ind of people to do it.'

Now, Mrs Merdle, who really knew her friend Society pretty well, and who
knew what Society's mothers were, and what Society's daughters were, and
what Society's matrimonial market was, and how prices ruled in it, and
what scheming and counter-scheming took place for the high buyers, and
what bargaining and huckstering went on, thought in the depths of
her capacious bosom that this was a sufficiently good catch. Knowing,
however, what was expected of her, and perceiving the exact nature of
the fiction to be nursed, she took it delicately in her arms, and put
her required contribution of gloss upon it.

'And that is all, my dear?' said she, heaving a friendly sigh. 'Well,
well! The fault is not yours. You have nothing to reproach yourself
with. You must exercise the strength of mind for which you are renowned,
and make the best of it.' 'The girl's family have made,' said Mrs Gowan,
'of course, the most strenuous endeavours to--as the lawyers say--to
have and to hold Henry.'

'Of course they have, my dear,' said Mrs Merdle.

'I have persisted in every possible objection, and have worried
myself morning, noon, and night, for means to detach Henry from the
connection.'

'No doubt you have, my dear,' said Mrs Merdle.

'And all of no use. All has broken down beneath me. Now tell me, my
love. Am I justified in at last yielding my most reluctant consent to
Henry's marrying among people not in Society; or, have I acted with
inexcusable weakness?'

In answer to this direct appeal, Mrs Merdle assured Mrs Gowan (speaking
as a Priestess of Society) that she was highly to be commended, that
she was much to be sympathised with, that she had taken the highest of
parts, and had come out of the furnace refined. And Mrs Gowan, who of
course saw through her own threadbare blind perfectly, and who knew that
Mrs Merdle saw through it perfectly, and who knew that Society would see
through it perfectly, came out of this form, notwithstanding, as she had
gone into it, with immense complacency and gravity.

The conference was held at four or five o'clock in the afternoon, when
all the region of Harley Street, Cavendish Square, was resonant of
carriage-wheels and double-knocks. It had reached this point when Mr
Merdle came home from his daily occupation of causing the British
name to be more and more respected in all parts of the civilised globe
capable of the appreciation of world-wide commercial enterprise and