'And then, my dear,' said Mrs Gowan not quite so sweetly as before, 'I

should be glad to hear what you have to say to it.'

Here the parrot, who had been standing on one leg since he screamed

last, burst into a fit of laughter, bobbed himself derisively up and

down on both legs, and finished by standing on one leg again, and

pausing for a reply, with his head as much awry as he could possibly

twist it. 'Sounds mercenary to ask what the gentleman is to get with the lady,'

said Mrs Merdle; 'but Society is perhaps a little mercenary, you know,

my dear.' 'From what I can make out,' said Mrs Gowan, 'I believe I may say that

Henry will be relieved from debt--' 'Much in debt?' asked Mrs Merdle through her eyeglass. 'Why tolerably, I should think,' said Mrs Gowan.

'Meaning the usual thing; I understand; just so,' Mrs Merdle observed in

a comfortable sort of way. 'And that the father will make them an allowance of three hundred

a-year, or perhaps altogether something more, which, in Italy-' 'Oh! Going to Italy?' said Mrs Merdle. 'For Henry to study. You need be at no loss to guess why, my dear. That dreadful Art--'

True. Mrs Merdle hastened to spare the feelings of her afflicted friend.

She understood. Say no more! 'And that,' said Mrs Gowan, shaking her despondent head, 'that's all.

That,' repeated Mrs Gowan, furling her green fan for the moment, and

tapping her chin with it (it was on the way to being a double chin;

might be called a chin and a half at present), 'that's all! On the death

of the old people, I suppose there will be more to come; but how it may

be restricted or locked up, I don't know. And as to that, they may live

for ever. My dear, they are just the kind of people to do it.'

Now, Mrs Merdle, who really knew her friend Society pretty well, and who

knew what Society's mothers were, and what Society's daughters were, and

what Society's matrimonial market was, and how prices ruled in it, and

what scheming and counter-scheming took place for the high buyers, and

what bargaining and huckstering went on, thought in the depths of

her capacious bosom that this was a sufficiently good catch. Knowing,

however, what was expected of her, and perceiving the exact nature of

the fiction to be nursed, she took it delicately in her arms, and put

her required contribution of gloss upon it.

'And that is all, my dear?' said she, heaving a friendly sigh. 'Well,

well! The fault is not yours. You have nothing to reproach yourself

with. You must exercise the strength of mind for which you are renowned,

and make the best of it.' 'The girl's family have made,' said Mrs Gowan,

'of course, the most strenuous endeavours to--as the lawyers say--to

have and to hold Henry.' 'Of course they have, my dear,' said Mrs Merdle.




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