When it became known to the Britons on the shore of the yellow Tiber

that their intelligent compatriot, Mr Sparkler, was made one of the

Lords of their Circumlocution Office, they took it as a piece of news

with which they had no nearer concern than with any other piece of

news--any other Accident or Offence--in the English papers.

Some laughed; some said, by way of complete excuse, that the post was

virtually a sinecure, and any fool who could spell his name was good

enough for it; some, and these the more solemn political oracles,

said that Decimus did wisely to strengthen himself, and that the sole

constitutional purpose of all places within the gift of Decimus, was,

that Decimus should strengthen himself. A few bilious Britons there were

who would not subscribe to this article of faith; but their objection

was purely theoretical.

In a practical point of view, they listlessly

abandoned the matter, as being the business of some other Britons

unknown, somewhere, or nowhere. In like manner, at home, great numbers

of Britons maintained, for as long as four-and-twenty consecutive hours,

that those invisible and anonymous Britons 'ought to take it up;' and

that if they quietly acquiesced in it, they deserved it.

But of what class the remiss Britons were composed, and where the unlucky creatures

hid themselves, and why they hid themselves, and how it constantly

happened that they neglected their interests, when so many other Britons

were quite at a loss to account for their not looking after those

interests, was not, either upon the shore of the yellow Tiber or the

shore of the black Thames, made apparent to men.

Mrs Merdle circulated the news, as she received congratulations on it,

with a careless grace that displayed it to advantage, as the setting

displays the jewel.

Yes, she said, Edmund had taken the place. Mr Merdle

wished him to take it, and he had taken it. She hoped Edmund might like

it, but really she didn't know. It would keep him in town a good

deal, and he preferred the country. Still, it was not a disagreeable

position--and it was a position. There was no denying that the thing

was a compliment to Mr Merdle, and was not a bad thing for Edmund if he

liked it. It was just as well that he should have something to do, and

it was just as well that he should have something for doing it. Whether

it would be more agreeable to Edmund than the army, remained to be seen.

Thus the Bosom; accomplished in the art of seeming to make things of

small account, and really enhancing them in the process. While Henry

Gowan, whom Decimus had thrown away, went through the whole round of

his acquaintance between the Gate of the People and the town of Albano,

vowing, almost (but not quite) with tears in his eyes, that Sparkler was

the sweetest-tempered, simplest-hearted, altogether most lovable jackass

that ever grazed on the public common; and that only one circumstance

could have delighted him (Gowan) more, than his (the beloved jackass's)

getting this post, and that would have been his (Gowan's) getting it

himself.




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