Our Mutual Friend | Page 6

of what he had in tow.
What he had in tow, lunged itself at him sometimes in an awful manner when the boat
was checked, and sometimes seemed to try to wrench itself away, though for the most
part it followed submissively. A neophyte might have fancied that the ripples passing
over it were dreadfully like faint changes of expression on a sightless face; but Gaffer
was no neophyte and had no fancies.


Chapter 2
THE MAN FROM SOMEWHERE
Mr and Mrs Veneering were bran-new people in a bran-new house in a bran-new quarter
of London. Everything about the Veneerings was spick and span new. All their furniture
was new, all their friends were new, all their servants were new, their plate was new, their
carriage was new, their harness was new, their horses were new, their pictures were new,
they themselves were new, they were as newly married as was lawfully compatible with
their having a bran-new baby, and if they had set up a great-grandfather, he would have
come home in matting from the Pantechnicon, without a scratch upon him, French
polished to the crown of his head.
For, in the Veneering establishment, from the hall-chairs with the new coat of arms, to
the grand pianoforte with the new action, and upstairs again to the new fire-escape, all
things were in a state of high varnish and polish. And what was observable in the
furniture, was observable in the Veneerings--the surface smelt a little too much of the
workshop and was a trifle sticky.
There was an innocent piece of dinner-furniture that went upon easy castors and was kept
over a livery stable-yard in Duke Street, Saint James's, when not in use, to whom the
Veneerings were a source of blind confusion. The name of this article was Twemlow.
Being first cousin to Lord Snigsworth, he was in frequent requisition, and at many houses
might be said to represent the dining-table in its normal state. Mr and Mrs Veneering, for
example, arranging a dinner, habitually started with Twemlow, and then put leaves in him,
or added guests to him. Sometimes, the table consisted of Twemlow and half a dozen

leaves; sometimes, of Twemlow and a dozen leaves; sometimes, Twemlow was pulled
out to his utmost extent of twenty leaves. Mr and Mrs Veneering on occasions of
ceremony faced each other in the centre of the board, and thus the parallel still held; for,
it always happened that the more Twemlow was pulled out, the further he found himself
from the center, and nearer to the sideboard at one end of the room, or the
window-curtains at the other.
But, it was not this which steeped the feeble soul of Twemlow in confusion. This he was
used to,and could take soundings of. The abyss to which he could find no bottom, and
from which started forth the engrossing and ever-swelling difficulty of his life, was the
insoluble question whether he was Veneering's oldest friend, or newest friend. To the
excogitation of this problem, the harmless gentleman had devoted many anxious hours,
both in his lodgings over the livery stable-yard, and in the cold gloom, favourable to
meditation, of Saint James's Square. Thus. Twemlow had first known Veneering at his
club, where Veneering then knew nobody but the man who made them known to one
another, who seemed to be the most intimate friend he had in the world, and whom he
had known two days--the bond of union between their souls, the nefarious conduct of the
committee respecting the cookery of a fillet of veal, having been accidentally cemented at
that date. Immediately upon this, Twemlow received an invitation to dine with Veneering,
and dined: the man being of the party. Immediately upon that, Twemlow received an
invitation to dine with the man, and dined: Veneering being of the party. At the man's
were a Member, an Engineer, a Payer-off of the National Debt, a Poem on Shakespeare, a
Grievance, and a Public Office, who all seem to be utter strangers to Veneering. And yet
immediately after that, Twemlow received an invitation to dine at Veneerings, expressly
to meet the Member, the Engineer, the Payer-off of the National Debt, the Poem on
Shakespeare, the Grievance, and the Public Office, and, dining, discovered that all of
them were the most intimate friends Veneering had in the world, and that the wives of all
of them (who were all there) were the objects of Mrs Veneering's most devoted affection
and tender confidence.
Thus it had come about, that Mr Twemlow had said to himself in his lodgings, with his
hand to his forehead: 'I must not think of this. This is enough to soften any man's
brain,'--and yet was always thinking of it, and could never form a conclusion.
This