This chapter is dense with rich vocabulary, particularly noticeable while reading the following chapter. I would suggest this could be one of Dickens' tools to capture the mood of the story, in this case, there is a serious feeling of graveness and mystery. I recognized the term "laved" was similar to the Spanish "lavar" and searched for it with quickfind. This is the only occurrence of the word and its conjugations in the series while those for "wash" occur 30 times. To me this indicates to the reader that this action is very important. I also happened to notice that every time the word indolent is used, it follows some mention of Mortimer Lightfoot. It is often in connection to his buddy Eugene Wrayburn, but is used ironically by Riderhood in this chapter after a smug Wrayburn got the final word in a conversation.