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'My dear,' said Mr Sparkler. 'I don't think it need keep you at

home.' 'Edmund, you ridiculous creature,' returned Fanny, with great

indignation; 'do you suppose that a woman in the bloom of youth and not

wholly devoid of personal attractions, can put herself, at such a

time, in competition as to figure with a woman in every other way her

inferior? If you do suppose such a thing, your folly is boundless.'

Mr Sparkler submitted that he had thought 'it might be got over.' 'Got

over!' repeated Fanny, with immeasurable scorn.

'For a time,' Mr Sparkler submitted.

Honouring the last feeble suggestion with no notice, Mrs Sparkler

declared with bitterness that it really was too bad, and that positively

it was enough to make one wish one was dead!

'However,' she said, when she had in some measure recovered from her

sense of personal ill-usage; 'provoking as it is, and cruel as it seems,

I suppose it must be submitted to.'

'Especially as it was to be expected,' said Mr Sparkler.

'Edmund,' returned his wife, 'if you have nothing more becoming to do

than to attempt to insult the woman who has honoured you with her hand,

when she finds herself in adversity, I think YOU had better go to bed!'

Mr Sparkler was much afflicted by the charge, and offered a most

tender and earnest apology. His apology was accepted; but Mrs Sparkler

requested him to go round to the other side of the sofa and sit in the

window-curtain, to tone himself down.

'Now, Edmund,' she said, stretching out her fan, and touching him with

it at arm's length, 'what I was going to say to you when you began as

usual to prose and worry, is, that I shall guard against our being alone

any more, and that when circumstances prevent my going out to my own

satisfaction, I must arrange to have some people or other always here;

for I really cannot, and will not, have another such day as this has

been.'

Mr Sparkler's sentiments as to the plan were, in brief, that it had no

nonsense about it. He added, 'And besides, you know it's likely that

you'll soon have your sister--'

'Dearest Amy, yes!' cried Mrs Sparkler with a sigh of affection.

'Darling little thing! Not, however, that Amy would do here alone.'

Mr Sparkler was going to say 'No?' interrogatively, but he saw his

danger and said it assentingly, 'No, Oh dear no; she wouldn't do here

alone.'

'No, Edmund. For not only are the virtues of the precious child of that

still character that they require a contrast--require life and movement

around them to bring them out in their right colours and make one love

them of all things; but she will require to be roused, on more accounts

than one.'

'That's it,' said Mr Sparkler. 'Roused.'

'Pray don't, Edmund! Your habit of interrupting without having the least

thing in the world to say, distracts one. You must be broken of it.

Speaking of Amy;--my poor little pet was devotedly attached to poor

papa, and no doubt will have lamented his loss exceedingly, and grieved

very much. I have done so myself. I have felt it dreadfully. But Amy

will no doubt have felt it even more, from having been on the spot the

whole time, and having been with poor dear papa at the last; which I

unhappily was not.'

Here Fanny stopped to weep, and to say, 'Dear, dear, beloved papa! How

truly gentlemanly he was! What a contrast to poor uncle!'

'From the effects of that trying time,' she pursued, 'my good little

Mouse will have to be roused. Also, from the effects of this long

attendance upon Edward in his illness; an attendance which is not

yet over, which may even go on for some time longer, and which in the

meanwhile unsettles us all by keeping poor dear papa's affairs from

being wound up. Fortunately, however, the papers with his agents

here being all sealed up and locked up, as he left them when he

providentially came to England, the affairs are in that state of order

that they can wait until my brother Edward recovers his health in

Sicily, sufficiently to come over, and administer, or execute, or

whatever it may be that will have to be done.'

'He couldn't have a better nurse to bring him round,' Mr Sparkler made

bold to opine.

'For a wonder, I can agree with you,' returned his wife, languidly

turning her eyelids a little in his direction (she held forth, in

general, as if to the drawing-room furniture), 'and can adopt your

words. He couldn't have a better nurse to bring him round. There are

times when my dear child is a little wearing to an active mind; but, as

a nurse, she is Perfection. Best of Amys!'

Mr Sparkler, growing rash on his late success, observed that Edward had

had, biggodd, a long bout of it, my dear girl.

'If Bout, Edmund,' returned Mrs Sparkler, 'is the slang term for

indisposition, he has. If it is not, I am unable to give an opinion

on the barbarous language you address to Edward's sister. That he

contracted Malaria Fever somewhere, either by travelling day and night

to Rome, where, after all, he arrived too late to see poor dear papa

before his death--or under some other unwholesome circumstances--is

indubitable, if that is what you mean. Likewise that his extremely

careless life has made him a very bad subject for it indeed.'

Mr Sparkler considered it a parallel case to that of some of our fellows

in the West Indies with Yellow Jack. Mrs Sparkler closed her eyes again,

and refused to have any consciousness of our fellows of the West Indies,

or of Yellow Jack.

'So, Amy,' she pursued, when she reopened her eyelids, 'will require

to be roused from the effects of many tedious and anxious weeks. And

lastly, she will require to be roused from a low tendency which I know

very well to be at the bottom of her heart. Don't ask me what it is,

Edmund, because I must decline to tell you.'

'I am not going to, my dear,' said Mr Sparkler.

'I shall thus have much improvement to effect in my sweet child,' Mrs

Sparkler continued, 'and cannot have her near me too soon. Amiable and

dear little Twoshoes! As to the settlement of poor papa's affairs, my

interest in that is not very selfish. Papa behaved very generously to me

when I was married, and I have little or nothing to expect. Provided

he had made no will that can come into force, leaving a legacy to Mrs

General, I am contented. Dear papa, dear papa.'

She wept again, but Mrs General was the best of restoratives. The name

soon stimulated her to dry her eyes and say:

'It is a highly encouraging circumstance in Edward's illness, I am

thankful to think, and gives one the greatest confidence in his sense

not being impaired, or his proper spirit weakened--down to the time

of poor dear papa's death at all events--that he paid off Mrs General

instantly, and sent her out of the house. I applaud him for it. I could

forgive him a great deal for doing, with such promptitude, so exactly

what I would have done myself!'

Mrs Sparkler was in the full glow of her gratification, when a double

knock was heard at the door. A very odd knock. Low, as if to avoid

making a noise and attracting attention. Long, as if the person knocking

were preoccupied in mind, and forgot to leave off.

'Halloa!' said Mr Sparkler. 'Who's this?'

'Not Amy and Edward without notice and without a carriage!' said Mrs

Sparkler. 'Look out.'

The room was dark, but the street was lighter, because of its lamps. Mr

Sparkler's head peeping over the balcony looked so very bulky and heavy

that it seemed on the point of overbalancing him and flattening the

unknown below.

'It's one fellow,' said Mr Sparkler. 'I can't see who--stop though!' On

this second thought he went out into the balcony again and had another

look. He came back as the door was opened, and announced that he

believed he had identified 'his governor's tile.' He was not mistaken,

for his governor, with his tile in his hand, was introduced immediately

afterwards.

'Candles!' said Mrs Sparkler, with a word of excuse for the darkness.

'It's light enough for me,' said Mr Merdle.

When the candles were brought in, Mr Merdle was discovered standing

behind the door, picking his lips. 'I thought I'd give you a call,' he

said. 'I am rather particularly occupied just now; and, as I happened to

be out for a stroll, I thought I'd give you a call.'

As he was in dinner dress, Fanny asked him where he had been dining?

'Well,' said Mr Merdle, 'I haven't been dining anywhere, particularly.'

'Of course you have dined?' said Fanny.

'Why--no, I haven't exactly dined,' said Mr Merdle.

He had passed his hand over his yellow forehead and considered, as if he

were not sure about it. Something to eat was proposed. 'No, thank you,'

said Mr Merdle, 'I don't feel inclined for it. I was to have dined out

along with Mrs Merdle. But as I didn't feel inclined for dinner, I let

Mrs Merdle go by herself just as we were getting into the carriage, and

thought I'd take a stroll instead.'

Would he have tea or coffee? 'No, thank you,' said Mr Merdle. 'I looked

in at the Club, and got a bottle of wine.'

At this period of his visit, Mr Merdle took the chair which Edmund

Sparkler had offered him, and which he had hitherto been pushing slowly

about before him, like a dull man with a pair of skates on for the first

time, who could not make up his mind to start. He now put his hat upon

another chair beside him, and, looking down into it as if it were some

twenty feet deep, said again: 'You see I thought I'd give you a call.'

'Flattering to us,' said Fanny, 'for you are not a calling man.'

'No--no,' returned Mr Merdle, who was by this time taking himself into

custody under both coat-sleeves. 'No, I am not a calling man.'

'You have too much to do for that,' said Fanny. 'Having so much to do,

Mr Merdle, loss of appetite is a serious thing with you, and you must

have it seen to. You must not be ill.' 'Oh! I am very well,' replied Mr

Merdle, after deliberating about it. 'I am as well as I usually am. I am

well enough. I am as well as I want to be.'

The master-mind of the age, true to its characteristic of being at all

times a mind that had as little as possible to say for itself and great

difficulty in saying it, became mute again. Mrs Sparkler began to wonder

how long the master-mind meant to stay.

'I was speaking of poor papa when you came in, sir.'

'Aye! Quite a coincidence,' said Mr Merdle.

Fanny did not see that; but felt it incumbent on her to continue

talking. 'I was saying,' she pursued, 'that my brother's illness has

occasioned a delay in examining and arranging papa's property.'

'Yes,' said Mr Merdle; 'yes. There has been a delay.'

'Not that it is of consequence,' said Fanny.

'Not,' assented Mr Merdle, after having examined the cornice of all

that part of the room which was within his range: 'not that it is of any

consequence.'

'My only anxiety is,' said Fanny, 'that Mrs General should not get

anything.'

'She won't get anything,' said Mr Merdle.

Fanny was delighted to hear him express the opinion. Mr Merdle, after

taking another gaze into the depths of his hat as if he thought he saw

something at the bottom, rubbed his hair and slowly appended to his last

remark the confirmatory words, 'Oh dear no. No. Not she. Not likely.'

As the topic seemed exhausted, and Mr Merdle too, Fanny inquired if he

were going to take up Mrs Merdle and the carriage in his way home?

'No,' he answered; 'I shall go by the shortest way, and leave Mrs Merdle

to--' here he looked all over the palms of both his hands as if he were

telling his own fortune--'to take care of herself. I dare say she'll

manage to do it.'

'Probably,' said Fanny.

There was then a long silence; during which, Mrs Sparkler, lying back

on her sofa again, shut her eyes and raised her eyebrows in her former

retirement from mundane affairs.

'But, however,' said Mr Merdle, 'I am equally detaining you and myself.

I thought I'd give you a call, you know.'

'Charmed, I am sure,' said Fanny.

'So I am off,' added Mr Merdle, getting up. 'Could you lend me a

penknife?'

It was an odd thing, Fanny smilingly observed, for her who could seldom

prevail upon herself even to write a letter, to lend to a man of such

vast business as Mr Merdle. 'Isn't it?' Mr Merdle acquiesced; 'but

I want one; and I know you have got several little wedding keepsakes

about, with scissors and tweezers and such things in them. You shall

have it back to-morrow.'

'Edmund,' said Mrs Sparkler, 'open (now, very carefully, I beg and

beseech, for you are so very awkward) the mother of pearl box on my

little table there, and give Mr Merdle the mother of pearl penknife.'

'Thank you,' said Mr Merdle; 'but if you have got one with a darker

handle, I think I should prefer one with a darker handle.'

'Tortoise-shell?'

'Thank you,' said Mr Merdle; 'yes. I think I should prefer

tortoise-shell.'

Edmund accordingly received instructions to open the tortoise-shell box,

and give Mr Merdle the tortoise-shell knife. On his doing so, his wife

said to the master-spirit graciously:

'I will forgive you, if you ink it.'

'I'll undertake not to ink it,' said Mr Merdle.

The illustrious visitor then put out his coat-cuff, and for a moment