nap in the great
arm-chair, and a quiet chat with Mrs Varden on everything that had
happened, was happening, or about to happen, within the sphere of their
domestic concern; the locksmith sat himself down at the tea-table in
the little back-parlour: the rosiest, cosiest, merriest, heartiest,
best-contented old buck, in Great Britain or out of it.

There he sat, with his beaming eye on Mrs V., and his shining face
suffused with gladness, and his capacious waistcoat smiling in every
wrinkle, and his jovial humour peeping from under the table in the very
plumpness of his legs; a sight to turn the vinegar of misanthropy into
purest milk of human kindness. There he sat, watching his wife as she
decorated the room with flowers for the greater honour of Dolly and
Joseph Willet, who had gone out walking, and for whom the tea-kettle
had been singing gaily on the hob full twenty minutes, chirping as
never kettle chirped before; for whom the best service of real undoubted
china, patterned with divers round-faced mandarins holding up broad
umbrellas, was now displayed in all its glory; to tempt whose
appetites a clear, transparent, juicy ham, garnished with cool green
lettuce-leaves and fragrant cucumber, reposed upon a shady table,
covered with a snow-white cloth; for whose delight, preserves and jams,
crisp cakes and other pastry, short to eat, with cunning twists, and
cottage loaves, and rolls of bread both white and brown, were all set
forth in rich profusion; in whose youth Mrs V. herself had grown quite
young, and stood there in a gown of red and white: symmetrical in
figure, buxom in bodice, ruddy in cheek and lip, faultless in ankle,
laughing in face and mood, in all respects delicious to behold--there
sat the locksmith among all and every these delights, the sun that shone
upon them all: the centre of the system: the source of light, heat,
life, and frank enjoyment in the bright household world.

And when had Dolly ever been the Dolly of that afternoon? To see how she
came in, arm-in-arm with Joe; and how she made an effort not to blush or
seem at all confused; and how she made believe she didn't care to sit on
his side of the table; and how she coaxed the locksmith in a whisper not
to joke; and how her colour came and went in a little restless flutter
of happiness, which made her do everything wrong, and yet so charmingly
wrong that it was better than right!--why, the locksmith could have
looked on at this (as he mentio