s or wickedness these
virulent disorders are bred, could be instantly seized and placed in
close confinement (not to say summarily smothered) before the poison is
communicable.

As a vast fire will fill the air to a great distance with its roar, so
the sacred flame which the mighty Barnacles had fanned caused the air to
resound more and more with the name of Merdle. It was deposited on every
lip, and carried into every ear. There never was, there never had
been, there never again should be, such a man as Mr Merdle. Nobody,
as aforesaid, knew what he had done; but everybody knew him to be the
greatest that had appeared.

Down in Bleeding Heart Yard, where there was not one unappropriated
halfpenny, as lively an interest was taken in this paragon of men as on
the Stock Exchange. Mrs Plornish, now established in the small grocery
and general trade in a snug little shop at the crack end of the Yard,
at the top of the steps, with her little old father and Maggy acting
as assistants, habitually held forth about him over the counter in
conversation with her customers. Mr Plornish, who had a small share in a
small builder's business in the neighbourhood, said, trowel in hand, on
the tops of scaffolds and on the tiles of houses, that people did tell
him as Mr Merdle was the one, mind you, to put us all to rights in
respects of that which all on us looked to, and to bring us all safe
home as much as we needed, mind you, fur toe be brought. Mr Baptist,
sole lodger of Mr and Mrs Plornish was reputed in whispers to lay by
the savings which were the result of his simple and moderate life,
for investment in one of Mr Merdle's certain enterprises. The female
Bleeding Hearts, when they came for ounces of tea, and hundredweights of
talk, gave Mrs Plornish to understand, That how, ma'am, they had heard
from their cousin Mary Anne, which worked in the line, that his lady's
dresses would fill three waggons. That how she was as handsome a lady,
ma'am, as lived, no matter wheres, and a busk like marble itself. That
how, according to what they was told, ma'am, it was her son by a former
husband as was took into the Government; and a General he had been, and
armies he had marched again and victory crowned, if all you heard was to
be believed. That how it was reported that Mr Merdle's words had been,
that if they could have made it worth his while to take the whole
Government he would have took it without a profit, but that take it he
could no