Whosoever had gone out of Fleet Street into the Temple at the date of this history, and had wandered disconsolate¹ about the Temple until he stumbled on a dismal² churchyard, and had looked up at the dismal windows commanding that churchyard until at the most dismal window of them all he saw a dismal boy, would in him have beheld³, at one grand comprehensive swoop⁴ of the eye, the managing clerk, junior clerk, common-law clerk, conveyancing clerk, chancery clerk, every refinement⁵ and department of clerk, of Mr Mortimer Lightwood, erewhile called in the newspapers eminent⁶ solicitor⁷.

Mr Boffin having been several times in communication with this clerkly essence, both on its own ground and at the Bower⁸, had no difficulty in identifying it when he saw it up in its dusty eyrie. To the second floor on which the window was situated⁹, he ascended¹⁰, much pre-occupied in mind by the uncertainties¹¹ besetting¹³ the Roman Empire, and much regretting the death of the amiable¹⁴ Pertinax: who only last night had left the Imperial affairs in a state of great confusion, by falling a victim to the fury of the praetorian guards.

分享到：