Chapter 9
MR AND MRS BOFFIN IN CONSULTATION
Betaking himself straight homeward, Mr Boffin, without further let orhindrance, arrived at the Bower, and gave Mrs Boffin (in a walking dressof black velvet and feathers, like a mourning coach-horse) an account ofall he had said and done since breakfast.
'This brings us round, my dear,' he then pursued, 'to the questionwe left unfinished: namely, whether there's to be any new go-in forFashion.'
'Now, I'll tell you what I want, Noddy,' said Mrs Boffin, smoothing herdress with an air of immense enjoyment, 'I want Society.'
'Fashionable Society, my dear?'
'Yes!' cried Mrs Boffin, laughing with the glee of a child. 'Yes! It'sno good my being kept here like Wax-Work; is it now?'
'People have to pay to see Wax-Work, my dear,' returned her husband,'whereas (though you'd be cheap at the same money) the neighbours iswelcome to see YOU for nothing.'
'But it don't answer,' said the cheerful Mrs Boffin. 'When we workedlike the neighbours, we suited one another. Now we have left work off;we have left off suiting one another.'
'What, do you think of beginning work again?' Mr Boffin hinted.
'Out of the question! We have come into a great fortune, and we must dowhat's right by our fortune; we must act up to it.'
Mr Boffin, who had a deep respect for his wife's intuitive wisdom,replied, though rather pensively: 'I suppose we must.'
'It's never been acted up to yet, and, consequently, no good has come ofit,' said Mrs Boffin.
'True, to the present time,' Mr Boffin assented, with his formerpensiveness, as he took his seat upon his settle. 'I hope good may becoming of it in the future time. Towards which, what's your views, oldlady?'
Mrs Boffin, a smiling creature, broad of figure and simple of nature,with her hands folded in her lap, and with buxom creases in her throat,proceeded to expound her views.
'I say, a good house in a good neighbourhood, good things about us,good living, and good society. I say, live like our means, withoutextravagance, and be happy.'
'Yes. I say be happy, too,' assented the still pensive Mr Boffin.'Lor-a-mussy!' exclaimed Mrs Boffin, laughing and clapping her hands,and gaily rocking herself to and fro, 'when I think of me in a lightyellow chariot and pair, with silver boxes to the wheels--'
'Oh! you was thinking of that, was you, my dear?'
'Yes!' cried the delighted creature. 'And with a footman up behind, witha bar across, to keep his legs from being poled! And with a coachmanup in front, sinking down into a seat big enough for three of him, allcovered with upholstery in green and white! And with two bay horsestossing their heads and stepping higher than they trot long-ways! Andwith you and me leaning back inside, as grand as ninepence! Oh-h-h-h My!Ha ha ha ha ha!'
Mrs Boffin clapped her hands again, rocked herself again, beat her feetupon the floor, and wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes.
'And what, my old lady,' inquired Mr Boffin, when he also hadsympathetically laughed: 'what's your views on the subject of theBower?'
'Shut it up. Don't part with it, but put somebody in it, to keep it.'
'Any other views?'
'Noddy,' said Mrs Boffin, coming from her fashionable sofa to his sideon the plain settle, and hooking her comfortable arm through his,'Next I think--and I really have been thinking early and late--of thedisappointed girl; her that was so cruelly disappointed, you know, bothof her husband and his riches. Don't you think we might do something forher? Have her to live with us? Or something of that sort?'
'Ne-ver once thought of the way of doing it!' cried Mr Boffin, smitingthe table in his admiration. 'What a thinking steam-ingein this old ladyis. And she don't know how she does it. Neither does the ingein!'
Mrs Boffin pulled his nearest ear, in acknowledgment of this piece ofphilosophy, and then said, gradually toning down to a motherly strain:'Last, and not least, I have taken a fancy. You remember dear littleJohn Harmon, before he went to school? Over yonder across the yard, atour fire? Now that he is past all benefit of the money, and it's come tous, I should like to find some orphan child, and take the boy and adopthim and give him John's name, and provide for him. Somehow, it wouldmake me easier, I fancy. Say it's only a whim--'
'But I don't say so,' interposed her husband.
'No, but deary, if you did--'
'I should be a Beast if I did,' her husband interposed again.
'That's as much as to say you agree? Good and kind of you, and like you,deary! And don't you begin to find it pleasant now,' said Mrs Boffin,once more radiant in her comely way from head to foot, and once moresmoothing her dress with immense enjoyment, 'don't you begin to findit pleasant already, to think that a child will be made brighter, andbetter, and happier, because of that poor sad child that day? And isn'tit pleasant to know that the good will be done with the poor sad child'sown money?'
'Yes; and it's pleasant to know that you are Mrs Boffin,' said herhusband, 'and it's been a pleasant thing to know this many and many ayear!' It was ruin to Mrs Boffin's aspirations, but, having so spoken,they sat side by side, a hopelessly Unfashionable pair.
These two ignorant and unpolished people had guided themselves so far onin their journey of life, by a religious sense of duty and desire to doright. Ten thousand weaknesses and absurdities might have been detectedin the breasts of both; ten thousand vanities additional, possibly, inthe breast of the woman. But the hard wrathful and sordid nature thathad wrung as much work out of them as could be got in their best days,for as little money as could be paid to hurry on their worst, had neverbeen so warped but that it knew their moral straightness and respectedit. In its own despite, in a constant conflict with itself and them, ithad done so. And this is the eternal law. For, Evil often stops short atitself and dies with the doer of it; but Good, never.
Through his most inveterate purposes, the dead Jailer of Harmony Jailhad known these two faithful servants to be honest and true. While heraged at them and reviled them for opposing him with the speech of thehonest and true, it had scratched his stony heart, and he had perceivedthe powerlessness of all his wealth to buy them if he had addressedhimself to the attempt. So, even while he was their griping taskmasterand never gave them a good word, he had written their names down in hiswill. So, even while it was his daily declaration that he mistrusted allmankind--and sorely indeed he did mistrust all who bore any resemblanceto himself--he was as certain that these two people, surviving him,would be trustworthy in all things from the greatest to the least, as hewas that he must surely die.
Mr and Mrs Boffin, sitting side by side, with Fashion withdrawn to animmeasurable distance, fell to discussing how they could best find theirorphan. Mrs Boffin suggested advertisement in the newspapers, requestingorphans answering annexed description to apply at the Bower on a certainday; but Mr Boffin wisely apprehending obstruction of the neighbouringthoroughfares by orphan swarms, this course was negatived. Mrs Boffinnext suggested application to their clergyman for a likely orphan. MrBoffin thinking better of this scheme, they resolved to call upon thereverend gentleman at once, and to take the same opportunity of makingacquaintance with Miss Bella Wilfer. In order that these visits might bevisits of state, Mrs Boffin's equipage was ordered out.
This consisted of a long hammer-headed old horse, formerly used in thebusiness, attached to a four-wheeled chaise of the same period, whichhad long been exclusively used by the Harmony Jail poultry as thefavourite laying-place of several discreet hens. An unwonted applicationof corn to the horse, and of paint and varnish to the carriage, whenboth fell in as a part of the Boffin legacy, had made what Mr Boffinconsidered a neat turn-out of the whole; and a driver being added, inthe person of a long hammer-headed young man who was a very good matchfor the horse, left nothing to be desired. He, too, had been formerlyused in the business, but was now entombed by an honest jobbing tailorof the district in a perfect Sepulchre of coat and gaiters, sealed withponderous buttons.
Behind this domestic, Mr and Mrs Boffin took their seats in the backcompartment of the vehicle: which was sufficiently commodious, but hadan undignified and alarming tendency, in getting over a rough crossing,to hiccup itself away from the front compartment. On their beingdescried emerging from the gates of the Bower, the neighbourhood turnedout at door and window to salute the Boffins. Among those who were everand again left behind, staring after the equipage, were many youthfulspirits, who hailed it in stentorian tones with such congratulations as'Nod-dy Bof-fin!' 'Bof-fin's mon-ey!' 'Down with the dust, Bof-fin!' andother similar compliments. These, the hammer-headed young man took insuch ill part that he often impaired the majesty of the progress bypulling up short, and making as though he would alight to exterminatethe offenders; a purpose from which he only allowed himself to bedissuaded after long and lively arguments with his employers.
At length the Bower district was left behind, and the peaceful dwellingof the Reverend Frank Milvey was gained. The Reverend Frank Milvey'sabode was a very modest abode, because his income was a very modestincome. He was officially accessible to every blundering old woman whohad incoherence to bestow upon him, and readily received the Boffins.He was quite a young man, expensively educated and wretchedly paid, withquite a young wife and half a dozen quite young children. He was underthe necessity of teaching and translating from the classics, to eke outhis scanty means, yet was generally expected to have more time to sparethan the idlest person in the parish, and more money than the richest.He accepted the needless inequalities and inconsistencies of his life,with a kind of conventional submission that was almost slavish; and anydaring layman who would have adjusted such burdens as his, more decentlyand graciously, would have had small help from him.
With a ready patient face and manner, and yet with a latent smile thatshowed a quick enough observation of Mrs Boffin's dress, Mr Milvey, inhis little book-room--charged with sounds and cries as though the sixchildren above were coming down through the ceiling, and the roastingleg of mutton below were coming up through the floor--listened to MrsBoffin's statement of her want of an orphan.
'I think,' said Mr Milvey, 'that you have never had a child of your own,Mr and Mrs Boffin?'
Never.
'But, like the Kings and Queens in the Fairy Tales, I suppose you havewished for one?'
In a general way, yes.
Mr Milvey smiled again, as he remarked to himself 'Those kings andqueens were always wishing for children.' It occurring to him, perhaps,that if they had been Curates, their wishes might have tended in theopposite direction.
'I think,' he pursued, 'we had better take Mrs Milvey into our Council.She is indispensable to me. If you please, I'll call her.'
So, Mr Milvey called, 'Margaretta, my dear!' and Mrs Milvey came down.A pretty, bright little woman, something worn by anxiety, who hadrepressed many pretty tastes and bright fancies, and substituted intheir stead, schools, soup, flannel, coals, and all the week-day caresand Sunday coughs of a large population, young and old. As gallantly hadMr Milvey repressed much in himself that naturally belonged to his oldstudies and old fellow-students, and taken up among the poor and theirchildren with the hard crumbs of life.
'Mr and Mrs Boffin, my dear, whose good fortune you have heard of.'
Mrs Milvey, with the most unaffected grace in the world, congratulatedthem, and was glad to see them. Yet her engaging face, being an open aswell as a perceptive one, was not without her husband's latent smile.
'Mrs Boffin wishes to adopt a little boy, my dear.'
Mrs Milvey, looking rather alarmed, her husband added:
'An orphan, my dear.'
'Oh!' said Mrs Milvey, reassured for her own little boys.
'And I was thinking, Margaretta, that perhaps old Mrs Goody's grandchildmight answer the purpose.
'Oh my DEAR Frank! I DON'T think that would do!'
'No?'
'Oh NO!'
The smiling Mrs Boffin, feeling it incumbent on her to take part in theconversation, and being charmed with the emphatic little wife and herready interest, here offered her acknowledgments and inquired what therewas against him?
'I DON'T think,' said Mrs Milvey, glancing at the Reverend Frank, '--andI believe my husband will agree with me when he considers it again--thatyou could possibly keep that orphan clean from snuff. Because hisgrandmother takes so MANY ounces, and drops it over him.'
'But he would not be living with his grandmother then, Margaretta,' saidMr Milvey.
'No, Frank, but it would be impossible to keep her from Mrs Boffin'shouse; and the MORE there was to eat and drink there, the oftener shewould go. And she IS an inconvenient woman. I HOPE it's not uncharitableto remember that last Christmas Eve she drank eleven cups of tea, andgrumbled all the time. And she is NOT a grateful woman, Frank. Yourecollect her addressing a crowd outside this house, about her wrongs,when, one night after we had gone to bed, she brought back the petticoatof new flannel that had been given her, because it was too short.'
'That's true,' said Mr Milvey. 'I don't think that would do. Wouldlittle Harrison--'
'Oh, FRANK!' remonstrated his emphatic wife.
'He has no grandmother, my dear.'
'No, but I DON'T think Mrs Boffin would like an orphan who squints soMUCH.'
'That's true again,' said Mr Milvey, becoming haggard with perplexity.'If a little girl would do--'
'But, my DEAR Frank, Mrs Boffin wants a boy.'
'That's true again,' said Mr Milvey. 'Tom Bocker is a nice boy'(thoughtfully).
'But I DOUBT, Frank,' Mrs Milvey hinted, after a little hesitation, 'ifMrs Boffin wants an orphan QUITE nineteen, who drives a cart and watersthe roads.'
Mr Milvey referred the point to Mrs Boffin in a look; on that smilinglady's shaking her black velvet bonnet and bows, he remarked, in lowerspirits, 'that's true again.'
'I am sure,' said Mrs Boffin, concerned at giving so much trouble, 'thatif I had known you would have taken so much pains, sir--and you too, ma'am--I don't think I would have come.'
'PRAY don't say that!' urged Mrs Milvey.
'No, don't say that,' assented Mr Milvey, 'because we are so muchobliged to you for giving us the preference.' Which Mrs Milveyconfirmed; and really the kind, conscientious couple spoke, as if theykept some profitable orphan warehouse and were personally patronized.'But it is a responsible trust,' added Mr Milvey, 'and difficult todischarge. At the same time, we are naturally very unwilling to lose thechance you so kindly give us, and if you could afford us a day or twoto look about us,--you know, Margaretta, we might carefully examine theworkhouse, and the Infant School, and your District.'
'To be SURE!' said the emphatic little wife.
'We have orphans, I know,' pursued Mr Milvey, quite with the air as ifhe might have added, 'in stock,' and quite as anxiously as if there weregreat competition in the business and he were afraid of losing an order,'over at the clay-pits; but they are employed by relations or friends,and I am afraid it would come at last to a transaction in the way ofbarter. And even if you exchanged blankets for the child--or booksand firing--it would be impossible to prevent their being turned intoliquor.'
Accordingly, it was resolved that Mr and Mrs Milvey should search foran orphan likely to suit, and as free as possible from the foregoingobjections, and should communicate again with Mrs Boffin. Then, MrBoffin took the liberty of mentioning to Mr Milvey that if Mr Milveywould do him the kindness to be perpetually his banker to the extentof 'a twenty-pound note or so,' to be expended without any referenceto him, he would be heartily obliged. At this, both Mr Milvey and MrsMilvey were quite as much pleased as if they had no wants of their own,but only knew what poverty was, in the persons of other people; andso the interview terminated with satisfaction and good opinion on allsides.
'Now, old lady,' said Mr Boffin, as they resumed their seats behind thehammer-headed horse and man: 'having made a very agreeable visit there,we'll try Wilfer's.'
It appeared, on their drawing up at the family gate, that to tryWilfer's was a thing more easily projected than done, on account of theextreme difficulty of getting into that establishment; three pullsat the bell producing no external result; though each was attendedby audible sounds of scampering and rushing within. At the fourthtug--vindictively administered by the hammer-headed young man--MissLavinia appeared, emerging from the house in an accidental manner, witha bonnet and parasol, as designing to take a contemplative walk. Theyoung lady was astonished to find visitors at the gate, and expressedher feelings in appropriate action.
'Here's Mr and Mrs Boffin!' growled the hammer-headed young man throughthe bars of the gate, and at the same time shaking it, as if he were onview in a Menagerie; 'they've been here half an hour.'
'Who did you say?' asked Miss Lavinia.
'Mr and Mrs BOFFIN' returned the young man, rising into a roar.
Miss Lavinia tripped up the steps to the house-door, tripped down thesteps with the key, tripped across the little garden, and opened thegate. 'Please to walk in,' said Miss Lavinia, haughtily. 'Our servant isout.'
Mr and Mrs Boffin complying, and pausing in the little hall until MissLavinia came up to show them where to go next, perceived three pairs oflistening legs upon the stairs above. Mrs Wilfer's legs, Miss Bella'slegs, Mr George Sampson's legs.
'Mr and Mrs Boffin, I think?' said Lavinia, in a warning voice. Strainedattention on the part of Mrs Wilfer's legs, of Miss Bella's legs, of MrGeorge Sampson's legs.
'Yes, Miss.'
'If you'll step this way--down these stairs--I'll let Ma know.'Excited flight of Mrs Wilfer's legs, of Miss Bella's legs, of Mr GeorgeSampson's legs.
After waiting some quarter of an hour alone in the family sitting-room,which presented traces of having been so hastily arranged after a meal,that one might have doubted whether it was made tidy for visitors,or cleared for blindman's buff, Mr and Mrs Boffin became aware of theentrance of Mrs Wilfer, majestically faint, and with a condescendingstitch in her side: which was her company manner.
'Pardon me,' said Mrs Wilfer, after the first salutations, and as soonas she had adjusted the handkerchief under her chin, and waved hergloved hands, 'to what am I indebted for this honour?'
'To make short of it, ma'am,' returned Mr Boffin, 'perhaps you may beacquainted with the names of me and Mrs Boffin, as having come into acertain property.'
'I have heard, sir,' returned Mrs Wilfer, with a dignified bend of herhead, 'of such being the case.'
'And I dare say, ma'am,' pursued Mr Boffin, while Mrs Boffin addedconfirmatory nods and smiles, 'you are not very much inclined to takekindly to us?'
'Pardon me,' said Mrs Wilfer. ''Twere unjust to visit upon Mr and MrsBoffin, a calamity which was doubtless a dispensation.' These wordswere rendered the more effective by a serenely heroic expression ofsuffering.
'That's fairly meant, I am sure,' remarked the honest Mr Boffin; 'MrsBoffin and me, ma'am, are plain people, and we don't want to pretendto anything, nor yet to go round and round at anything because there'salways a straight way to everything. Consequently, we make this callto say, that we shall be glad to have the honour and pleasure of yourdaughter's acquaintance, and that we shall be rejoiced if your daughterwill come to consider our house in the light of her home equally withthis. In short, we want to cheer your daughter, and to give herthe opportunity of sharing such pleasures as we are a going to takeourselves. We want to brisk her up, and brisk her about, and give her achange.'
'That's it!' said the open-hearted Mrs Boffin. 'Lor! Let's becomfortable.'
Mrs Wilfer bent her head in a distant manner to her lady visitor, andwith majestic monotony replied to the gentleman:
'Pardon me. I have several daughters. Which of my daughters am I tounderstand is thus favoured by the kind intentions of Mr Boffin and hislady?'
'Don't you see?' the ever-smiling Mrs Boffin put in. 'Naturally, MissBella, you know.'
'Oh-h!' said Mrs Wilfer, with a severely unconvinced look. 'My daughterBella is accessible and shall speak for herself.' Then opening the doora little way, simultaneously with a sound of scuttling outside it,the good lady made the proclamation, 'Send Miss Bella to me!' whichproclamation, though grandly formal, and one might almost say heraldic,to hear, was in fact enunciated with her maternal eyes reproachfullyglaring on that young lady in the flesh--and in so much of it that shewas retiring with difficulty into the small closet under the stairs,apprehensive of the emergence of Mr and Mrs Boffin.
'The avocations of R. W., my husband,' Mrs Wilfer explained, on resumingher seat, 'keep him fully engaged in the City at this time of the day,or he would have had the honour of participating in your receptionbeneath our humble roof.'
'Very pleasant premises!' said Mr Boffin, cheerfully.
'Pardon me, sir,' returned Mrs Wilfer, correcting him, 'it is the abodeof conscious though independent Poverty.'
Finding it rather difficult to pursue the conversation down this road,Mr and Mrs Boffin sat staring at mid-air, and Mrs Wilfer sat silentlygiving them to understand that every breath she drew required to bedrawn with a self-denial rarely paralleled in history, until Miss Bellaappeared: whom Mrs Wilfer presented, and to whom she explained thepurpose of the visitors.
'I am much obliged to you, I am sure,' said Miss Bella, coldly shakingher curls, 'but I doubt if I have the inclination to go out at all.'
'Bella!' Mrs Wilfer admonished her; 'Bella, you must conquer this.'
'Yes, do what your Ma says, and conquer it, my dear,' urged Mrs Boffin,'because we shall be so glad to have you, and because you are much toopretty to keep yourself shut up.' With that, the pleasant creature gaveher a kiss, and patted her on her dimpled shoulders; Mrs Wilfer sittingstiffly by, like a functionary presiding over an interview previous toan execution.
'We are going to move into a nice house,' said Mrs Boffin, who was womanenough to compromise Mr Boffin on that point, when he couldn't very wellcontest it; 'and we are going to set up a nice carriage, and we'll goeverywhere and see everything. And you mustn't,' seating Bella besideher, and patting her hand, 'you mustn't feel a dislike to us to beginwith, because we couldn't help it, you know, my dear.'
With the natural tendency of youth to yield to candour and sweet temper,Miss Bella was so touched by the simplicity of this address that shefrankly returned Mrs Boffin's kiss. Not at all to the satisfactionof that good woman of the world, her mother, who sought to hold theadvantageous ground of obliging the Boffins instead of being obliged.
'My youngest daughter, Lavinia,' said Mrs Wilfer, glad to make adiversion, as that young lady reappeared. 'Mr George Sampson, a friendof the family.'
The friend of the family was in that stage of tender passion which boundhim to regard everybody else as the foe of the family. He put the roundhead of his cane in his mouth, like a stopper, when he sat down. As ifhe felt himself full to the throat with affronting sentiments. And heeyed the Boffins with implacable eyes.
'If you like to bring your sister with you when you come to stay withus,' said Mrs Boffin, 'of course we shall be glad. The better you pleaseyourself, Miss Bella, the better you'll please us.'
'Oh, my consent is of no consequence at all, I suppose?' cried MissLavinia.
'Lavvy,' said her sister, in a low voice, 'have the goodness to be seenand not heard.'
'No, I won't,' replied the sharp Lavinia. 'I'm not a child, to be takennotice of by strangers.'
'You ARE a child.'
'I'm not a child, and I won't be taken notice of. Bring your sister,indeed!'
'Lavinia!' said Mrs Wilfer. 'Hold! I will not allow you to utter in mypresence the absurd suspicion that any strangers--I care not what theirnames--can patronize my child. Do you dare to suppose, you ridiculousgirl, that Mr and Mrs Boffin would enter these doors upon a patronizingerrand; or, if they did, would remain within them, only for one singleinstant, while your mother had the strength yet remaining in her vitalframe to request them to depart? You little know your mother if youpresume to think so.'
'It's all very fine,' Lavinia began to grumble, when Mrs Wilferrepeated:
'Hold! I will not allow this. Do you not know what is due to guests?Do you not comprehend that in presuming to hint that this lady andgentleman could have any idea of patronizing any member of yourfamily--I care not which--you accuse them of an impertinence little lessthan insane?'
'Never mind me and Mrs Boffin, ma'am,' said Mr Boffin, smilingly: 'wedon't care.'
'Pardon me, but I do,' returned Mrs Wilfer.
Miss Lavinia laughed a short laugh as she muttered, 'Yes, to be sure.'
'And I require my audacious child,' proceeded Mrs Wilfer, with awithering look at her youngest, on whom it had not the slightest effect,'to please to be just to her sister Bella; to remember that her sisterBella is much sought after; and that when her sister Bella accepts anattention, she considers herself to be conferring qui-i-ite as muchhonour,'--this with an indignant shiver,--'as she receives.'
But, here Miss Bella repudiated, and said quietly, 'I can speak formyself; you know, ma. You needn't bring ME in, please.'
'And it's all very well aiming at others through convenient me,' saidthe irrepressible Lavinia, spitefully; 'but I should like to ask GeorgeSampson what he says to it.'
'Mr Sampson,' proclaimed Mrs Wilfer, seeing that young gentleman takehis stopper out, and so darkly fixing him with her eyes as that he putit in again: 'Mr Sampson, as a friend of this family and a frequenter ofthis house, is, I am persuaded, far too well-bred to interpose on suchan invitation.'
This exaltation of the young gentleman moved the conscientious MrsBoffin to repentance for having done him an injustice in her mind, andconsequently to saying that she and Mr Boffin would at any time be gladto see him; an attention which he handsomely acknowledged by replying,with his stopper unremoved, 'Much obliged to you, but I'm alwaysengaged, day and night.'
However, Bella compensating for all drawbacks by responding to theadvances of the Boffins in an engaging way, that easy pair were on thewhole well satisfied, and proposed to the said Bella that as soon asthey should be in a condition to receive her in a manner suitable totheir desires, Mrs Boffin should return with notice of the fact. Thisarrangement Mrs Wilfer sanctioned with a stately inclination of herhead and wave of her gloves, as who should say, 'Your demerits shall beoverlooked, and you shall be mercifully gratified, poor people.'
'By-the-bye, ma'am,' said Mr Boffin, turning back as he was going, 'youhave a lodger?'
'A gentleman,' Mrs Wilfer answered, qualifying the low expression,'undoubtedly occupies our first floor.'
'I may call him Our Mutual Friend,' said Mr Boffin. 'What sort of afellow IS Our Mutual Friend, now? Do you like him?'
'Mr Rokesmith is very punctual, very quiet, a very eligible inmate.'
'Because,' Mr Boffin explained, 'you must know that I'm not particularlywell acquainted with Our Mutual Friend, for I have only seen him once.You give a good account of him. Is he at home?'
'Mr Rokesmith is at home,' said Mrs Wilfer; 'indeed,' pointing throughthe window, 'there he stands at the garden gate. Waiting for you,perhaps?'
'Perhaps so,' replied Mr Boffin. 'Saw me come in, maybe.'
Bella had closely attended to this short dialogue. Accompanying MrsBoffin to the gate, she as closely watched what followed.
'How are you, sir, how are you?' said Mr Boffin. 'This is Mrs Boffin. MrRokesmith, that I told you of; my dear.'
She gave him good day, and he bestirred himself and helped her to herseat, and the like, with a ready hand.
'Good-bye for the present, Miss Bella,' said Mrs Boffin, calling out ahearty parting. 'We shall meet again soon! And then I hope I shall havemy little John Harmon to show you.'
Mr Rokesmith, who was at the wheel adjusting the skirts of her dress,suddenly looked behind him, and around him, and then looked up at her,with a face so pale that Mrs Boffin cried:
'Gracious!' And after a moment, 'What's the matter, sir?'
'How can you show her the Dead?' returned Mr Rokesmith.
'It's only an adopted child. One I have told her of. One I'm going togive the name to!'
'You took me by surprise,' said Mr Rokesmith, 'and it sounded like anomen, that you should speak of showing the Dead to one so young andblooming.'
Now, Bella suspected by this time that Mr Rokesmith admired her. Whetherthe knowledge (for it was rather that than suspicion) caused her toincline to him a little more, or a little less, than she had done atfirst; whether it rendered her eager to find out more about him, becauseshe sought to establish reason for her distrust, or because she soughtto free him from it; was as yet dark to her own heart. But at mosttimes he occupied a great amount of her attention, and she had set herattention closely on this incident.
That he knew it as well as she, she knew as well as he, when they wereleft together standing on the path by the garden gate.
'Those are worthy people, Miss Wilfer.'
'Do you know them well?' asked Bella.
He smiled, reproaching her, and she coloured, reproaching herself--both,with the knowledge that she had meant to entrap him into an answer nottrue--when he said 'I know OF them.'
'Truly, he told us he had seen you but once.'
'Truly, I supposed he did.'
Bella was nervous now, and would have been glad to recall her question.
'You thought it strange that, feeling much interested in you, I shouldstart at what sounded like a proposal to bring you into contact with themurdered man who lies in his grave. I might have known--of course in amoment should have known--that it could not have that meaning. But myinterest remains.'
Re-entering the family-room in a meditative state, Miss Bella wasreceived by the irrepressible Lavinia with:
'There, Bella! At last I hope you have got your wishes realized--by yourBoffins. You'll be rich enough now--with your Boffins. You can have asmuch flirting as you like--at your Boffins. But you won't take ME toyour Boffins, I can tell you--you and your Boffins too!'
'If,' quoth Mr George Sampson, moodily pulling his stopper out, 'MissBella's Mr Boffin comes any more of his nonsense to ME, I only wish himto understand, as betwixt man and man, that he does it at his per--' andwas going to say peril; but Miss Lavinia, having no confidence in hismental powers, and feeling his oration to have no definite applicationto any circumstances, jerked his stopper in again, with a sharpness thatmade his eyes water.
And now the worthy Mrs Wilfer, having used her youngest daughter as alay-figure for the edification of these Boffins, became bland to her,and proceeded to develop her last instance of force of character,which was still in reserve. This was, to illuminate the family with herremarkable powers as a physiognomist; powers that terrified R. W. whenever let loose, as being always fraught with gloom and evil which noinferior prescience was aware of. And this Mrs Wilfer now did, be itobserved, in jealousy of these Boffins, in the very same moments whenshe was already reflecting how she would flourish these very sameBoffins and the state they kept, over the heads of her Boffinlessfriends.
'Of their manners,' said Mrs Wilfer, 'I say nothing. Of theirappearance, I say nothing. Of the disinterestedness of their intentionstowards Bella, I say nothing. But the craft, the secrecy, the darkdeep underhanded plotting, written in Mrs Boffin's countenance, make meshudder.'
As an incontrovertible proof that those baleful attributes were allthere, Mrs Wilfer shuddered on the spot.