had been charming in the morning, she was now thrice
charming, very becomingly dressed in her most suitable colours, and with
an air of negligence upon her that doubled Mr Sparkler's fetters, and
riveted them.

'I hear you are acquainted, Mr Sparkler,' said his host at dinner,
'with--ha--Mr Gowan. Mr Henry Gowan?'

'Perfectly, sir,' returned Mr Sparkler. 'His mother and my mother are
cronies in fact.'

'If I had thought of it, Amy,' said Mr Dorrit, with a patronage as
magnificent as that of Lord Decimus himself, 'you should have despatched
a note to them, asking them to dine to-day. Some of our people could
have--ha--fetched them, and taken them home. We could have spared
a--hum--gondola for that purpose. I am sorry to have forgotten this.
Pray remind me of them to-morrow.'

Little Dorrit was not without doubts how Mr Henry Gowan might take their
patronage; but she promised not to fail in the reminder.

'Pray, does Mr Henry Gowan paint--ha--Portraits?' inquired Mr Dorrit.

Mr Sparkler opined that he painted anything, if he could get the job.

'He has no particular walk?' said Mr Dorrit.

Mr Sparkler, stimulated by Love to brilliancy, replied that for a
particular walk a man ought to have a particular pair of shoes; as, for
example, shooting, shooting-shoes; cricket, cricket-shoes. Whereas, he
believed that Henry Gowan had no particular pair of shoes.

'No speciality?' said Mr Dorrit.

This being a very long word for Mr Sparkler, and his mind being
exhausted by his late effort, he replied, 'No, thank you. I seldom take
it.'

'Well!' said Mr Dorrit. 'It would be very agreeable to me to present
a gentleman so connected, with some--ha--Testimonial of my desire to
further his interests, and develop the--hum--germs of his genius. I
think I must engage Mr Gowan to paint my picture. If the result should
be--ha--mutually satisfactory, I might afterwards engage him to try his
hand upon my family.'

The exquisitely bold and original thought presented itself to Mr
Sparkler, that there was an opening here for saying there were some of
the family (emphasising 'some' in a marked manner) to whom no painter
could render justice. But, for want of a form of words in which to
express the idea, it returned to the skies.

This was the more to be regretted as Miss Fanny greatly applauded the
notion of the portrait, and urged her papa to act upon it. She surmised,
she said, that Mr Gowan had lost better and higher opportunit