Head of Christ

again to have another laugh and another cry upon my shoulder. At last, to make the matter easier, I went upstairs with her; and having waited outside for a minute, while she said a word of preparation to Mr. Barkis, presented myself before that invalid. ¡¡¡¡He received me with absolute enthusiasm. He was too rheumatic to be shaken hands with, but he begged me to shake the tassel on the top of his nightcap, which I did most cordially.
When I sat down by the side of the bed, he said that it did him a world of good to feel as if he was driving me on the Blunderstone road again. As he lay in bed, face upward, and so covered, with that exception, that he seemed to be nothing but a face - like a conventional cherubim - he looked the queerest object I ever beheld. ¡¡¡¡'What name was it, as I wrote up in the cart, sir?' said Mr. Barkis, with a slow rheumatic smile. ¡¡¡¡'Ah! Mr. Barkis, we had some grave talks about that matter, hadn't we?'