tter come, So and So, and let me take and give 'em to
you.'

'We will not be so particular as that, Maggy. Give them me here,' said
Clennam in a low voice.

'Well, then, come across the road,' answered Maggy in a very loud
whisper. 'Little Mother wasn't to know nothing of it, and she would
never have known nothing of it if you had only gone So and So, instead
of bothering and loitering about. It ain't my fault. I must do what I am
told. They ought to be ashamed of themselves for telling me.'

Clennam crossed to the other side, and hurriedly opened the letters.
That from the father mentioned that most unexpectedly finding himself in
the novel position of having been disappointed of a remittance from
the City on which he had confidently counted, he took up his pen, being
restrained by the unhappy circumstance of his incarceration during
three-and-twenty years (doubly underlined), from coming himself, as
he would otherwise certainly have done--took up his pen to entreat Mr
Clennam to advance him the sum of Three Pounds Ten Shillings upon his
I.O.U., which he begged to enclose. That from the son set forth that
Mr Clennam would, he knew, be gratified to hear that he had at
length obtained permanent employment of a highly satisfactory nature,
accompanied with every prospect of complete success in life; but that
the temporary inability of his employer to pay him his arrears of salary
to that date (in which condition said employer had appealed to that
generous forbearance in which he trusted he should never be wanting
towards a fellow-creature), combined with the fraudulent conduct of a
false friend and the present high price of provisions, had reduced
him to the verge of ruin, unless he could by a quarter before six that
evening raise the sum of eight pounds. This sum, Mr Clennam would be
happy to learn, he had, through the promptitude of several friends
who had a lively confidence in his probity, already raised, with the
exception of a trifling balance of one pound seventeen and fourpence;
the loan of which balance, for the period of one month, would be fraught
with the usual beneficent consequences.

These letters Clennam answered with the aid of his pencil and
pocket-book, on the spot; sending the father what he asked for, and
excusing himself from compliance with the demand of the son. He then
commissioned Maggy to return with his replies, and gave her the
shilling of which the failure of her supplemental enterprise wo