Pending which operation, and his morning ablutions, and his anointing of himself with the last infallible preparation for the production of luxuriant and glossy hair upon the human countenance (quacks being the only sages he believed in besides usurers), the murky fog closed about him and shut him up in its
sooty embrace.
Unfortunately the morning was drizzly, and an angel could not have concealed the fact that Barnard was shedding
sooty tears outside the window, like some weak giant of a Sweep.
And hardly had the carriage turned the corner and rattled into the high road with this inexplicable pair, than the whistle broke forth - prolonged, and low and tremulous; and the groom, already so far relieved, vented the rest of his surprise in one simple English word, friendly to the mouth of Jack-tar and the
sooty pitman, and hurried to spread the news round the servants' hall of Naseby House.
By the engine stood a dark motionless being, a
sooty and grimy embodiment of tallness, in a sort of trance, with a heap of coals by his side: it was the engineman.
But in the city where the painted stucco blisters under the smoky sun, and the
sooty rain brings slush and mud, and the snow lies piled in dirty heaps, and the chill blasts whistle down dingy streets and shriek round flaring gas lit corners, no face of Nature charms us.
They are very sinewy and strong, are Rouncewell's hands--a little
sooty too.
What similarity was perceivable in the
sooty London lodging-house to remind me of the bailiff's flower-scented cottage by the shores of the lake?
And into what a heaven--a vault as of hell,
sooty black, from which soots descended!
It passes all imagination!--Nobody under the bed, nobody behind the furniture!--All that we discovered were traces, blood-stained marks of a man's large hand on the walls and on the door; a big handkerchief red with blood, without any initials, an old cap, and many fresh footmarks of a man on the floor,--footmarks of a man with large feet whose boot-soles had left a sort of
sooty impression.
Sooty, who is six or seven, is an indoor cat who would love a nice quiet corner near the window with a comfy bed so he can watch the world go by.
To mark his birthday last summer, there was a special live performance OFTHE
Sooty Show with all proceeds from the performance going to the local hospice Donna's Dreamhouse, NHS Teaching Hospital Blackpool and
Sooty's long-standing charity partner,The Royal National Institute of Blind People.
The children's favourite, who celebrated his 70th birthday last year, will be joined by Sweep and Soo for the
Sooty's Magic Show tour, which kicks off next month.