On our way home, I so conciliated Peepy’s affections by buying him a windmill and two flour-sacks that he would suffer nobody else to take off his hat and gloves and would sit nowhere at dinner but at my side.  Caddy sat upon the other side of me, next to Ada, to whom we imparted the whole history of the engagement as soon as we got back.  We made much of Caddy, and Peepy too; and Caddy brightened exceedingly; and my guardian was as merry as we were; and we were all very happy indeed until Caddy went home at night in a hackney-coach, with Peepy fast asleep, but holding tight to the windmill.

I have forgotten to mention—­at least I have not mentioned—­that
Mr. Woodcourt was the same dark young surgeon whom we had met at
Mr. Badger’s.  Or that Mr. Jarndyce invited him to dinner that day. 
Or that he came.  Or that when they were all gone and I said to
Ada, “Now, my darling, let us have a little talk about Richard!”
Ada laughed and said—­

But I don’t think it matters what my darling said.  She was always merry.

CHAPTER XV

Bell Yard

While we were in London Mr. Jarndyce was constantly beset by the crowd of excitable ladies and gentlemen whose proceedings had so much astonished us.  Mr. Quale, who presented himself soon after our arrival, was in all such excitements.  He seemed to project those two shining knobs of temples of his into everything that went on and to brush his hair farther and farther back, until the very roots were almost ready to fly out of his head in inappeasable philanthropy.  All objects were alike to him, but he was always particularly ready for anything in the way of a testimonial to any one.  His great power seemed to be his power of indiscriminate admiration.  He would sit for any length of time, with the utmost enjoyment, bathing his temples in the light of any order of luminary.  Having first seen him perfectly swallowed up in admiration of Mrs. Jellyby, I had supposed her to be the absorbing object of his devotion.  I soon discovered my mistake and found him to be train-bearer and organ-blower to a whole procession of people.

Mrs. Pardiggle came one day for a subscription to something, and with her, Mr. Quale.  Whatever Mrs. Pardiggle said, Mr. Quale repeated to us; and just as he had drawn Mrs. Jellyby out, he drew Mrs. Pardiggle out.  Mrs. Pardiggle wrote a letter of introduction to my guardian in behalf of her eloquent friend Mr. Gusher.  With Mr. Gusher appeared Mr. Quale again.  Mr. Gusher, being a flabby gentleman with a moist surface and eyes so much too small for his moon of a face that they seemed to have been originally made for somebody else, was not at first sight prepossessing; yet he was scarcely seated before Mr. Quale asked Ada and me, not inaudibly, whether he was not a great creature—­which he certainly was, flabbily speaking, though Mr. Quale meant in intellectual beauty—­ and whether we were not struck by his massive configuration of brow.  In short, we heard of a great many missions of various sorts among this set of people, but nothing respecting them was half so clear to us as that it was Mr. Quale’s mission to be in ecstasies with everybody else’s mission and that it was the most popular mission of all.