t and stand a loss. That how it was not to be expected, ma'am,
that he should lose by it, his ways being, as you might say and utter
no falsehood, paved with gold; but that how it was much to be regretted
that something handsome hadn't been got up to make it worth his while;
for it was such and only such that knowed the heighth to which the bread
and butchers' meat had rose, and it was such and only such that both
could and would bring that heighth down.

So rife and potent was the fever in Bleeding Heart Yard, that Mr
Pancks's rent-days caused no interval in the patients. The disease took
the singular form, on those occasions, of causing the infected to find
an unfathomable excuse and consolation in allusions to the magic name.

'Now, then!' Mr Pancks would say, to a defaulting lodger. 'Pay up!

Come on!'

'I haven't got it, Mr Pancks,' Defaulter would reply. 'I tell you the
truth, sir, when I say I haven't got so much as a single sixpence of it
to bless myself with.'

'This won't do, you know,' Mr Pancks would retort. 'You don't expect it
will do; do you?' Defaulter would admit, with a low-spirited 'No, sir,'
having no such expectation.

'My proprietor isn't going to stand this, you know,' Mr Pancks would
proceed. 'He don't send me here for this. Pay up! Come!'

The Defaulter would make answer, 'Ah, Mr Pancks. If I was the rich
gentleman whose name is in everybody's mouth--if my name was Merdle,
sir--I'd soon pay up, and be glad to do it.'

Dialogues on the rent-question usually took place at the house-doors
or in the entries, and in the presence of several deeply interested
Bleeding Hearts. They always received a reference of this kind with a
low murmur of response, as if it were convincing; and the Defaulter,
however black and discomfited before, always cheered up a little in
making it.

'If I was Mr Merdle, sir, you wouldn't have cause to complain of me
then. No, believe me!' the Defaulter would proceed with a shake of the
head. 'I'd pay up so quick then, Mr Pancks, that you shouldn't have to
ask me.'

The response would be heard again here, implying that it was impossible
to say anything fairer, and that this was the next thing to paying the
money down.

Mr Pancks would be now reduced to saying as he booked the case, 'Well!
You'll have the broker in, and be turned out; that's what'll happen to
you. It's no use talking to me about Mr Merdle. You are not Mr Merdle,
any more than I am.'

'No, sir,' th