Next day we went to London.  We found our old lodging vacant, and in half an hour were quietly established there, as if we had never gone away.  Mr. Woodcourt dined with us to celebrate my darling’s birthday, and we were as pleasant as we could be with the great blank among us that Richard’s absence naturally made on such an occasion.  After that day I was for some weeks—­eight or nine as I remember—­very much with Caddy, and thus it fell out that I saw less of Ada at this time than any other since we had first come together, except the time of my own illness.  She often came to Caddy’s, but our function there was to amuse and cheer her, and we did not talk in our usual confidential manner.  Whenever I went home at night we were together, but Caddy’s rest was broken by pain, and I often remained to nurse her.

With her husband and her poor little mite of a baby to love and their home to strive for, what a good creature Caddy was!  So self-denying, so uncomplaining, so anxious to get well on their account, so afraid of giving trouble, and so thoughtful of the unassisted labours of her husband and the comforts of old Mr. Turveydrop; I had never known the best of her until now.  And it seemed so curious that her pale face and helpless figure should be lying there day after day where dancing was the business of life, where the kit and the apprentices began early every morning in the ball-room, and where the untidy little boy waltzed by himself in the kitchen all the afternoon.

At Caddy’s request I took the supreme direction of her apartment, trimmed it up, and pushed her, couch and all, into a lighter and more airy and more cheerful corner than she had yet occupied; then, every day, when we were in our neatest array, I used to lay my small small namesake in her arms and sit down to chat or work or read to her.  It was at one of the first of these quiet times that I told Caddy about Bleak House.

We had other visitors besides Ada.  First of all we had Prince, who in his hurried intervals of teaching used to come softly in and sit softly down, with a face of loving anxiety for Caddy and the very little child.  Whatever Caddy’s condition really was, she never failed to declare to Prince that she was all but well—­which I, heaven forgive me, never failed to confirm.  This would put Prince in such good spirits that he would sometimes take the kit from his pocket and play a chord or two to astonish the baby, which I never knew it to do in the least degree, for my tiny namesake never noticed it at all.

Then there was Mrs. Jellyby.  She would come occasionally, with her usual distraught manner, and sit calmly looking miles beyond her grandchild as if her attention were absorbed by a young Borrioboolan on its native shores.  As bright-eyed as ever, as serene, and as untidy, she would say, “Well, Caddy, child, and how do you do to-day?” And then would sit amiably smiling and taking no notice of the reply or would sweetly glide off into a calculation of the number of letters she had lately received and answered or of the coffee-bearing power of Borrioboola-Gha.  This she would always do with a serene contempt for our limited sphere of action, not to be disguised.