e has taken, and for you, good, kind-hearted creature, thank the
boy you brought up if your old age shall be made easy and cheerful. Now,
Beck, silly lad, go and tell all to your nurse! Take care of this step,
Mrs. Mivers."

As soon as he was in the street, Percival, who, if amused at the
ventilator, had seen the five shillings gleam on Becky's palm, and felt
that he had found under the puce-coloured gown a good woman's heart to
understand him, gave Mrs. Mivers a short sketch of poor Becky's history
and misfortunes, and so contrived to interest her in behalf of the nurse
that she willingly promised to become Percival's almoner, to execute
his commission, to improve the interior of Becky's abode, and distribute
weekly the liberal stipend he proposed to settle on the old widow. They
had grown, indeed, quite friendly and intimate by the time he reached
the smart plate-glazed mahogany-coloured facade within which the
flourishing business of Mr. Mivers was carried on; and when, knocking at
the private door, promptly opened by a lemon-coloured page, she invited
him upstairs, it so chanced that the conversation had slid off to Helen,
and Percival was sufficiently interested to bow assent and to enter.

Though all the way up the stairs Mrs. Mivers, turning back at every
other step, did her best to impress upon her young visitor's mind the
important fact that they kept their household establishment at their
"willer," and that their apartments in Fleet Street were only a
"conwenience," the store set by the worthy housewife upon her goods
and chattels was sufficiently visible in the drugget that threaded its
narrow way up the gay Brussels stair-carpet, and in certain layers
of paper which protected from the profanation of immediate touch
the mahogany hand-rail. And nothing could exceed the fostering care
exhibited in the drawing-room, when the door thrown open admitted a
view of its damask moreen curtains, pinned back from such impertinent
sunbeams as could force their way through the foggy air of the east into
the windows, and the ells of yellow muslin that guarded the frames, at
least, of a collection of coloured prints and two kit-kat portraitures
of Mr. Mivers and his lady from the perambulations of the flies.

But Percival's view of this interior was somewhat impeded by his portly
guide, who, uttering a little exclamation of surprise, stood motionless
on the threshold as she perceived Mr. Mivers seated by the hearth in
clos