herself had it them; and the bright scraps of velvet and s..k and ribbon, also strewn upon the bench. showed that, when duly stuffed (and staffing too was there, she was to cover them smartly. The dexterity of her nimble fingers was remarkable; and, as she brought two thin edges accurately together by giving them a little bite, she would glance at the visitors, out of the corners of her gray eyes. with a look that outsharpened all her other sharp

You can't tell me the name of my trade, I 'll be bound," she said after taking several of these observations.

← You make pincushions," said Charley.

"What else do I make?"

“Penwipers," said Bradley Headstone.

"Ha, ha! What else do I make? You 're a schoolmaster; but you can't tell

You do something." he returned, pointing to a corner of the little bench "with straw; but I don't know what."

"Well done you!" cried the person of the house. "I only make pincushions and penwipers to use up my waste. But my straw really does belong to my business. Try again. What do I make with my straw?"

* Dinner-mats?"

"A schoolmaster, and says dinner-mats! I'll give you a clew to my trade in a gume of forfeits. I love my love with a B because she's beautiful; I hate my love with a B because she's brazen; I took her to the sign of the Blue Boar, and I treated her with bonnets; her name 's Bouncer, and she lives in Bedlam. Now, what do I make with my straw?"

Ladies' bonnets?"

"Fine ladies'," said the person of the house, nodding assent. "Dolls'. I'm a Joll's dressmaker."

"I hope it's a good business? "

The person of the house shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "No

Poorly paid. And I'm often so pressed for time! I had a doll married last week, and was obliged to work all night. And it's not good for me, on account of my back being so bad, and my legs so queer."

They looked at the little creature with a wonder that did not diminish; and the schoolmaster said, "I am sorry your fine ladies are so inconsiderate."

"It's the way with them," said the person of the house, shrugging her shoulders again. "And they take no care of their clothes; and they never keep to the same fashions a month. I work for a doll with three daughters. Bless you, she's enough to ruin her husband!"

The person of the house gave a weird little laugh here, and gave them another look out of the corners of her eyes. She had an elfin chin that was capable of great expression; and, whenever she gave this look, she hitched this chin up, as if her eyes and her chin worked together on the same wires.

"Are you always as busy as you are now?"

"Busier. I'm slack just now. I finished a large mourning order the day before yesterday. Doll I work for lost a canary-bird." The person of the house gave another little laugh, and then nodded her head several times, as who should moralize, "Oh, this world, this world!"

"Are you alone all day?" asked Bradley Headstone. boring children?"—

"Don't any of the neigh

"Ah, lud!” cried the person of the house with a little scream, as if the word had pricked her. "Don't talk of children. I can't bear children. I know their tricks and their manners." She said this with an angry little shake of her right

'ist close before her eyes.

Perhaps it scarcely required the teacher-habit to perceive that the doll's dressinaker was inclined to be bitter on the difference between herself and other children; but both master and pupil understood it so.

"Always running about and screeching, always playing and fighting, always skip-skip-skipping on the pavement, and chalking it for their games. Oh! I know their tricks and their manners!" Shaking the little fist as before. "And that's not all. Ever so often calling names in through a person's keyhole, and imitating a person's back and legs. Oh! I know their tricks and their manners; and I'll tell you what I'd do to punish 'em. There's doors under the church in the square,- black doors, leading into black vaults. Well, I'd open one of those doors, and I'd cram 'em all in, and then I'd lock the door, and through the keyhole I'd blow in pepper."

"What would be the good of blowing in pepper?" asked Charley Hexam.

"To set 'em sneezing," said the person of the house," and make their eyes water; and, when they were all sneezing and inflamed, I'd mock 'em through the keyhols, just as they, with their tricks and their manners, mock a person through a person's keyhole!"

An uncommonly emphatic shake of her little fist close before her eyes seemed to ease the mind of the person of the house; for she added with recovered composure, "No, no, no! No children for me. Give me grown ups."

It was difficult to guess the age of this strange creature; for her poor figure fur. nished no clew to it, and her face was at once so young and so old. Twelve, or, at the most, thirteen, migh.. be near the mark.

(Bk. II, ch. i, ii, v, xi, xv; Bk. III, ch. ii, iii, x, xii Bk. IV, ch. viii-xi, xv.)

Cleaver, Mr., called MR. DOLLS. Her father; a good workman at his trade, but a weak, wretched, trembling creature, falling to pieces, and never sober. (Bk. II, ch. ii; Bk. III, ch. x, xvii; Bk. IV, ch. viii, ix.)

Dolls, Mr. See CLEAVER, MR.

Fledgeby, Mr., called FASCINATION FLEDgeby. A dandified young man, who is a dolt in most matters, but sharp and light enough where money is concerned.

Young Fledgeby had a peachy cheek, or a cheek compounded of the peach. and the red red red wall on which it grows, and was an awkward, sandy-haired small-eyed youth, exceeding slim (his enemies would have said lanky), and prone to self-examination in the articles of whisker and mustache. While feeling for the whisker that he anxiously expected, Fledgeby underwent remarkable fluctuations of spirits, ranging along the whole scale from confidence to despair. There were times when he started, as exclaiming "By Jupiter, here it is at last!" There were other times when, being equally depressed, he would be seen to shake his head, and give up hope. To see him at those periods, leaning on a chimney-piece, like as on an urn containing the ashes of his ambition, with the cheek that would not sprout upon the hand on which that cheek had forced conviction, was a distressing sight. ...

In facetious homage to the smallness of his talk and the jerky nature of his manners, Fledgeby's familiars had agreed to confer upon him (behind his back) the honorary title of Fuscination Fledgeby.

He is an acquaintance of Mr. Lammle, who unsuccessfully endeavors to marry him to Miss Georgiana Podsnap, Fledgeby having given him his note for one thousand pounds in case he effects the arrangement. Fledgeby is a money-broker, and has an office, which is kept by an aged Jew in his service, and is known under the firm-name of Pubsey & Co.'s. Under the pretence of using his influence with Pubsey & Co., he often strolls into the counting-house with some unfortunate acquaintance, and pleads with the Jew for an extension on their overdue bills. The old man often watches his face for some sign of permission to do so, which is never given; yet Fledgeby habitually reviles him and his race for not granting the accommodation that he has himself forced him to deny. (Bk. II, ch. iv, v, xvi; Bk. III, ch. i, xii, xiii, xvii; Bk. IV ch. viii, ix, xvi.) See RIAH, Mr.

Glamour, Bob. A customer at the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters (Bk. I, ch. vi; Bk. III, ch. iii.)

Gliddery, Bob. Pot-boy at the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters (Bk. I, ch. vi, xiii; Bk. III, ch. iii.)

Golden Dustman, The. See BOFFIN, NICODEMUS.

Greenwich, Archbishop of. Head waiter at a hotel in Greenwich; a solemn gentleman in black clothes and white cravat, look. ing much like a clergyman. (Bk. IV, ch. iv.)

Gruff and Glum. An old wooden-legged pensioner at Greenwich. (Bk. IV, ch. iv.)

Handford, Julius. See HARMON, JOHN.

Harmon, John, alias JULIUS HANDFORD, alias JOHN ROKESMITH. Heir of the Harmon estate. On the death of his father, he returns to England from South Africa, where he has been living for a good many years. On his arrival, he is inveigled into a waterside inn by a pretended friend, named George Radfoot, with whom he has made the passage, and is drugged, robbed, and thrown into the Thames. This pretended friend had previously changed clothes with Harmon, at the request of the latter, who desired to avoid recognition until he had seen a certain young lady whom he is required by his father's will to marry. The would-be assassin falls into a quarrel with a confederate over the money obtained by the robbery, and is himself murdered, and thrown into the river. The cold water into which Harmon is plunged restores him to consciousness, and, swimming to the shore, he escapes. The body of his assailant is found by a boatman named Hexam, and is taken in charge by the authorities. The clothes and the papers on the body having been identified, it is supposed that the body itself is that of young Harmon, who, finding himself reported dead, resolves to take advantage of the circumstance to further his own plans, and assumes the name of JULIUS HANDFORD, which he afterwards changes to JOHN ROKESMITH. (Bk. I, ch. ii-iv, viii, ix, xv-xvii; Bk. II, ch. vii-x, xii-xiv; Bk. III, ch. iv, v, ix, xv, xvi; Bk. IV, ch. iv, v, xi-xiv, xvi.) See BoFFin, NICODEMUS.

Harmon, Mrs. John. See WILFER, MISS BELLA.

Headstone, Bradley. A master in a school in that district of the flat country tending to the Thames, where Kent and Surrey

meet.

Bradley Headstone, in his decent black coat and waistcoat, and decent white shirt, and decent, formal black tie, and decent pantaloons of pepper and salt, with his decent silver watch in his pocket, and its decent hair-guard round his neck, looked a thoroughly decent young man of six and twenty. He was never seen in any other dress; and yet there was a certain stiffness in his manner of wearing this, as it here were a want of adaptation between him and it, recalling some mechanics in their holiday clothes. He had acquired mechanically great store of teacher's knowledge. He could do mental arithmetic mechan ically, sing at sight mechanically blow var: us win l-instruments mechanically,