somebody out of the Bible, as it might be one of the disciples.

I got to know him well afterwards, and he was the best man that ever
trod shoe-leather.

We all went up together to Charleston Farm, and in through the back,
without knocking, and so to the parlour door. We knew she was
sitting in the parlour, because the red firelight fell out through
the window, and made a bright patch that we see before we see the
house itself properly; and we went, as I say, quietly in through the
back; and in the kitchen I said, 'Oh, let me tell her, for what she
said to me.'

And I was sorry the minute I'd said it, when I see the way that
clergyman from London looked at me; and we all went up to the
parlour door, and Harry opened it as was his right.

There was Mrs. Blake sitting in front of the fire. She had got on
her widow's mourning, very smart and complete, with black crape, and
her white cap; and she'd got the front of her dress folded back very
neat on her lap, and was toasting her legs, in her black-and-red
checked petticoat, and her feet in cashmere house-boots, very warm
and cosy, on the brass fender; and she had got port wine and sherry
wine in the two decanters that was never out of the glass-fronted
chiffonier when master was alive; and there was something else in a
black bottle; and opposite her, in the best arm-chair that old
master had sat in to the last, was that lawyer, Sigglesfield from
Lewes. And when we all came in, one after another, rather slow, and
bringing the cold air with us, they sat in their chairs as if they
had been struck, and looked at us.