第61章

`Very grateful; very pleasant; very proper,' murmured Mr. Pecksniff.

`It makes me happy too,' said Ruth Pinch, who now that her first surprise was over, had a chatty, cheerful way with her, and a single-hearted desire to look upon the best side of everything, which was the very moral and image of Tom; `very happy to think that you will be able to tell him how more than comfortably I am situated here, and how unnecessary it is that he should ever waste a regret on my being cast upon my own resources. Dear me! So long as I heard that he was happy, and he heard that I was,' said Tom's sister, `we could both bear, without one impatient or complaining thought, a great deal more than ever we have had to endure, I am very certain.'

And if ever the plain truth were spoken on this occasionally false earth, Tom's sister spoke it when she said that.

`Ah!' cried Mr. Pecksniff whose eyes had in the meantime wandered to the pupil; `certainly. And how do you do, my very interesting child?'

`Quite well, I thank you, sir,' replied that frosty innocent.

`A sweet face this, my dears,' said Mr. Pecksniff, turning to his daughters.

`A charming manner!'

Both young ladies had been in ecstasies with the scion of a wealthy house (through whom the nearest road and shortest cut to her parents might be supposed to lie) from the first. Mrs. Todgers vowed that anything one quarter so angelic she had never seen. `She wanted but a pair of wings, a dear,' said that good woman, `to be a young syrup:' meaning, possibly, young sylph, or seraph.

`If you will give that to your distinguished parents, my amiable little friend,' said Mr. Pecksniff, producing one of his professional cards, `and will say that I and my daughters --'

`And Mrs. Todgers, pa,' said Merry.

`And Mrs. Todgers, of London,' added Mr. Pecksniff; `that I, and my daughters, and Mrs. Todgers, of London, did not intrude upon them, as our object simply was to take some notice of Miss Pinch, whose brother is a young man in my employment; but that I could not leave this very chaste mansion, without adding my humble tribute, as an Architect, to the correctness and elegance of the owner's taste, and to his just appreciation of that beautiful art to the cultivation of which I have devoted a life, and to the promotion of whose glory and advancement I have sacrified a -- a fortune -- I shall be very much obliged to you.'

`Missis's compliments to Miss Pinch,' said the footman, suddenly appearing, and speaking in exactly the same key as before, `and begs to know wot my young lady is a-learning of just now.'

`Oh!' said Mr. Pecksniff, `Here is the young man. He will take the card. With my compliments, if you please, young man. My dears, we are interrupting the studies. Let us go.'

Some confusion was occasioned for an instant by Mrs. Todgers's unstrapping her little flat hand-basket, and hurriedly entrusting the `young man' with one of her own cards, which, in addition to certain detailed information relative to the terms of the commercial establishment, bore a foot-note to the effect that M. T. took that opportunity of thanking those gentlemen who had honoured her with their favours, and begged they would have the goodness, if satisfied with the table, to recommend her to their friends.

But Mr. Pecksniff, with admirable presence of mind, recovered this document, and buttoned it up in his own pocket.

Then he said to Miss Pinch: with more condescension and kindness than ever, for it was desirable the footman should expressly understand that they were not friends of hers, but patrons:

`Good morning. Good-bye. God bless you! You may depend upon my continued protection of your brother Thomas. Keep your mind quite at ease, Miss Pinch!'

`Thank you,' said Tom's sister heartily: `a thousand times.'

`Not at all,' he retorted, patting her gently on the head. `Don't mention it. You will make me angry if you do. My sweet child,' to the pupil, `farewell!

That fairy creature,' said Mr. Pecksniff, looking in his pensive mood hard at the footman, as if he meant him, `has shed a vision on my path, refulgent in its nature, and not easily to be obliterated. My dears, are you ready?'

They were not quite ready yet, for they were still caressing the pupil.

But they tore themselves away at length; and sweeping past Miss Pinch with each a haughty inclination of the head and a curtsey strangled in its birth, flounced into the passage.

The young man had rather a long job in showing them out; for Mr. Pecksniff's delight in the tastefulness of the house was such that he could not help often stopping (particularly when they were near the parlour door) and giving it expression, in a loud voice and very learned terms. Indeed, he delivered, between the study and the hall, a familiar exposition of the whole science of architecture as applied to dwelling-houses, and was yet in the freshness of his eloquence when they reached the garden.

`If you look,' said Mr. Pecksniff, backing from the steps, with his head on one side and his eyes half-shut that he might the better take in the proportions of the exterior: `If you look, my dears, at the cornice which supports the roof, and observe the airiness of its construction, especially where it sweeps the southern angle of the building, you will feel with me -- How do you do, sir? I hope you're well?'

Interrupting himself with these words, he very politely bowed to a middle-aged gentleman at an upper window, to whom he spoke: not because the gentleman could hear him (for he certainly could not), but as an appropriate accompaniment to his salutation.

`I have no doubt, my dears,' said Mr. Pecksniff, feigning to point out other beauties with his hand, `that this is the proprietor. I should be glad to know him. It might lead to something. Is he looking this way, Charity?'

`He is opening the window pa!'

`Ha, ha!' cried Mr. Pecksniff softly. `All right! He has found I'm professional.

He heard me inside just now, I have no doubt. Don't look! With regard to the fluted pillars in the portico, my dears --'

`Hallo!' cried the gentleman.