ave any mistrust of it. Though indeed
he began to remember, when he got to this, even he did not mistrust it;
he had only happened to keep aloof from it.

Such symptoms, when a disease of the kind is rife, are usually the signs
of sickening.

CHAPTER 14. Taking Advice

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