Tell me, I beseech you?" "No," replied Blifil; "it is now past, and perhaps he may have repented of it." "I command you, on your duty," said Allworthy, "to tell me what you mean." "You know, sir," says Blifil, "I never disobeyed you; but I am sorry I mentioned it, since it may now look like revenge, whereas, I thank Heaven, no such motive ever entered my heart; and if you oblige me to discover it, I must be his
petitioner to you for your forgiveness." "I will have no conditions," answered Allworthy; "I think I have shown tenderness enough towards him, and more perhaps than you ought to thank me for." "More, indeed, I fear, than he deserved," cries Blifil; "for in the very day of your utmost danger, when myself and all the family were in tears, he filled the house with riot and debauchery.
The
petitioner, the widow of a staff captain Kalinin, came with a request impossible and unreasonable; but Stepan Arkadyevitch, as he generally did, made her sit down, heard her to the end attentively without interrupting her, and gave her detailed advice as to how and to whom to apply, and even wrote her, in his large, sprawling, good and legible hand, a confident and fluent little note to a personage who might be of use to her.
"No," replied the
petitioner, "I wish you to create something that would justify them."
"No ceremony between us, my dear monsieur le cardinal," said Louis kindly: "I am your pupil, and not the king, you know very well, and this evening in particular, as I come to you as a
petitioner, as a solicitor, and one very humble, and desirous to be kindly received, too."
"And once again listen, Jacques!" said the kneeling Number Three: his fingers ever wandering over and over those fine nerves, with a strikingly greedy air, as if he hungered for something--that was neither food nor drink; "the guard, horse and foot, surrounded the
petitioner, and struck him blows.
The Duke's face did not move; but he looked at his
petitioner with a glassy stare which was the most awful expression I have ever seen on a human face.
"I have brought a little
petitioner," he said, "or rather, I have brought him to see if he will be approved before his petition is offered." He showed the white object under his arm, which was a tiny Maltese puppy, one of nature's most naive toys.
Public prayers had been offered up for them, and many and many a private prayer that had the
petitioner's whole heart in it; but still no good news came from the cave.
In our condition of universal dependence it seems heroic to let the
petitioner be the judge of his necessity, and to give all that is asked, though at great inconvenience.
His face took on the stupid artificial smile (which does not even attempt to hide its artificiality) of a man who is continually receiving many
petitioners one after another.
"If this Bowelt is an honest man," his Highness continued, "he will give to the demand of these furibund
petitioners a very queer reception."
This done, the draft of the proposed petition was read at length: and the petition said, as all petitions DO say, that the
petitioners were very humble, and the petitioned very honourable, and the object very virtuous; therefore (said the petition) the bill ought to be passed into a law at once, to the everlasting honour and glory of that most honourable and glorious Commons of England in Parliament assembled.