The New York Public Library, Berg Collection of
English and American Literature
"Attorney and Client, Fortitude and Impatience."
This original pencil drawing by "Phiz" of a scene in Chapter 39 of Bleak House places the imperturbable Mr. Vholes, the attorney, opposite his frustrated client, Richard Carstone. Dickens writes:
Mr. Vholes, quiet and unmoved, as a man of so much respectability ought to be, takes off his close black gloves as if he were skinning his hands, lifts off his tight hat as if he were scalping himself, and sits down at his desk. The client throws his hat and gloves upon the ground--tosses them anywhere, without looking after them or caring where they go; flings himself into a chair, half sighing and half groaning; rests his aching head upon his hand, and looks the portrait of Young Despair.