will. Yes, Sydney, I have had enough of this style of life, with no
other as a change from it; I feel that it is a pleasant thing for a man
to have a home when he feels inclined to go to it (when he doesn’t,
he can stay away), and I feel that Miss Manette will tell well in any
station, and will always do me credit. So I have made up my mind.
And now, Sydney, old boy, I want to say a word to you about your
prospects. You are in a bad way, you know; you really are in a bad
way. You don’t know the value of money, you live hard, you’ll
knock up one of these days, and be ill and poor; you really ought to
think about a nurse.”
The prosperous patronage with which he said it, made him look
twice as big as he was, and four times as offensive.
“Now let me recommend you,” pursued Stryver, “to look it in
the face. I have looked it in the face, in my different way; look it in
the face, you, in your different way. Marry. Provide somebody to
take care of you. Never mind your having no enjoyment of
woman’s society, nor understanding of it, nor tact for it. Find out
somebody. Find out some respectable woman with a little
propertysomebody in the landlady way, or lodging-letting way
and marry her, against a rainy day. That’s the kind of thing for
you. Now think of it, Sydney.”
“I’ll think of it,” said Sydney.
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
Chapter XVIII
THE FELLOW OF DELICACY
madeMr. Stryver having up his mind to that
magnanimous bestowal of good fortune on the Doctor’s
daughter, resolved to make her happiness known to her
before he left town for the Long Vacation. After some mental