Johannes Vermeer Girl with a Pearl Earring Painting
'It ain't bad,' said Mr. Barkis, who generally qualified his speech, and rarely committed himself. ¡¡¡¡'Peggotty is quite comfortable now, Mr. Barkis,' I remarked, for his satisfaction. ¡¡¡¡'Is she, though?' said Mr. Barkis. ¡¡¡¡After reflecting about it, with a sagacious air, Mr. Barkis eyed her, and said: ¡¡¡¡'ARE you pretty comfortable?' ¡¡¡¡Peggotty laughed, and answered in the affirmative. ¡¡¡¡'But really and truly, you know. Are you?' growled Mr. Barkis, sliding nearer to her on the seat, truly pretty comfortable? Are you? Eh?' At each of these inquiries Mr. Barkis shuffled nearer to her, and gave her another nudge; so that at last we were all crowded together in the left-hand corner of the cart, and I was so squeezed that I could hardly bear it. ¡¡¡¡Peggotty calling his attention to my sufferings, Mr. Barkis gave me a little more room at once, and got away by degrees. But I could not help observing that he seemed to think he had hit upon a wonderful expedient for expressing himself in a neat, agreeable, and pointed manner, without the inconvenience of inventing
