Talking of handkerchers--and talking of ladies--what a comfort you are to your blessed mother, ain't you, my dear boy, over one of my shoulders, and I don't say which!' Miss Mowcher untied her bonnet, at this passage of her discourse, threw back the strings, and sat down, panting, on a footstool in front of the fire--making a kind of arbour of the dining table, which spread its mahogany shelter above her head.
'Oh my stars and what's-their-names!' she went on, clapping a hand on each of her little knees, and glancing shrewdly at me, 'I'm of too full a habit, that's the fact, Steerforth.

After a flight of stairs, it gives me as much trouble to draw every breath I want, as if it was a bucket of water.

If you saw me looking out of an upper window, you'd think I was a fine woman, wouldn't you ?' 'I should think that, wherever I saw you,' replied Steerforth.
'Go along, you dog, do!' cried the little creature, making a whisk at him with the handkerchief with which she was wiping her face, 'and don't be impudent! But I give you my word and honour I was at Lady Mithers's last week--THERE'S a woman! How SHE wears!--and Mithers himself came into the room where I was waiting for her--THERE'S a man! How HE wears! and his wig too, for he's had it these ten years--and he went on at that rate in the complimentary line, that I began to think I should be obliged to ring the bell.

Ha! ha! ha! He's a pleasant wretch, but he wants principle.' 'What were you doing for Lady Mithers ?' asked Steerforth.
'That's tellings, my blessed infant,' she retorted, tapping her nose again, screwing up her face, and twinkling her eyes like an imp of supernatural intelligence.

'Never YOU mind! You'd like to know whether I stop her hair from falling off, or dye it, or touch up her complexion, or improve her eyebrows, wouldn't you?
And so you shall, my darling--when I tell you! Do you know what my great grandfather's name was ?' 'No,' said Steerforth.
'It was Walker, my sweet pet,' replied Miss Mowcher, 'and he came of a long line of Walkers, that I inherit all the Hookey estates from.' I never beheld anything approaching to Miss Mowcher's wink except Miss Mowcher's self-possession.