Meanwhile he took the mutton off the gridiron, and gravely handed it round. We all took some, but our appreciation of it was gone, and we merely made a show of eating it. As we severally pushed away our plates, he noiselessly removed them, and set on the cheese. He took that off, too, when it was done with; cleared the table; piled everything on the dumbwaiter; gave us our wineglasses; and, of his own accord, wheeled the dumbwaiter into the pantry. All this was done in a perfect manner, and he never raised his eyes from what he was about. Yet his very elbows, when he had his back towards me, seemed to teem with the expression of his fixed opinion that I was extremely young.

“Can I do anything more, sir?”

I thanked him and said, No; but would he take no dinner himself?

“None, I am obliged to you, sir.”

“Is Mr. Steerforth coming from Oxford?”