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'You needn't explain, Edmund,' said Fanny.

'No, my love,' said Mr Sparkler.

'In short, pet,' proceeded Fanny, 'on the whole, we are engaged. We

must tell papa about it either to-night or to-morrow, according to the

opportunities. Then it's done, and very little more need be said.'

'My dear Fanny,' said Mr Sparkler, with deference, 'I should like to say

a word to Amy.'

'Well, well! Say it for goodness' sake,' returned the young lady.

'I am convinced, my dear Amy,' said Mr Sparkler, 'that if ever there

was a girl, next to your highly endowed and beautiful sister, who had no

nonsense about her--'

'We know all about that, Edmund,' interposed Miss Fanny. 'Never mind

that. Pray go on to something else besides our having no nonsense about

us.'

'Yes, my love,' said Mr Sparkler. 'And I assure you, Amy, that nothing

can be a greater happiness to myself, myself--next to the happiness of

being so highly honoured with the choice of a glorious girl who hasn't

an atom of--'

'Pray, Edmund, pray!' interrupted Fanny, with a slight pat of her pretty

foot upon the floor.

'My love, you're quite right,' said Mr Sparkler, 'and I know I have a

habit of it. What I wished to declare was, that nothing can be a greater

happiness to myself, myself-next to the happiness of being united to

pre-eminently the most glorious of girls--than to have the happiness

of cultivating the affectionate acquaintance of Amy. I may not myself,'

said Mr Sparkler manfully, 'be up to the mark on some other subjects

at a short notice, and I am aware that if you were to poll Society the

general opinion would be that I am not; but on the subject of Amy I am

up to the mark!'

Mr Sparkler kissed her, in witness thereof.

'A knife and fork and an apartment,' proceeded Mr Sparkler, growing, in

comparison with his oratorical antecedents, quite diffuse, 'will ever

be at Amy's disposal. My Governor, I am sure, will always be proud to

entertain one whom I so much esteem. And regarding my mother,' said Mr

Sparkler, 'who is a remarkably fine woman, with--'

'Edmund, Edmund!' cried Miss Fanny, as before.

'With submission, my soul,' pleaded Mr Sparkler. 'I know I have a habit

of it, and I thank you very much, my adorable girl, for taking the

trouble to correct it; but my mother is admitted on all sides to be a

remarkably fine woman, and she really hasn't any.'

'That may be, or may not be,' returned Fanny, 'but pray don't mention it

any more.'

'I will not, my love,' said Mr Sparkler.

'Then, in fact, you have nothing more to say, Edmund; have you?'

inquired Fanny.

'So far from it, my adorable girl,' answered Mr Sparkler, 'I apologise

for having said so much.'

Mr Sparkler perceived, by a kind of inspiration, that the question

implied had he not better go? He therefore withdrew the fraternal

railing, and neatly said that he thought he would, with submission, take

his leave. He did not go without being congratulated by Amy, as well

as she could discharge that office in the flutter and distress of her

spirits.

When he was gone, she said, 'O Fanny, Fanny!' and turned to her sister

in the bright window, and fell upon her bosom and cried there. Fanny

laughed at first; but soon laid her face against her sister's and cried

too--a little. It was the last time Fanny ever showed that there was any

hidden, suppressed, or conquered feeling in her on the matter. From that

hour the way she had chosen lay before her, and she trod it with her own

imperious self-willed step.

CHAPTER 15. No just Cause or Impediment why these Two Persons

should not be joined together

Mr Dorrit, on being informed by his elder daughter that she had accepted

matrimonial overtures from Mr Sparkler, to whom she had plighted her

troth, received the communication at once with great dignity and with a

large display of parental pride; his dignity dilating with the widened

prospect of advantageous ground from which to make acquaintances, and

his parental pride being developed by Miss Fanny's ready sympathy with

that great object of his existence. He gave her to understand that her

noble ambition found harmonious echoes in his heart; and bestowed

his blessing on her, as a child brimful of duty and good principle,

self-devoted to the aggrandisement of the family name.

To Mr Sparkler, when Miss Fanny permitted him to appear, Mr Dorrit said,

he would not disguise that the alliance Mr Sparkler did him the honour

to propose was highly congenial to his feelings; both as being in unison

with the spontaneous affections of his daughter Fanny, and as opening

a family connection of a gratifying nature with Mr Merdle, the

master spirit of the age. Mrs Merdle also, as a leading lady rich in

distinction, elegance, grace, and beauty, he mentioned in very laudatory

terms. He felt it his duty to remark (he was sure a gentleman of Mr

Sparkler's fine sense would interpret him with all delicacy), that he

could not consider this proposal definitely determined on, until he

should have had the privilege of holding some correspondence with Mr

Merdle; and of ascertaining it to be so far accordant with the views

of that eminent gentleman as that his (Mr Dorrit's) daughter would be

received on that footing which her station in life and her dowry and

expectations warranted him in requiring that she should maintain in

what he trusted he might be allowed, without the appearance of being

mercenary, to call the Eye of the Great World. While saying this, which

his character as a gentleman of some little station, and his character

as a father, equally demanded of him, he would not be so diplomatic

as to conceal that the proposal remained in hopeful abeyance and

under conditional acceptance, and that he thanked Mr Sparkler for the

compliment rendered to himself and to his family. He concluded with

some further and more general observations on the--ha--character of an

independent gentleman, and the--hum--character of a possibly too

partial and admiring parent. To sum the whole up shortly, he received

Mr Sparkler's offer very much as he would have received three or four

half-crowns from him in the days that were gone.

Mr Sparkler, finding himself stunned by the words thus heaped upon his

inoffensive head, made a brief though pertinent rejoinder; the same

being neither more nor less than that he had long perceived Miss Fanny

to have no nonsense about her, and that he had no doubt of its being all

right with his Governor. At that point the object of his affections shut

him up like a box with a spring lid, and sent him away.

Proceeding shortly afterwards to pay his respects to the Bosom, Mr

Dorrit was received by it with great consideration. Mrs Merdle had heard

of this affair from Edmund. She had been surprised at first, because she

had not thought Edmund a marrying man. Society had not thought Edmund

a marrying man. Still, of course she had seen, as a woman (we women

did instinctively see these things, Mr Dorrit!), that Edmund had been

immensely captivated by Miss Dorrit, and she had openly said that Mr

Dorrit had much to answer for in bringing so charming a girl abroad to

turn the heads of his countrymen.

'Have I the honour to conclude, madam,' said Mr Dorrit, 'that the

direction which Mr Sparkler's affections have taken, is--ha-approved of

by you?'

'I assure you, Mr Dorrit,' returned the lady, 'that, personally, I am

charmed.'

That was very gratifying to Mr Dorrit.

'Personally,' repeated Mrs Merdle, 'charmed.'

This casual repetition of the word 'personally,' moved Mr Dorrit to

express his hope that Mr Merdle's approval, too, would not be wanting?

'I cannot,' said Mrs Merdle, 'take upon myself to answer positively for

Mr Merdle; gentlemen, especially gentlemen who are what Society calls

capitalists, having their own ideas of these matters. But I should

think--merely giving an opinion, Mr Dorrit--I should think Mr Merdle

would be upon the whole,' here she held a review of herself before

adding at her leisure, 'quite charmed.'

At the mention of gentlemen whom Society called capitalists, Mr Dorrit

had coughed, as if some internal demur were breaking out of him. Mrs

Merdle had observed it, and went on to take up the cue.

'Though, indeed, Mr Dorrit, it is scarcely necessary for me to make that

remark, except in the mere openness of saying what is uppermost to one

whom I so highly regard, and with whom I hope I may have the pleasure

of being brought into still more agreeable relations. For one cannot

but see the great probability of your considering such things from Mr

Merdle's own point of view, except indeed that circumstances have made

it Mr Merdle's accidental fortune, or misfortune, to be engaged in

business transactions, and that they, however vast, may a little cramp

his horizons. I am a very child as to having any notion of business,'

said Mrs Merdle; 'but I am afraid, Mr Dorrit, it may have that

tendency.'

This skilful see-saw of Mr Dorrit and Mrs Merdle, so that each of them

sent the other up, and each of them sent the other down, and neither

had the advantage, acted as a sedative on Mr Dorrit's cough. He remarked

with his utmost politeness, that he must beg to protest against its

being supposed, even by Mrs Merdle, the accomplished and graceful

(to which compliment she bent herself), that such enterprises as Mr

Merdle's, apart as they were from the puny undertakings of the rest of

men, had any lower tendency than to enlarge and expand the genius in

which they were conceived. 'You are generosity itself,' said Mrs Merdle

in return, smiling her best smile; 'let us hope so. But I confess I am

almost superstitious in my ideas about business.'

Mr Dorrit threw in another compliment here, to the effect that business,

like the time which was precious in it, was made for slaves; and that it

was not for Mrs Merdle, who ruled all hearts at her supreme pleasure,

to have anything to do with it. Mrs Merdle laughed, and conveyed to

Mr Dorrit an idea that the Bosom flushed--which was one of her best

effects.

'I say so much,' she then explained, 'merely because Mr Merdle has

always taken the greatest interest in Edmund, and has always expressed

the strongest desire to advance his prospects. Edmund's public position,

I think you know. His private position rests solely with Mr Merdle. In

my foolish incapacity for business, I assure you I know no more.'

Mr Dorrit again expressed, in his own way, the sentiment that business

was below the ken of enslavers and enchantresses. He then mentioned his

intention, as a gentleman and a parent, of writing to Mr Merdle. Mrs

Merdle concurred with all her heart--or with all her art, which was

exactly the same thing--and herself despatched a preparatory letter by

the next post to the eighth wonder of the world.

In his epistolary communication, as in his dialogues and discourses on

the great question to which it related, Mr Dorrit surrounded the

subject with flourishes, as writing-masters embellish copy-books and

ciphering-books: where the titles of the elementary rules of

arithmetic diverge into swans, eagles, griffins, and other calligraphic

recreations, and where the capital letters go out of their minds and

bodies into ecstasies of pen and ink. Nevertheless, he did render the

purport of his letter sufficiently clear, to enable Mr Merdle to make a

decent pretence of having learnt it from that source. Mr Merdle replied

to it accordingly. Mr Dorrit replied to Mr Merdle; Mr Merdle replied to

Mr Dorrit; and it was soon announced that the corresponding powers had

come to a satisfactory understanding.

Now, and not before, Miss Fanny burst upon the scene, completely arrayed

for her new part. Now and not before, she wholly absorbed Mr Sparkler in

her light, and shone for both, and twenty more. No longer feeling that

want of a defined place and character which had caused her so much

trouble, this fair ship began to steer steadily on a shaped course, and

to swim with a weight and balance that developed her sailing qualities.

'The preliminaries being so satisfactorily arranged, I think I will now,

my dear,' said Mr Dorrit, 'announce--ha--formally, to Mrs General--'

'Papa,' returned Fanny, taking him up short upon that name, 'I don't see

what Mrs General has got to do with it.'

'My dear,' said Mr Dorrit, 'it will be an act of courtesy to--hum--a

lady, well bred and refined--'

'Oh! I am sick of Mrs General's good breeding and refinement, papa,'

said Fanny. 'I am tired of Mrs General.'

'Tired,' repeated Mr Dorrit in reproachful astonishment, 'of--ha--Mrs

General.'

'Quite disgusted with her, papa,' said Fanny. 'I really don't see what

she has to do with my marriage. Let her keep to her own matrimonial

projects--if she has any.'

'Fanny,' returned Mr Dorrit, with a grave and weighty slowness upon him,

contrasting strongly with his daughter's levity: 'I beg the favour of

your explaining--ha--what it is you mean.' 'I mean, papa,' said Fanny,

'that if Mrs General should happen to have any matrimonial projects of

her own, I dare say they are quite enough to occupy her spare time. And

that if she has not, so much the better; but still I don't wish to have

the honour of making announcements to her.'

'Permit me to ask you, Fanny,' said Mr Dorrit, 'why not?'

'Because she can find my engagement out for herself, papa,' retorted

Fanny. 'She is watchful enough, I dare say. I think I have seen her

so. Let her find it out for herself. If she should not find it out for