He inclined his head to Richard and me and spoke to my guardian.

“Mr. Jarndyce, it is very kind of you to come to see me.  I am not long to be seen, I think.  I am very glad to take your hand, sir.  You are a good man, superior to injustice, and God knows I honour you.”

They shook hands earnestly, and my guardian said some words of comfort to him.

“It may seem strange to you, sir,” returned Gridley; “I should not have liked to see you if this had been the first time of our meeting.  But you know I made a fight for it, you know I stood up with my single hand against them all, you know I told them the truth to the last, and told them what they were, and what they had done to me; so I don’t mind your seeing me, this wreck.”

“You have been courageous with them many and many a time,” returned my guardian.

“Sir, I have been,” with a faint smile.  “I told you what would come of it when I ceased to be so, and see here!  Look at us—­look at us!” He drew the hand Miss Flite held through her arm and brought her something nearer to him.

“This ends it.  Of all my old associations, of all my old pursuits and hopes, of all the living and the dead world, this one poor soul alone comes natural to me, and I am fit for.  There is a tie of many suffering years between us two, and it is the only tie I ever had on earth that Chancery has not broken.”

“Accept my blessing, Gridley,” said Miss Flite in tears.  “Accept my blessing!”

“I thought, boastfully, that they never could break my heart, Mr. Jarndyce.  I was resolved that they should not.  I did believe that I could, and would, charge them with being the mockery they were until I died of some bodily disorder.  But I am worn out.  How long I have been wearing out, I don’t know; I seemed to break down in an hour.  I hope they may never come to hear of it.  I hope everybody here will lead them to believe that I died defying them, consistently and perseveringly, as I did through so many years.”

Here Mr. Bucket, who was sitting in a corner by the door, good-naturedly offered such consolation as he could administer.

“Come, come!” he said from his corner.  “Don’t go on in that way, Mr. Gridley.  You are only a little low.  We are all of us a little low sometimes.  I am.  Hold up, hold up!  You’ll lose your temper with the whole round of ’em, again and again; and I shall take you on a score of warrants yet, if I have luck.”

He only shook his head.

“Don’t shake your head,” said Mr. Bucket.  “Nod it; that’s what I want to see you do.  Why, Lord bless your soul, what times we have had together!  Haven’t I seen you in the Fleet over and over again for contempt?  Haven’t I come into court, twenty afternoons for no other purpose than to see you pin the Chancellor like a bull-dog?  Don’t you remember when you first began to threaten the lawyers, and the peace was sworn against you two or three times a week?  Ask the little old lady there; she has been always present.  Hold up, Mr. Gridley, hold up, sir!”